The next country on our route was Ireland- the land of most of my forefathers. I did not ahve time to do any real research while there but we may be going back in the Fall of 2007 with my oldest brother and his wife. We'll look into the family roots then.

The first stop was in Cork in the area of Cobh Harbour. This was the last place that the Titantic stopped on it's fateful voyage. It started it's existence in Belfast where it was built. There are many exhibits in the Cobh area about the Titantic. We did not take that excursion but one of our dinner couples did.

I saw one of the lighthouses on our way in and was able to get a photo of it in the morning. I got some more in the evening as well when we left. I was able to get the lighthouse at the entrance to the harbour then also.

Here's a photo of Spit Bank Lighthouse from the morning. It's one of the 3 remaining screwpile lighthouses left in Ireland. It was built in 1853.



We took an excursion that day to the small town of Kinsale and to town of Blarney- where Blarney Castle and the Blarney stone are. No, I did not kiss the blarney Stone. I felt I was already full of it.

The town of Kinsale was just lovely. There is a lighthouse near there but unfortunately we did not have enough time to get out to it. We were able to walk around the streets of Kinsale and it just so happened that it was Market Day so the street market was open.

We did stop at Charles Fort just outside town where there is a lighthouse but again luck was not with us- although it didn't desert us entirely.

The Fort charges admission and our photo stop was only 10 minutes but we were able to get a view of the back of the Charles Fort Lighthouse from outside the Fort.

I actually had forgotten there was supposed to be a lighthouse there. Esther thought she saw something through the entrance and that jogged my memory. I would have paid the admission to get a photo of it had I remembered sooner.



We continued on to Blarney where we took a tour of the Castle grounds and the gardens. Esther and I decided since we were not going to kiss the stone standing in line for over an hour just to see others do it wasn't what we wanted to do.

We did some shopping at the mill stores just outside the park.

We left there and rode back to the ship and set sail for Dublin. It was an interesting day- over 90 degrees in a packed tour bus with no air conditioning. The scenery was nice but the weather was brutal.

We got a traditional Irish meal for lunch- Irish Stew. We were entertained by a trio playing celtic music and four dancers doing the traditional Irish Step Dancing.

Here's a photo of Spit Bank on the way out- along with 25% of the Irish Navy in the background. There was another 25% docked at the headquarters which is in Cobh Harbour just across from where we were docked.



I did get to see one more lighthouse on the way to Dublin- Roches's Point. There are some ruins of an ancient fortress right next to it. Here's a couple of photos.

Roche's Point Lighthouse



Ruins At Roche's Point



I'll continue with the report on the Dublin area lighthouses in the next post.

Dennis

We sailed overnight to Dublin and got into port early the next morning. Here's what I saw when I opened the curtain of my cabin that morning-

North Wall Quay Lighthouse.



We spent the day taking a bus tour of the sights of Dublin and an estate outside of the city called Powerscourt and then spent about 3 hours walking around Central Dublin. We went into Trinity college and went to the exhibit on the Book Of Kells and then toured through a part of the old library of the College.

I was able to get to see anumber of Lighthouses on the way out of Dublin Harbour.

The first one we cruised by was North Bank Lighthouse-



It seems to be a favorite of the birds in the area- as many of the lighthouses seem to be.

We continued on our way and passed by Poolpeg which is at the end of a long breakwater.



You can see from the photo that it seems to be a popular place with the locals.

We then passed by North Bull Light-



Here's another shot of it-



We continued on out towards the open sea and came upon the lighthouse at the entrance to Dublin Harbour on Howth Point called the Baily Lighthouse. Unfortunately we were not that close to this one so the photo is not as good as some of the others.



We had one last lighthouse to sight before we were to see no more for the day.

This one looks a bit like a Lego or Tinkertoy or the monster From Outer space to me. it's another one of the lighthouses with a helipad built on the top of it.

Kish Bank Lighthouse



We continued on our way to Scotland where I had the best lighthouse experience of the trip.

Dennis

Spit Bank looks interesting. Do you know if it had a larger building on it once?

Eric,

There is very little information out there about Spit Bank. The information I've found states that the lighthouse was established in 1853 and that the present tower was built in 1853.

I take this to mean that the light in the photo is the original one.

Dennis

It just looks small, perhaps there was a keepers house on land and the tower just had what was needed to keep the light on.

Great pics and commentary, Den! I find those "cross-the-pond" lights to be very interesting. Thank you for sharing.

Bob

Eric,

You might be right. I did find an entry in a story told by a Keeper's son who stated that his Father met and married his mother while his Father was stationed at Spit Bank- then called Queensland Lighthouse.

I believe it had that name because at one point in time Queen victoria visited the area on an official state visit and the town of Cobh (pronounced Cove) was renamed Queenstown in her honor. It reverted back to Cobh when Ireland became independent of the UK.

The lighthouse is located right in the middle of the harbour and it's not that far from land- although I'm sure there would be times that it might prove difficult to boat in or out from it.

Dennis

Actually, I think North Bull may be the most interesting of these - no lantern room, but the solar panels make it apprear at first glance that there is a very modern observation room of some type. And then that itty bitty green light at the top... Wonder what happened to the lantern room and what size lens it may have had in its day.

Dave,

One source describes it this way- Green conical stone tower lantern removed.

I'm looking for more info to add, though. I've not ben very successful, though.

Dennis

Hey, it's Ireland. They should have some green lighthouses! Neat Dennis, thanks.