Just got back from a trip to Ireland. Myself and my family (and my sisters friend Lauren) spent a week in a cottage near Eyeries (a very small and pretty village, filled with multicoloured houses). I say near, the house was 4 miles away, and that small village was the nearest piece of civilisation to us other than a few farms and cottages. The house was located on the beautiful Beara Peninsula. Here follows a short summary of the trip
Last Friday we crossed from Fishguard to Rosslare and spent the night in a hotel in Waterford before making the journey down to the cottage. The long drive took us past cities such as Cork, then small towns and villages and then finally through the hills and mountains and down along the coast before arriving at the semi detached house, over a century old overlooking the sea and mountains. Nearly opposite the house was a grotto, containing a statue of the virgin Mary.
The house itself contained two bedrooms upstairs, a single room downstairs, a kitchen and a living room. The living room contained a gorgeous wood burning stove, which not only kept us warm but filled the cottage with a gorgeous smell of peat. The rest of the weekend was spent settling in and supply shopping, and trying to plan what to do for the week (while we knew our cottage was going to be in a rural location, we didn’t realise how rural!).
Monday we travelled to a town nearly two hours away called Macroom. From the picture and leaflet it looked like a gorgeous and historical town. Unfortantely the leaflet only showed the town square (containing the town hall and ancient castle gatekeep), and the rest of the town was not very visually pleasing. My parents said it reminded them of our own town in the 1970’s.
On the way back we briefly stopped by a town called Kenmare which was nice and we called there again while passing several times during the week.
Tuesday we went for a drive locally – along the ring of Beara, through Allihies, stopping briefly in Castletownbere (a fishing town which apparently has the second deepest harbour in the world) and then finally Eyeries.
On Wednesday we travelled to Cork, but the two and a half hour drive took longer than expected so we only had about 2 hours in the city centre. From our brief visit, Cork seemed very vibrant (we even witnessed a brief street play).
Thursday we spent in our cottage. The owner, Pat was a very nice gentleman who kept a sheep dog Glynn. Glynn took quite a fancy to Elphie (our dog), who also took a bit of a fancy to him (if you catch my trip) so we had to keep them apart for the second part of the week!
Friday we visited Killarney, the tourist capital of the area. Pat advised a scenic route to take, which took us through the national park, so the car was stopping every few minutes for picture taking and exploring the beautiful natural scenery. After arriving we had a wander around the town and shops, before having lunch in a cosy little pub attached to a hotel, the room warmed by a roaring fire while enjoying a pint of Guiness with lunch.
Saturday saw us leave our cottage for home. While passing Cork we decided to stop off in Blarney, to visit Blarney Castle. Myself, Rhian and Lauren climbed the squashed and steep spiral staircases to the top where we kissed the Blarney stone (hopefully blessing us with the gift of the gab). To do this you have to climb to the top of the castle and lie down over a gap in the battlements, leaning back to kiss a stone above your head. A bird decided at that moment it needed to do its business, which promptly landed on me as I kissed the stone.
I think this is a divine sign about my future. Everyone else thinks it means I just talk gobshite.
After that we headed back up to Rosslare, taking the late night ferry crossing to Fishguard, finally arriving back in Gorseinon shortly after 2am.
Pictures to follow.