Holiday tips Wales and Ireland

[gaja]

We are finally back on the road this summer! The kids and I have travelled most of Northern Europe in an electric campervan. Covid stopped that project efficiently just as we were planning to go to Ireland. But after three summers at home we can finally travel again, and finally see the emerald island.

Do you have any ideas, suggestions, tips or tricks for what to see and do?

The only booking we have done so far is the boat from Norway to Germany (Emden) in the end of June. We were originally planning to take the ferry from France to Ireland, but the cost was a bit much. So now we are looking at the ferry Dunkirk-Dover, and then Holyhead-Dublin. This will also give us the opportunity to see a little more of Wales. Last time we were in that area, the charging infrastructure for EVs in Wales were really bad, and the weather was horrible (+30 degrees C, and glaring sunshine all day long). Hopefully these things will be better this summer.

The campervan was sold during the pandemic, so this summer we will have to find lodging in BnBs (Air and other), hotels, cabins, etc. My pollen allergies unfortunately do not mesh well with sleeping in tents or other types of lodging on the ground. But other than that, our demands are not very high. We love the slightly weird and quirky places, preferrably in rural areas.

For sightseeing we are looking for good castles/historic buildings, musical experiences, and gardens/homesteads. The youngest kid is quite particular about her castles/historic buildings; they should neither be a ruin or modernized, but kept in as original condition as possible. She loves studying the interior designs, curtains, details in paintings and carvings, etc. She doesn't really care about the people who lived there.

She also loves choir music, particularly good church choirs. So if there are any types of music festivals, conserts, or similar things, we would love to hear about them!

The oldest kid wants to visit museums. The quality of the museum is more important than the topic, and the weirder the better. Our favorite so far was in England, where they had everything in one museum: old local toys and tools, natural history, art, furniture, bees (living ones), stuff the previous house owners took home from holidays, weapons, and an Egyptian mummy.

I would love to see gardens/homesteads that are growing a mix of food, herbs and flowers, a big plus if they are permaculture, no dig, regenerative, organic, or something like that. Stylish garden shows and show gardens on the other hand are not my cup of tea. Farmers markets, open farms, and stuff like that could also be interesting.

[reeshau]

AirBnB's are rather scarce in Dublin proper, as the city has cracked down on short-term rentals, due to the persistent housing shortage.  A lot of places I have stayed at are no longer available.  We spent last summer in Ireland, and didn't have problems finding a place anywhere else.  If you want a splurge for your youngest, there are a few gate houses / family castles listed.

The youngest kid is quite particular about her castles/historic buildings; they should neither be a ruin or modernized, but kept in as original condition as possible.

This is going to be quite difficult in Ireland; as the losing side, most castles are ruins.  And most that aren't paid for their restoration by becoming hotels.

Some good options:
In Dublin proper, Malahide castle could suit your youngest.  It's not the largest castle ever, but well intact with a good tour talking about how it was used.  The grounds also has a variety of gardens, including a butterfly house.

Kilkenny castle is probably the largest, intact example.  Stayed that way because they negotiated for Cromwell to just knock down one wall.  Some parts are modernized, but a good deal of intact sections to see.

Kylemore Abbey is also a good choice in the West.  Much more it's own thing, as opposed to Kilkenny which is both a park for locals, as well as anchoring the "Medieval Mile" tourist district.

Dublin Castle itself is as much about modern history as ancient history, but your youngest may be interested in the tour, to see the original foundations that date back to viking times.

[Dave1442397]

I put this together a while ago for friends who were going to Ireland, so some of the links may be obsolete.

Dublin:
 1)   The Guinness factory tour is always good - https://www.guinness-storehouse.com/en
2)   The Irish Distillers tour - https://www.jamesonwhiskey.com/ie/visit-us
The Midleton (Cork) tour is probably better if you want to see the actual production process. I never took the official tour, but my dad used to take me there sometimes.
3)   Ireland's oldest pub - http://www.brazenhead.com/
4)   Kilmainham Gaol - http://kilmainhamgaolmuseum.ie/
5)   This is only if you're interested in Irish sports - https://crokepark.ie/gaa-museum-tours
6)   Shopping the nicest shopping area is around Grafton Street, with plenty of nice stores hidden in some of the side streets branching off it, and an indoor shopping center at the south end of the street.
7)   St. Stephen's Green a nice park at the south end of Grafton Street. Small, well worth a look.
8)   This is probably one of my favorites The Book of Kells, and the Trinity College library in general - https://www.tcd.ie/visitors/book-of-kells/
9)   This one was fun - https://www.littlemuseum.ie/
10) EPIC – The Irish Emigrant Museum. This place is well worth seeing, especially if you have Irish roots. https://epicchq.com/


