Esther and I took a trip back to Ireland and this time we went with my brother Michael and his wife Cathy. we had a great trip. We spent the first 6 days in what the europeans call a Self-Catering Cottage. I call it a 3 bedroom, 3 bath 2 story house.

We had a great landlady named Mary Magner. she and her husband, john, own a dairy farm and built this house to retire in and rent it out by the week until they are ready to do so. it's about 4 years old and is just beautiful and is in a spectacular setting overlooking the valley with mountains all around it.

Here's a couple of photos of the "cottage".










Here's a shot of part of the view from the "cottage"-




We got treated to a rainbow at the cottage one afternoon-



We spent our first day driving from the dublin airport to the cottage. It's located in a small town called Killavullen in County Cork about 40 miles from Blarney. We called our landlady Mary when we were near the cottage and she came and met us. she insisted on us following her on a tour of the town- that took two minutes- and over to the next town- Castletowneroche- to show us the pubs there and the food store to shop in. She insisted on bringing us eggs from her farm, though.

We got up the next morning and Esther, Cathy and Michael went to church. I stayed at the cottage and read the paper.

We took our first road trip that afternoon to visit Blarney Castle so Cathy could do one of the things she said she had to do while in Ireland- kiss the Blarney Stone. She got her wish.

Here's a photo of the group standing in front of Blarney Castle-



Esther, Dennis, Cathy & Mike

Esther and Cathy climbed to the top of the Castle where the Blarney stone is located as part of the wall of the Castle. Esther had no desire to kiss it but Cathy did. you have to lay down on your back and have somebody hold you so you can reach the stone- the drop is about 80-90 feet if you slip. Here's Cathy kissing the stone.



We walked around the gardens and rock formations on the grounds and did a bit of shopping before driving into Cork for a bit.

This was a babtism by fire on Irish driving. the streets were very narrow and in most cases they were two ways with cars parked on both sides. I'm not sure how I managed to get out of Cork with no dents or scratches on the rental car. We visited our first pub of the trip here. It was a large and well maintained pub. It's a bit different in Ireland- if you order a mixed drink you get all the parts seperately and you mix it.

We meandered our way back to Killavullen and went into the big city- Mallow- to do our shopping for the week. We had dinner at another pub called the Roundabout Pub. I believe there are about 2 million roundabouts in Ireland and we drove around all of them in one week- some more than once.

I had brought my tomtom GPS and I won't leave home without it. i've used it in Ireland, Canada and numerous times here in the US and although it has some quirks now and again it's the best invention since sliced bread.

More to come- including some lighthouses of course. Be patient.

Dennis

We got up the next morning and unfortunately it was raining. this was the only day we had real steady rain for any amount of time. we had mist, fog and drizzle a couple of other mornings but we had very nice weather most of the time. It was in the mid 50's to low 60's during the day and in the low 40's overnight.

We drove from the cottage to our first stop of the day- Hook Head Lighthouse just a few miles east of Waterford. This is the oldest operating lighthouse in the world- according to some sources- and the oldest operating lighthouse in only Europe in others.

It is the only lighthouse normally open to climb in all of Ireland by all sources I could find. You have to go with a tour guide but we got there just in time for a tour.

Here's a photo of the lighthouse exterior-



We entered the lighthouse and started climbing. there are several levels that were used as housing and storage over the years- for much of it's time it also served as a monastery. It was said this was the only lighthouse to serve as a monastery.

We did not go all the way up to the lantern room. the fresnel lens had been replaced and it was on display in the base of the lighthouse. Here's a photo of it-



Here's a view from outside on the highest level we were allowed to go. It was so windy that it was difficult to stay put (here's a very wierd coincidence- just as i started typing the word windy the song "Windy" by the Association started playing on my computer).



The tour was only about 1/2 hour and it was over too quickly. Here's a bit of history that we learned on the tour. the phrase "By Hook Or By Crook" was supposedly coined here during the seige of Waterford by Cromwell's troops in the mid-1600's. There is a town called hook where the lighthouse is and another one on the other side of the city of waterford called Crook. He was supposed to have said that he would take Waterford by hook or by crook.

We ate lunch at the cafeteria at the lighthouse- another fine meal. We had great luck with our choices of places to eat and drink. I had only one bad meal all week and they didn't make me pay for it.

