Howth & Our Last Day in Dublin

 

                                

May 22, 2025 - Today we are using our Visitor Leap Pass to go to the seaside town of Howth.  It is a 30 minute trip on the DART train from Tara St Station.  We took a bus to the train station (a 15 minute trip).  Howth has a Cliff Trail that you can access by walking from the town.  I had read that you can also take a bus to the summit and take the Cliff Trail back to the town.  We decided to give that a try, but the signage at the summit wasn't great and we got onto the Upper Cliff Trail, which wasn't right next to the edge.  It was a nice walk, but once we reached the bottom we decided to walk up the Howth Cliff Walk (from Balscadden Rd).  Both were beautiful walks and it wasn't too much walking to do the entire loop, which was probably around 4 miles.  Once we made it back to the summit we took the bus back to town, where we had lunch (fish & chips) at Crabby Jo's-Wrights of Howth.  Then we headed home on the train.  In the evening we've been eating dinner in the apartment, since we usually eat a larger lunch out.  Tesco is downstairs and we usually stop for a 40 cent demi pain to eat with a salad.  One night we had frozen pizzas and another we had frozen spaghetti dinner.

lots of fresh fish in Howth

Ireland's Eye is the island just beyond the Howth harbour

Howth Lighthouse

A look back at the town of Howth from the end of the harbour

It's a working harbour (love the colors on these boats)

pretty doorway

a hungry seal looking for a handout

We made it to the summit

The Upper Cliff Trail is very wide and nice walk (no cliff edges to worry about)

Bailey Lighthouse

interesting bench

After we realized we weren't on the Lower Cliff Trail we ended up on this little skinny "road" called Cowbooter Lane which connected up with Balscadden Rd and then the lower Cliff Trail.

The first views looking back on the Howth Harbor

pretty fence

this trail was actually on the edge

Beautiful day!

Kev’s favorite pose

May 23, 2025 - We decided that today we would hang at home in the morning and do laundry since tomorrow we leave for Belfast.  We had lunch in the apartment then took the bus to St Patrick's Cathedral. It was $10/person to tour the cathedral and they had lots of info as we walked through, describing the cathedral's history.  Next we went to Dublin Castle (which didn't really seem like a castle).  It was also going to be $10/person but since we were seniors we were told that today seniors were free.  It was some special day that had to do with wisdom...we'll take it!  Just around the corner from Dublin Castle was George St Arcade, which we walked through and then took the bus back to the apartment before going to Church Cafe for dinner and a few beers while we listened to the Irish music (and dance) that they feature every night.

                   

Laundry day...it took us an hour to figure out how to use the laundry, but we were happy once we figured it out.  It will be nice to start the next leg of our trip with clean clothes.

It was a rainy afternoon in Dublin and we were happy that we still have another day on our Visitor Leap Passes so we could take the bus everywhere we wanted to go. 

We walked by this famous street

                     

                               St Patrick's Cathedral wasn't as pretty as Christ Church that we saw earlier this week.  The spire looks out of place to me (it was added in 1749). The church was founded in 1191 as a Roman Catholic Church and is currently the National Church of Ireland

Isn't that a great floor, not your typical floor for a cathedral

Lots of pretty stained glass windows

that bench doesn't look very inviting

There was an audio guide that led us through a self guided tour of Dublin Castle.  The Castle was originally built in the 13th century as a medieval fortress and served as the seat of British government for centuries.  Now it hosts state receptions and presidential inaugurations

The Dublin Castle Courtyard

The ballroom is the largest room in the castle and quite ornate with beautiful paintings on the ceiling.

Just around the corner from the Dublin Castle was the George St Arcade which we wondered through

The front of George St Arcade

We went to Church Cafe for dinner and then stayed for a beer and the evening Irish music and dance.

Cheers!

view of the bar from the balcony

nice spot for the stage under the pretty stained glass window

The Cliffs of Moher, Guinness Storeroom & Kilmainham Gaol

                                  

May 20, 2025 - Today we're signed up for a bus tour with Paddywagon, to the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland.  I'm usually against bus tours, but it seemed like the easiest, most relaxing way to get to see the cliffs and I thought it was relatively cheap at $80 each.  We met at the Paddywagon office on O'Connell (a 10 minute walk from our apartment) at 7:50AM.  We had a few stops on the way and then we had lunch at the Frantic Chef, just 10 minutes from the Cliffs.  We had an hour and a half to explore once we got to the Cliffs and then it was a beautiful drive along the coast.  We had a final stop at Kinvarra before heading home (we were home by 8:30).  It was quite a long day but I thought it was well worth it!

