Dublin to the Isle of Man

We had a good night’s sleep and after breakfast we took the bus into Dublin City. We went on the “hop on hop off” bus tour and did one complete circuit. We then stayed on for a second circuit and got off at the shopping area but didn’t buy anything. Later we had a tour of the Guinness factory, but neither of us found it very interesting.

We then went back to our lodgings to get our car and to the port where we had a fair wait before boarding the Seacat for the journey back home to the Isle of Man.

When we docked a guy in an Irish car behind us asked us where the Rio Hotel was and we were able to repay the courtesy shown to us on our first night in Ireland and show him the way to his hotel.

GPS stats for the trip

Miles Driven	849.3 miles
Driving Average	33.9 mph
Overall Average	29.2 mph
Max Speed	73.2 mph
Driving Time	25:04:39 h:m:s
Stopped Time	3:58:35 h:m:s
Total Time	29:03:14 h:m:s

Cashel to Dublin

It was a bit of a damp and misty start to the day. We walked up to the Rock of Cashel and spent some time having a look around. We then set off to Portlaoise to see if we could find the house where my mother spend her first few years. After a bit of a false start with the wrong bridge we eventually found the right bridge on Coote Street. I phoned Mum to get directions to the house and took plenty of photos of what we hope is the correct house.

We then had chips for lunch and set off to Dublin. We arrived at Dublin at about 4:30 and had a rest in the house we were staying in. Oat our host’s suggestion we drove north to Malahide in the evening and had a pleasant meal in The Orangerie.

Macroom to Cashel

After leaving our genial host at Macroom we drove to Blarney Castle. The surrounding parkland was quite nice but I found the castle itself to be a bit of a let down and we didn’t bother joining the large queue to kiss the Blarney Stone

We then continued on to Cork and Cobh (Queenstown). We went around the Titanic display, which was interesting and then went to Cork Goal. We got lost in Cork a few times, there were some major road works and the GPS had one junction slightly wrong.

We left Cork and drove to Cashel, which was quite a long drive and we were glad we knocked it off the next day’s drive. The woman host at our lodgings was a bit regimental with signs on everything, but the accommodation was nice and in a good location for the castle. In the evening we visited a nearby pub for our evening meal and I had a nice steak, a pint of Smithwicks and two pints of Guinness.

Newcastle West to Macroom

We left Newcastle West for the Ring of Kerry. The weather was OK at first but then it turned to mist and rain and we didn’t really get to see the sights. We went to Killarney, but decided to carry on towards Cork and stayed at the Fountains just outside Macroom. Nice friendly accommodation, the room wasn’t too bad, but bathroom a bit cramped

Galway to Newcastle West

The next day we left Salthill and drove through Galway and on to the Burren. It’s a rather strange landscape. Went to Aillwee Cave, and then on to a pedestal tomb before we reached the Cliffs of Moher.

On the way to Limerick we paid a flying visit to Bunratty Castle. I quite enjoyed the castle and would have like to spend seom more time there looking around the grounds. We carried on through Limerick and stayed at Newcastle West where our host for the night was Carmel.

She recommended The Mallard restaurant and we went there for our evening meal. We weren’t too impressed by it, one customer complained about the food and walked out. My wife had a bad stomach that night.