After I had finished drinking my way through Dublin and traipsing around Howth I turned my attention to the rest of the country visiting heritage sites and natural formations. I hired a car and wound my through the centre of Ireland towards the Cliffs of Mohr visiting sites like New Grange, Shannonbridge, Clonamcnoise, and a Dunguaire Castle.
Baiky and the Beast (of a hire car)
Much to my disgust I missed the Hill of Tara; the traditional seat of the High King. One thing I have to say right now, and you will see this in the majority of my photos, but the weather was AWESOME (all my work colleagues took great delight in telling how shitty it would be).
Pictured: not shitty weather
Of those the coolest was Newgrange, a prehistoric monument in the Boyne Valley that was built in c.3200 BC. Its famous because its entrance is built to receive the rising sun on the winter solstice. It is really popular and can be tough to get a chance to visit without a booking (I was lucky).
Entrance to Newgrange
Clonmacnoise was also pretty cool. It is a monastery founded by St Ciaran. He was thought to be buried under one of the buildings. Visitors would take soil from the site, but it began to affect the stability of the building so they ran some tests to prove he was not there. Out the front are some elegantly carved stone crosses decorated with religious motifs. John Paul II visited in the 70s and I believe delivered a sermon.
The High crosses at Clonmacnoise
The Cliffs of Mohr were spectacular in their own right; huge, dramatic, etc. but there were heaps and heaps of tourists. I hate tourists. Like ... really hate them. Noisy, dirty, drive on the wrong side of the road - really they were just getting in my way.
Hahaha, funny american tourist (zoom in). However, he should apologise
I kept on the lookout for the pair of Peregrine Falcons that supposedly live there but had no luck in spotting them. However, apparently I saw a humpback whale.
Cliffs of Mohr, zoom in and you can see a ripple that is supposedly a whale.
I snuck down to Dingle peninsula. I mostly used this as an opportunity for some pre-hiking hiking. Here I got around to some more cliff faces, visited Gallarus' Oratory, ran up Mt Brandon for some sensational views of the landscape, swam at a deserted beach (deserted because August in Ireland = freezing water), and see some ancient beehive huts (Fahan group).
Swimming in the North Atlantic with Baiky
The run up, and the view from, Mt Brandon was awesome. Purportedly, the route up is the same as that taken by monks on pilgrimage and it is marked by a statue of the Virgin Mary at its base and by crosses all the way up.
View from Mount Brandon
The Oratory is built all from stone fitted without mortar and is watertight, an amazing achievement for something built at the same time as Newgrange (although the temples in Malta somewhat diminish this achievement, but more on that later).
At least I got the Oratory to myself for a few minutes.
I spent a couple of nights in Killarney, mostly for the opportunity to make my way to the top of
Carrauntoohil. This was not an easy trek, physically or navigationally (hehe, I think I just made up a word). I will dedicate an entire post on the trail with photos and the reason for this will become apparent when you read it.
St Mary's in Killarney
My last stop was in Cork. Cork was not quite as nice as I expected. I saw a few lovely cathedrals, dropped by the gaol, and went on a self led pub crawl.
Sober Lane, the first destination on my makeshift pub crawl.
My last day I visited Cobh, famous as it was the last place the Titanic docked before it tried to land on an iceberg, the comets of the sea.
Cork Habour in Cobh. Titanic rested just passed the island in the distance.
Here I got experience what it was like to be a passenger on the Titanic - I was passenger Michael McEvoy. I died.
This sign means pedestrians should beware of American drivers
Overall my major recommendation is to take a small car. The roads are tiny yet full of cows, tractors, and tourists.
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