Ireland Road Trip {Dingle with the Lederman's}

Just about a year ago, Brian's parents came to visit us in Ireland.  They came earlier in the year but only stayed one night in Ireland before we all flew over to Prague for the weekend.  This time, they wanted to see a bit of Ireland before we all spent a weekend in Lake Como.

One Irish town that everyone talks about is Dingle, and I had my heart set on going before we left and this was the perfect opportunity.  Dingle is in the far southeast corner of Ireland, and is known for the it's beautiful Dingle Slea Head drive, seafood (it's a fishing village) and Fungie the Dolphin, who lives in the bay. We didn't spot Fungie on our trip but we did drive the Dingle Slea Head loop and ate some pretty good seafood - along with everything else you do in Ireland - drank Guinness at the Pub, had fish and chips and saw castles, cows and sheep, or as we called them "happy cows" and "happy sheep" since they live on large green fields and eat grass.  The weather wasn't fantastic, but also not horrible and although it was a lot of time on the road, we had a great weekend and it was definitely worth the drive.

Beautiful countryside 

Dingle is popular and small, and we couldn't find a place to stay in town, so we stayed about 10 minutes down the road in an even smaller town called Annascaul.   It was tiny, but there was a famous Antarctic Explorer, Tom Crean, who was from Annascaul and he owned the main attraction, the local watering hole, The South Pole Inn.  In town, there was a statue of Tom and that is how I know he is famous.

Tom's pub

Pub humor

I feel like in every popular small Irish town there is somewhere you "have" to eat.  In Kinsale, it's "Fishy Fishy" and in Dingle it's "Out of the Blue".  On our first night, we decided to give it a try.  They serve fresh caught seafood and change their menu daily based on what they have.  I don't remember what we ate but I remember it was good and we felt it lived up to it's reputation.  After dinner, we had dessert at Murphy's Ice Cream, the local creamery, obviously.

Out Of the Blue famous seafood restaurant 

Guinness sign

Dingle

downtown Dingle

Our second morning, the sun broke a little, and I took full advantage of it to get a few good photos of the scenery.  We started morning trying to find a nearby castle we saw on the map.  It looked like it was in between where we were staying and Dingle, so we went for a drive to look for it.

Break in the weather

photo shoot time

And here is the castle we found - tiny and in ruins.  

Sometimes these are the best ones.  This one was okay but the area around it was beautiful.

 beautiful view across from the castle - do you see the cows?

After we found the castle, it was on to the Dingle Slea Head drive.  I'm not sure anyone else wanted to do this, but I really, really wanted to.  Some people say it's more beautiful than the famous Ring of Kerry!  I'd say whatever one you get the best weather at would be the most beautiful. 

Dingle Slea Head drive

always sheep in Ireland

The view

another one

cold but pretty

The weather was trying to be nice - my jacket was unzipped, that's a good sign

When we left Dingle, we drove a different way home so we could stop at a few more castles.   First stop was a small town that we went to for lunch (I can't remember the name...).  We spotted a sign leading to a castle, so we went to check it out.  The castle was in ruins, but the stables across the way had been restored into a mansion.  It was pretty cool.

The castle

The restored stables

Next stop was Cahir Castle, which is one of the biggest castles in Ireland and built in the 13th century. 

Door in the castle

Last stop was the Rock of Cashel.  Brian and I had been there before on our trip to Cork but it was pretty impressive and we were driving right by, so we wanted to show his parents.

Another door shot

The Lederman's

Last door shot

From the back side

I can't remember what town I took this photo in, but I'm pretty sure you can't go 135 miles anywhere in Ireland and not hit a pub.

Do you believe it?

I'm so happy that we decided to drive across the country to see Dingle.  It was a fun weekend and another thing checked off my Ireland bucket list.  Brian's parents left for Italy, I left on a work trip in Norway, Brian probably went to London, and we all met back up the following weekend in Lake Como - I still dream about this trip, it was stunning.