Saturday 31 August – Boats, burial mounds and big words.

Up at the crack of dawn this morning to make our way down to the Dublin Ferry Terminal, to board the large Stenna Line ferry for the four-hour voyage across the Irish Sea to Holyhead, Wales. European ferries are very well fitted out; restaurants, snack bars, small movie theatres, kids play areas (with live entertainment), comfortable lounge chairs and table/chair settings.  John even got to watch a rugby match on a big-screen TV.  We grabbed a couple of seats right at the front of the lounge area and watched the sky change from Irish grey to Welsh blue.

On arrival we collected our car for our UK leg, an even newer hybrid Toyota Corolla, and drove to the nearby Holyhead township for a look at St Cybi’s Church, which unfortunately is closed for restoration.  We had to be content with a look at the adjacent 14^th century church of Eglwys and Bedd.  The entire precinct is enclosed by the remaining walls of a small fort, believed to have been built by the Romans in the 4^th century as defence against sea-raiders.

After lunch in a nearby café we managed to find, after a circuitous drive and a long walk, the Bryn Celli Ddur burial chamber in Llanfair.  This is a Neolithic grave site represented by a large grassed mound, covering the stone burial chamber which is accessed through a low narrow entrance leading to a central chamber, which contains a somewhat phallic stone pillar and is thought to contain several graves. Similar to Newgrange, which we visited on our first day in Ireland (and like many other similar sites around the world), access to the chamber is aligned with the summer solstice. We noted that offerings of various types had been left by visitors in the recent past, so John magnanimously lodged a five pence coin in a crevice.

A few miles down the road we stopped to photograph the railway station with the world’s longest place name – Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.  The English translation is “St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the fierce whirlpool of St Tysilio of the red cave”.  So there.

We continued our drive along the beautiful Welsh coastline, noting the large number of wind turbines set out in the ocean, and finally reached our home for the next four nights, a delightful, isolated, perfectly rebuilt brick cottage, surrounded by green fields and silence.  We were greeted by the resident dogs, cats and chickens, with sheep grazing nearby, and settled in for a very pleasant break from continuous unpacking and repacking.

Friday 30 August – A prison, some presidents and a prostitute (probably).

We set off from Belfast early this morning in light drizzle, which persisted for most of our journey to Dublin, however it eased off as we approached the city and, apart from a few brief sprinkles, it has remained fine for the rest of the day.

After a morning tea stop while we waited for our allotted tour time, we entered the old Kilmainham Gaol, constructed during the latter half of the 18^th century to hold 1,000 prisoners, with one to each cell, however at the height of the potato famine, when many people committed petty crimes just so they could be sent to prison where they would at least be fed, the numbers swelled to 9,000.  Prisoners were housed five to a cell, measuring just 3 metres by 1.5 metres, with other prisoners sleeping in the corridors.

We toured the dark, dingy wing reserved for women and children, and the later wing which replaced the original men’s wing. Since the gaol closed in 1922 and was refurbished, first by volunteers and then by the Ireland Office of Public Works, scenes from many movies have been filmed in the huge, three-storey wing, including the 1969 film “The Italian Job”, starring Michael Caine, Benny Hill and Noel Coward. 

Many of the inmates during the second decade of the 1900s were rebels from the Irish War of Independence; fourteen were executed here by firing squad, including one, badly injured during the fighting, who was brought from hospital and propped up in a chair in the yard so he could be shot.

From the gaol we moved on to St Patrick’s Cathedral in the city, passing a gallery of engravings of literary giants including Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, Browning and others.  The cathedral dates from 1220 and has survived wars, the reformation and the uprisings. It is an enormous church, with many monuments and statues.  It also contains the tomb of Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver’s Travels), who was Dean of the cathedral from 1713 to 1745, and an original wooden pulpit which he donated.

Then on to Dublin Castle, a relatively modern building, where we wandered through many state rooms.  The castle is still used for the investiture of Irish presidents.

We then strolled down through the old town to the bronze statue of Molly Malone.  Little is known of Molly, in fact she may never have existed, but the legend that gave rise to the old Irish song is that she sold fish from her cart and may have sold herself as well.  Elizabeth encouraged John to rub her ample breasts, which is a tradition said to bring good luck.  If nothing else, it invoked a bit of a titter among the onlookers.

Then out to the airport to return our car, after having driven 1,850 kilometres around Ireland.  Then a quick bus ride back into town and to our digs, for dinner and an early night before our four-hour ferry ride across the Irish Sea to Holyhead, North Wales tomorrow morning.

Thursday 29 August – A Titanic experience in Belfast.

We set off from the Wild Atlantic Coast this morning and made our way to Belfast, passing some of the famous murals commemorating “The Troubles” as we came into North Belfast.  Our first stop was for a wander through CS Lewis Square, to join CS Lewis in peeking into the wardrobe for inspiration then to admire several large metal statues of  some of his characters.  

Then a short drive to “The Titanic Experience”, a huge multimedia presentation of this great ship, its construction and its tragic end, situated overlooking the docks where the Titanic was built. We spent a memorable couple of hours wandering through graphically-displayed exhibits, including reconstructions of the first-, second- and third-class cabins, and taking the chair-lift through a dramatic visual recreation of the conditions faced by the workers during construction of this giant ocean liner. A fascinating, memorable experience.

After lunch at the Titanic (served by the “Hospitality crew”) we drove to the Northern Ireland War Memorial, a compact but comprehensive display illustrating the significant role that Northern Ireland played in World War II.  Film footage showed the scale of the damage caused by the German Air Force during the 1941 blitz of Belfast.

Just across the road is Belfast Cathedral, St Anne’s, with its upside down internal metal spire, constructed that way because the foundations could not support a large brick or stone spire.  We then made our way to our B&B accommodation and walked to the nearby pub for dinner.

Wednesday 28 August – A castle, a causeway and a coastal drive.

After breakfast and a short walk to admire the coastal views from our accommodation, we headed north for the Wild Atlantic Coast, leaving Ireland for the time being and entering the United Kingdom.  After a two and a half hour drive we stopped at the remains of Dunluce Castle, situated on an outcrop above the Atlantic on a site that has been used for defence since at least 500CE, with the present castle ruins dating mainly from the 16^th and 17^th centuries. The site, which when occupied was protected from the landward side by a drawbridge, would have been easy to defend, however it could have become a bit uncomfortable if put to siege.

From the castle we made away along the rugged “Wild Atlantic Coast”, stopping for lunch of Irish Stew along the way, then to The Giants Causeway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a geological wonder with over 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of intense volcanic and geological activity – an epic 60 million year legacy to the cooling and shrinking of successive lava flows.  The Giants Causeway is steeped in myth and legend with many locals believing that real magic happens here.  We stepped from hexagonal stone to stone, up and down. The Giant’s Causeway appears on the album cover of the 1973 Led Zeppelin V album “House of the Holy”

We continued along the spectacular coastal road, pausing to visit a lovely old church and graveyard and a cute little fishing harbour as well as stopping for other photo opportunities, then joined the patiently-waiting queue to walk just over a kilometre, along paths and down many, many steps, to walk across the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge which traverses a 20-metre wide chasm, although we can assure you that it feels much wider than that as you make your way over the shaky rope bridge, with a 30-metre drop to the churning sea below.  We then walked the 10km walk back - or so it seemed, back up the many steps we had so blithely walked down, and along the endless paths.  We have become used to experiencing four seasons in one day; on this excursion we experienced them in one hour….mild to wild.

We then took the gentle coastal drive back to the holiday town of Portrush, then to our digs for the night in Coleraine.