•   If you have time to take a couple of side trips from Dublin city, you can drive or take the DART (train) to Howth, a fishing village with some great seafood restaurants - http://www.visitdublin.com/hooked-on-howth-dublin
•   Another cool place is Malahide Castle, also easy to get to by car, bus or train - https://www.malahidecastleandgardens.ie/


Once you're out of Dublin, I think my priorities would be the West/Southwest and North of the country.

The West:
•   For a taste of old Ireland, the only place left where people still speak Irish as a first language is the Aran Islands. The scenery is stark, but stunning. The rain and wind can howl in from the Atlantic Ocean, so bring your rain gear!
o   You can take a boat or fly out there - http://www.aranislandferries.com/ or http://aerarannislands.ie/
o   Inis Meain is the least populated island, but probably the most traditional. We spent a couple of nights there and loved it - http://www.aranislands.ie/inis-meain-inishmaan/
o   I bought an Aran sweater from these guys when I was there many years ago - http://inismeain.ie/about
•   Back on the mainland, and in the same area, we have more to see.
o   The Cliffs of Moher just spectacular - https://www.cliffsofmoher.ie/
o   The Burren this is a rocky, but beautiful, part of the country. One of my favorites - http://www.burrennationalpark.ie/

[reeshau]

Thinking of some other things, we always liked the Bray Air Display. July 29th and 30th this year.

Nice little air show along the (stony) Beach at Bray.  Lots of room to spread out.  Carnival also along the Beach.  Bray is fun to explore on its own, too.  (Or, stay in Dun Laoghaire and take the DART train down)

https://brayairdisplay.com/

If you want a bit of adventure, climb up Bray Head, just to the south.  An Aer Lingus plane opens the show, and will fly even with, or actually just below you.  Very interesting perspective for the air show itself.

[lhamo]

Huw Richards has a fabulous youtube channel and is somewhere in mid-West Wales --not sure if he allows people to visit his farm or not.

https://huwsgarden.com/blogs/blog

Richard Perkins has hosted a few trainings at Henbant.  They have glamping and volunteer opportunities:

https://www.henbant.org/

Stephanie Hafferty moved to Wales after she and Charles Dowding split up a couple of years ago.  She has a few one-day courses and also offers bespoke garden tours:

https://nodighome.com/about/
https://nodighome.com/talks-workshops/grow-year-round-no-dig-gardening-courses/

Jealous!  I spent two years at school in south Wales and one of my goals for after DD launches is to go back and do something similar to what you are doing.

[Dave1442397]

This was a lot of fun - https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g551573-d8507153-Reviews-Atlantic_Sheepdogs-Grange_County_Sligo_Western_Ireland.html

They don't have a website, just a Facebook page. I just texted them and made a reservation that way.

[mjdh1957]

Good castles: Kilkenny (already mentioned), Cahir and Limerick. Neither Cahir nor Limerick are total ruins (though battered about a bit due to their history) and there is plenty of original stuff inside the towers in both castles. Lots of spiral staircases too.

West Cork is pretty spectacular and not as touristy as the Ring of Kerry. We like Mizen Head a lot, good views out to the Fastnet Lighthouse and an interesting collection of buildings there which were originally there to service the lighthouse.

I live in the south-east which is often neglected by tourists (apart from Kilkenny) but there are lots of good things down here too. The National Heritage park in Wexford has reconstructions of all sorts of things including prehistoric dwellings, stone circles and dolmens, a lake house, Viking shipyard and a round tower. Waterford has the Copper Coast drive from Tramore to Dungarvan which is as good as anything in the west.

Basically you could spend a year in Ireland and still not see it all.

[stoaX]

Please let us know how it goes!

[gaja]

Thank you all for very useful input!