Here's a photo of the lighthouse taken through the roof of the room we had lunch in-



We left Hook Head and drove back towards Waterford. We stopped in the town of duncannon to view the Duncannon fort- with it's lighthouse Duncannon fort (Range Front)and also the Duncannon North (Range Rear) Lighthouse across the water from the fort.

Here are two views of the Duncannon Fort (Range Front) Lighthouse





Here are two views of the Duncannon North (Range Rear) Lighthouse from the road.







We left here with the intent of going into Waterford to see the Waterford Crystal Factory shop- another of Cathy's wishes for the trip (and Esther's for that matter). Unfortunately this was not to be.

We had our only trouble on the road to waterford. surprisingly it came on a real 2 lane road with real shoulders for 95% of the way. Unfortunately the part of the road at the curve i went around and came face to face with a tractor riding in 2/3 of my lane was the part with the narrow shoulder with the jagged rocks right there. I swerved out of the way of the tractor and hit the rocks. it seemed OK at that point but about 3-4 miles later in the middle of downtown Waterford the tire went flat.

We pulled over when we could and I called the rental company and thier response was - so change it and tomorrow get it fixed. i tried using the cellphone i had to call the AA service (Ireland's AAA) and for some reason the call would not go through. so we started to do it ourselves. Luckily an extremely helpful Irishman came along- Tommy Stone- and he wouldn't hear of us changing the tire. He did most of it but we did assist as much as he would let us.

He refused any payment but invited us in to the local pub for a drink. We refused to let him buy us anything and we made him let us buy him a pint and a pack- of cigarettes. We spent an hour or so drinking and trading stories with him. He made one comment that stuck with us for the rest of the trip- mostly because we kept seeing examples of it everywhere. He said "The Irish are the most laid back people in the world- until they get behind the wheel of a car then look out."

We got back to the cottage and almost immediately there was the doorbell ringing. It was our landlady , Mary. She was all upset and concerned about us as she had gotten a phone call on her cellphone from a number she thought was mine and could not call it back from her phone. she was concerned that we were in trouble. We had not called her. We spent sometime talking with her and someone mentioned hoping to get to hear some Irish music in a pub while we were there. She said it would be tough to do because it's mostly on the weekends in the small towns and we would be in dublin on the wekend.

She left and we went out to dinner and when we got back two minutes later the doorbell rang again. this time it was Mary's husband John. He had called around the county- literally- and he had found a pub the other side of Mallow that was having a Irish Storytellin/ singing/ Joke Telling Night and he offered to take us to it.

It was about a 25 minute drive- it would have been 40 if i was driving, though. He would not let us drive. He would not let us pay for his drinks or our drinks at the pub either. We spent about 2 hourd there and it was great fun.

We left a bottle of rum for Mary and a 8 pack of guinness for john when we left on Friday to thank them for thier unbeleievable hospitality.

We took the next day to go to the town that my paternal Grandfather came from- Doon in County Limerick.

We had very little information so we could not do much investigating. We had never really spoken to our Grandfather and aunts about the specifics. don't really know why not- we just never did.

We had some photos of a trip my Grandfather made to doon in the early 30's which included a photo of him in a cemetary so we did go to the cemetary in Doon and found some Whelan's and Ryan's (my Grandmother's maiden name).

We ate luch in a pub called Whelan's in Pallas Green about 5 km away.

Totally agree with you there. TomTom has become a part of our family, with "Ms TomTom" being the voice of truth on all car trips. You WILL take the roundabout, third exit.

Looking forward to more pictures...I'm dying for an Ireland roadtrip to "rediscover" my Irish roots. Interested in what you thought of the self-catering idea...thinking I'd do that.

The next day we got to see some more lighthouses in Cobh and Kinsale.

First up we drove over to the entrance to Cobh Harbour for Roches's Pt Lighthouse. We had a greeting party of two dogs while there.

Here's a couple of photos of Roches' Pt-





Here's a photo of the sign explaining about the lighthouse-



We left there and drove over to Cobh (pronounced Cove) which is the port for Cork. this is the last stop for the Titantic before it sailed across the Atlantic. it took on mail and passengers here. Cobh was the Irish end of Ellis Island- most of the immigrants from the south and west of Ireland left from cobh. there is a Heritage Museum documenting this here. There are also memorials to both the Titantic and the Lusitania here in Cobh.

