Scenic Ireland

This trip was by far the best I've had in terms of coastal scenery, mostly the Glens of Antrim in the North (near Belfast), and Glendalough / Wicklow Mountains in the East. If I ever do go back, please remind me to rent a car and go crazy.





Spanning a chasm some eighty feet deep is the famous Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, it's construction once consisted of a single rope hand rail and widely spaced slats which the fishermen would traverse across with salmon caught off the island... The area is exceptional in is natural beauty, to the left as you come down the steep hill is Larrybane headland which once stretched out towards Sheep Island and had a promontory fort on the top dating to 800AD, underneath large caves once served as home to boat builders and a safe resting place from winter storms.

- http://www.northantrim.com/carrick_a_rede.htm




At the Giant's Causeway

The coastal scenery adjacent to the causeway is some of the most beautiful and awe inspiring that you are likely to find anywhere. The majestic cliffs and inaccessible bays combine with myth and legend to inspire, but look carefully amongst this breathtaking landscape and you will find echoes of another reality, isolated ruins, kelp walls and shoreline fields bear testament to the harder life of subsistence farming and fishing endured by past generations.

- http://www.northantrim.com/causeway.htm





Behind me was a location which was used in the filming of Braveheart. Our tour guide (cheeky Irish man) entrusted a bottle of Jameson's Whiskey to Liz to pour for the rest of us weary travellers. Needless to say, it served as a nice social lubricant. Very beautiful scenery.

Glen-da-lough, Irish for Glen of two lakes.

Round Tower, standing 110 feet, standing strong and erect since the 7th century. Apparently many people come here to be inspired by it.







Only thing I knew about Glendalough before this was because of the Viking Ship Sea Stallion of Glendalough, which made the journey from Roskilde (in Denmark, one of my super early posts) to Dublin, where it is exhibited at the National Museum of Dublin currently. I do think it would be an experience of a lifetime to have been part of the historical voyage.

Ireland is truly a wonderful place to visit for its sheer amount of natural beauty. I just can't really put it down in words, the whole experience being magnificent, and knowing that this would forever be embedded in me.