@reeshau Sounds like we should aim for either staying a night in a hotel in Dublin to see castles and the Trinity College library, or find something outside of town. Looks like there are several park&rides around Dublin, so we can keep the city driving to a minimum. Good tip about the castle/gate houses turned into hotels/airBnBs - the kid would love that! I'm afraid the air show is a bit late in summer for us, we are mainly aiming for early july.

@Dave1442397 Wow! Great list - thank you! I think Aran could definetly be a place for us to visit, particularly if the weather turns too warm for us (i.e.: more than 22 degrees C :D).

@lhamo I love those youtube channels, but as far as I can see Huw haven't got a system for visitors. Perkins has a class at henbant just when we are passing by, but I don't think my kids would appriciate spending a week going to school :D I would really love it, though. Will have to look into going back there alone sometime! Haven't heard about Hafferty before - looks like she has some very interesting shorter classes. Thank you for the tip!

@mjdh1957 The National Heritage Park in Wexford looks perfect for us, and the online pictures of Copper Coast drive look fabulous! I do like the idea of focusing on the areas with fewer tourist - do you have other suggestions for the south east? Good places to sleep or eat? Any events we should be aware of? We love it when we get to take part in local events. The kids still talk about the tea dance we went to in Cornwall - it was just them and a bunch of local seniors, so they got fed enormous amounts of cucumber sandwiches and cakes. :D

[mjdh1957]

The south-east is full of interesting places. I live in Waterford city and there are some good museums here that are interesting to see. The Medieval Museum and the Bishop's Palace are the best. Ignore the Crystal visitor tour, just go for free into the gift shop and you can see expensive crystal if that's your thing (if you want to see glass being blown, there is another glass workshop in the city that you can also see for free without having to pay for the Crystal tour).

In county Kilkenny, as well as Kilkenny city there is Jerpoint Abbey and Kells Priory. Jerpoint has an admission price and visitor centre, but Kells is open to the elements and you can wander around for nothing. Nearby is Kilree Round Tower, also just in the middle of a field. There's a good walk in the village of Inistioge and up to Woodstock Gardens (the house was the home of Sarah Ponsonby, one of the Ladies of Llangollen but was burnt down during the Irish Civil War).

In Wexford, New Ross has a replica famine ship (in my opinion better than the one in Dublin). There is also the JFK Arboretum just outside the town, which is good for walking. On the coast at Hook Head there is the world's second oldest functioning lighthouse, which is well worth a visit. The Wexford coast has some good beaches and small villages, such as Kilmore Quay. There are also boat trips to see the Saltee Islands.

County Waterford has gardens at Mount Congreve which are world famous. And there is also Curraghmore near the village of Portlaw. There are guided tours of the house, but you can also wander around the gardens there. In Kimeaden there is a narrow-gauge railway along part of the old Waterford-Dungarvan railway line (it's also a cycle and footpath so you could hire bikes for the day). Further west the towns of Ardmore and Lismore are worth a look (there is also an Irish-language Gaeltacht area around Rinn/Ring and Helvic Head, Gaeltacht na nDéise where you will hear Irish spoken).

Tipperary has Carrick Castle in Carrick-on-Suir (also known as Ormonde Castle, billed as Ireland's only Tudor manor house built by a cousin of England's Queen Elizabeth I who was meant to come and visit but never did). And also Cahir Castle and the Rock of Cashel which is one of Ireland's top visitor attractions.

There are also some great prehistoric sites. My favourite dolmen is Lac an Scail which is near Mullinavat in county Kilkenny. And Gaulstown dolmen in county Waterford. There is a great site at Knockroe which is like Newgrange in miniature. www.megalithicireland.com is good for all this kind of stuff. Including High Crosses at Ahenny and Kilkieran which are close to Knockroe.

[Dave1442397]

My brother lives in Wexford (county, not town), and it's a really nice part of the country.

Kilmore Quay is a small but interesting place to visit if you just want to sample some good fish & chips at the Saltee Chipper, get some ice cream, or take a walk on the beach. They have a market there sometimes, selling local goods and other items from around the country.

My sister-in-law takes her horses to exercise on the beach just east of Kilmore Quay. It's not safe to swim there, so apart from the occasional walker, it's pretty much deserted.