Final Installment

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Visited Countries Map



Arrived in the land of Leprechauns on Sunday July 17th. Met up with Grandma Joan who arrived from Montreal an hour or so before, picked up the rental car and drove south down the coast to Arklow. After a few minutes of going around in circles, we found the cottage we had rented on the internet back in December. Turned out to be a fully functional three bedroom bungalow in a little subdivision just 10 minutes walk from the ocean beach. The beach was very nice but the Irish Sea was cold, and again, only our polar bear Keith really swam much at all.

One of the reasons we came to Ireland was to do a little family history research. Grandma Joan's father was born in Ireland and she had never been. So after "swimming" we drove into the old part of Arklow and found the address of her grandfather's birthplace in 1868. It was too new a house for it to have been the actual birthplace though. We discovered later in reading a history of the town that our ancestor's birthplace, described as a "thatch-roofed hovel", was razed in the late nineteenth century and a more substantial home built. The next day at the Wicklow County library, Joan and Bill discovered that another ancestor, the mother of the aforementioned fellow, was buried in a little old cemetery in the tiny village of Kilcarra, 5 km or so north. So we duly drove out there but were unable to locate the now probably overgrown old cemetery.

Arklow is an old port town of about 10,000 people that got its start courtesy of the Vikings who invaded about 800 AD. Their leader Arnkel decided that this low land would make a good harbour and fortified town from which to base their ransacking of the surrounding area, so it was called Arnkel - low or, eventually, Arklow. One landmark is the longest stone arch bridge in Ireland that has 19 arches and was built in the 1700s. We spent one day driving up the Vale of Avoca into the Wicklow mountains to the ancient Celtic Monastery of Glendalough which was founded by St. Kevin in about 700 AD. Beautiful mountain valley with two small lakes, many ruins and a perfectly preserved "round tower" 30 metres tall. We had a good hour-long hike.

Bill spent two days in Dublin researching at places with names such as The Representative Church Body library, and found a wedding certificate of gr gr grandparents and a death certificate of a gr gr gr grandmother for his effort. During one of those days he had grandma in tow and they found the apartment building in which her grandmother was born in 1879. None of Dublin's streets are straight for more than 7 metres or so, most are one-way, the wrong way, cars are parked on both sides of the road so that even two-way streets effectively become one-way, and the traffic lights change colour about once an hour whether they need to or not, so it was slightly annoying driving. Susan and the children perhaps got the better of the deal as they did a 7 km cliffside hike along the coast from the town of Bray to the town of Greystones and then spent the rest of the day on the beach.

After 6 days we left our cottage in Arklow and struck out towards the west. Stopped at Lismore to see the castle, which was closed to the public, but we discovered the town's great little museum including an award winning film about the town's history, and had a picnic in their beautiful new park in the centre of town. Continued on to Blarney to see the castle there and kiss the silly stone. The castle is not much more than a ruin but it was very good, complete with dungeons and druid walks. How the Irish have convinced tourists that the thing to do is to lie on your back with your head hanging over the edge of a 15 metre wall so as to be able to kiss a particular stone, is remarkable. Bizarre, but remarkable. Also stopped at an ancient standing stone circle that the druids used over 4000 years ago, and then went on to our next home, the Clonmore Lodge overlooking the Atlantic Ocean near Quilty.

The next day we took a passenger ferry over to Inishmore, largest of the Arran Islands in Galway Bay. Something Sue thought of to do with the kids was to keep a list of all the different modes of transportation we have experienced on this trip. It turns out that we have been on over 50! The list includes the horse and trap we hired to tour Inishmore. But Renee won the competition, experiencing one more mode of transportation than the rest of us, as when we were back at Clonmore Lodge she was asked if she wanted to ride the pony. The rest of us were judged to be too big. Anyway the rest of the list includes many different boats - from racing yachts to kayaks to inflated little motorboats. Send us a quick email if you want to know the rest of the list. Anyway Inishmore was really interesting, where the 850 or so locals all speak the ancient Irish language akin to Gaelic all the time (except to us tourists). Ronan Flaherty was our very able guide at the reins with Molly out in front. Stone walls instead of fences separated all the tiny fields on the almost treeless island. The biggest attraction was the ancient ocean clifftop semi-circular fort.

The next day we drove around the southwest corner of Ireland, called the Ring of Kerry. This is where Ireland's tallest mountains and most spectacular views are. It ranks right up there with the best ocean roads in the world - the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand, the Pacific Highway in California, the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia and the Great Ocean Road on Australia's south coast. Those are the best we've experienced, probably in that order, with the Ring of Kerry slipping into third in front of the Cabot Trail. Back at Clonmore Lodge we were given a little tour of the virtual ghost town a short walk down the road by the proprietor John Daly (no relation to the golfer). At one time almost 200 years ago, before the famine, there were over 5 times as many people living in the area as there are today. Tuesday morning we had to leave and we drove back to Dublin via Galway. Galway is one of the fastest growing cities in Europe these days and housing prices in the area have gone crazy. Recently the Irish government has brought in laws restricting home ownership across Ireland to Irish citizens to try to curtail the real estate speculators. Also, first time buyers can now buy homes with no money down. Anyway Galway felt very medieval in its core and had a distinct Spanish influence which isn't too surprising if you consider that the trade links between Galway and Spain were very strong for centuries, especially the north coast of Spain where other Celtic peoples lived (and still do) in the areas known as Galicia and Asturias. The drive back to Dublin was uneventful except for all the highway construction going on. In a few years Ireland may have a decent amount of "dual carriageway". Some of it may even be straight and flat. You can tell the Romans never conquered Ireland as, unlike England, and most of her colonies, historically there has been absolutely no attempt to make roads do any more than follow the natural contours of the land, which is actually very nice in the sense than it doesn't feel like humans have destroyed and dominated the land to quite the same extent, except of course when you are pressed for time. We were not, so we enjoyed it.

Didn't see any leprechauns, but we did see one leprechaun crossing sign on the highway, so I guess we were very close.

Grandma Joan flew home and the rest of us flew to London for the final four days to visit Sue's amazing 98-year old grandmother, a couple of sets of aunts and uncles and a number of cousins. Thanks to Aunt Audrey for putting us up and putting up with us. All our time was spent with our relatives, except for a two hour hike through the magical Epping Forest near grandma Edith's house, which Susan remembers well from her childhood. Flight back to Pierre Elliot Trudeau International in Montreal was uneventful. But when we picked up our car (thanks to Aunt Sherri and Uncle Rob for storing it for us) we discovered that it needed a new battery and alternator. Other than a flat tire in Denmark, this was the only car problem we had the whole trip. CAA came to the rescue and we got home just a few hours later than we expected...

That's it. Hope you enjoyed it. Any comments or questions you have we would be glad to respond to via the comments (public) or messages(private) feature. Thanks to all of you who have sent us emails throughout. Bill's latest obsession is his new venture which you can find out about at ClimbYourLadder.com. Now we're busy planning our next holiday.....

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Comments

[Heather]

Thanks for sharing
Thanks again for sharing ypur wonderful adventure We are glad also that you are back safe and sound with many tales to tell

[mwink]

your idea is really neat! it must be an exciting tour of the continents! i guess it's good timing too since school will start to get more hectic for your kids in high school. cheers :)

[Jackie]

enjoyed
Have really enjoyed your posts. Have to say one thing thank God the beard has gone.