I got a shot of Spit Bank Lighthouse- the only existing screwpile lighthouse in Ireland- here as well.



We left here and drove over to Kinsale- a beautiful little town with a small harbour on the other side of the main cork Harbour. it's also known as the gourmet capital of Ireland and has more restaurants than many towns 10 times it's size. It's a bit ironic that this is where I had my one bad meal in Ireland- everybody elses was just fime excpet for mine. They did not make me pay for it as they agree it was subpar.

I split up from the other here since Esther and I had seen the town last year while on our cruise. i drove out to charles fort on the outskirts of town to get a better view of the lighthouse i had only seen the tip top of in 2006.

I took a walking tour of the parapets of the fort and got several views of the lighthouse from different angles. Here's a few shots of it-









I met back up with the others and walked around a bit had dinner and left for the cottage.

The next day we drove the Ring Of Kerry. We also drove part of the Ring of Skillig and went over to Valentia Island where we saw our last lighthouse of the trip- Cromwell Point.

Unfortunately we could not get as close as you can because the estate that it is part of was closed for the season. We were able to get photos of it from several places on the road to and from it.

Here's a couple of views of the lighthouse-





We stopped at many of the pullouts on the ring Of Kerry and the Ring of Skillig. they both have some breathtaking views along the way. there are also some nice small towns to stop and shop in along the way.

We took our leave of this area and drove back to the cottage for our last night there.

We left the next day for dublin and stopped at the Powerscourt Esyate in enniskerry county wicklow on the way. they ahve some very nice formal gardens to raom through there.

We spent out last day in Ireland touring Dublin.

We got to only 7 lighthouses on this trip- and 3 of them were repeats from last year's trip- but it was an enjoyable time. I did not have complete control on the itinerary on this trip- my brother and his wife are not lighthouse wackos so we missed a few i would have gone to but I knew that going in and we got to see many other nice things instead.

Dennis

Greg,

Here's one of the quirks with the gps- one day it would say "Go RIGHT on the roundabout and take the third exit" and the next day it would instead say "Go LEFT on the roundabout and take the third exit" (which is the correct way to go on a roundabout in Ireland).

My brother named it Minerva for some reason. It gave us some wrong info- we went around in a circle to get where we started a couple of times as well. It did this to us in June in Nova Scotia as well.

Here's my take on the self catering cottage route- it's a great way to do it. you only unpack and pack once, you can eat your meals there if you want (we did only breakfast at the cottage each day), it's hard to beat for comfort and price if you do your homework. We had 3 bedrooms all with thier own full bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen (including dishwasher), a large dining room, a large conservatory (sun porch), a parlor, a laundry room with a washer and dryer, a sitting area upstairs under skylights and all for 350 euros ($500) for the week including electric and heat.

It works great if you want to stay put or plan on doing day trips. If we had done the B%B route it would have been about 25-45 euros ($36-64) a person each night for a ensuite room (private bath) with breakfast included. This would have totaled $840-1500 for the B%B for 6 nights.

We only paid about $150 for the diesel we used for the car and that might have been about $80 if we hadn't had to backtrack everyday so we still came out way ahead there. We probably spent about $100 for our breakfast foods for the 6 days- food is very costly in Ireland.

I'd reccomend it to anybody spending a week in one basic spot. the tricky part is finding the right place for the right price- we were very lucky on all counts.

Dennis

Thanks for sharing your trip with us Dennis. I sure wish I would have been able to see Hook Head when I was there in September.

It sounds like you were able to stay in Ireland for the week fairly inexpensive. However, the driving doesn't sound like much fun!

Lorie,

Hook Head was the only must-see on my list for the trip. the other lighthouses were bonuses that i could get to while doing some of the must see's on other's lists.

The driving does take a bit of getting used to but it wasn't too bad. We did not drive at all in Dublin proper. We did get into our only major traffic jam on the motorway ring road around dublin on the way to our hotel there. We used buses after that and I got a hotel that was right on a bus route to center city Dublin for that very reason- and near the airport for ease of leaving on Sunday.

Dennis