The Paddywagon!

Our first stop Bunratty Castle

Bunratty was a pretty little town where we could stretch our legs.

We drove through so many cute little towns

And we finally made it to the Cliffs of Moher

The trail is closed off at one end as it is too close to the cliff's edge and they are rebuilding the trail to make it safer.  But we had plenty of trail that was open to hiking (about a mile and a half).

Everything is SOOOOO green!

I took a lot of pics of the cliffs 

You could do a boat tour to view the cliffs from the water

There were a lot of people there

The rain held off until our drive home!

Really pretty drive home

lots of random castles 

We sat in the front seat, which I really enjoyed since I love to take pics!

I can't get enough of all the stone fences that are everywhere!

more cool views from the front seat of the bus

We stopped for pics at the Murroughtuohy viewpoint

The road (R477) was extremely narrow.  This wasn't even a very narrow spot, but cars would pull over as our huge bus came toward them.  Sometimes the bus driver and car driver would have to fold in their sideview mirrors so they could get by.

such pretty views!

The Merriman Hotel has the largest thatched roof in Ireland

We stopped in Kinvarra to stretch our legs

nice colors

more colors

I liked the decorative framing around these windows

We stopped into a little bar for a quick pint of Guinness

The tide was out and these boats were high and dry.  When I looked it up Kinvarra has a tide range of up to 14 ft.  (We saw a 50 ft tidal range when we visited the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick last year).

Dunguaire Castle in the distance

                     

Kevin read an entire Jack Reacher book today (which he read on his phone)!

May 21, 2025 - Today we have reservations to visit the Guinness Storehouse at 10:15 then a 2:30 tour at the Kilmainham Gaol.  We bought the Visitor Leap Pass at the Bus Office on O'Connell.  It was $20 each for a 72hr pass which is unlimited on buses, trams and Dart trains around Dublin.  We took the 13 bus to Guinness, and it was pretty easy to use along with Google Maps telling us which bus to use.  

we of course had to sit on the second floor of the bus!

                                                              We made it to the Guinness Brewery

               

The Storeroom tour isn't actually a factory tour it's more of a museum.  It's in an old Guinness factory, built around the old pieces from the brewery.  In 1759 Alfred Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease with the city of Dublin with an annual rent of 45 pounds.

they used to use A LOT of barrels and had a large crew of coopers that built all these barrels.  There was a nice exhibition that showed how this was done and they had video of a Guinness cooper making a barrel.

The harp is used as the emblem of Guinness

I liked this article that told how good Guinness was for your health.  "Guinness builds strong muscles.  It feeds exhausted nerves.  It enriches the blood.  Guinness is one of the most nourishing beverages"

Kev's been drinking a lot of Guinness since we got here.  I guess he's building strong muscles!

We got a Guinness with our picture on the head

It was hard to take the first sip, but it was well documented so we won't forget it.

and we had a nice view of Dublin while we drank them

and then we got another free beer to drink in the 360 degree view bar on the roof of the storeroom

After the tour we stopped for lunch (and another Guinness) before taking the bus to our tour of the Kilmainham Gaol.

Another random castle across the street from the Gaol.  It was the entrance to the garden of the Art Museum

The only way to visit the Gaol is with a tour ($7/each).  We had the most enthusiastic tour guide I think we've ever come across.  His name was Adam and he really told the stories of the jail, so that you felt it.

Kilmainham Gaol was built in 1796 and was a new style of jail, with individual rooms for each prisoner (although once it was in use they had to put many prisoners in each room).  Men, women and children were all housed together.  The youngest child housed in the jail was 3 years old.

The main hall was added later (and has been used in a lot of movies)

nice spiral staircase

Kilmainham's latest prisoner

The jail housed many prisoners during the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921).  This was the area where prisoners were brought before the firing squad.

Quite an entrance