Donegal Coast & Drumcliff: There Are No Words to Describe

(This blog is about Thursday, July 1st)

A: We drove for most of the day today around County Donegal. This area is so spectacular, that we ran out of adjectives to describe the things we were seeing around each bend. We resorted to Ooohs and Ahhhs by the end of the day.

This morning we woke up and Jonathan went out for a run on the back coastal roads of Donegal. When he returned we had a wonderful Irish breakfast made by Geraldine, owner of the Ocean Spary B&B. After packing up the car and saying our goodbyes, Jonathan wanted to show me the end of the peninsula, called heads here in Ireland, that he discovered on his run. These pictures are from just down the road from our B&B at Muckross Head.

We couldn't drive all the way down the Muckross Head, because of some standing water on the road. If you look really closely, you can see our silver VW Golf down the road after the puddles.

Looking across to where we will be driving next.

Some small cliffs on the head.

Looking back at the B&B.

From there, we drove over to the Slieve League. The Slieve League is a ginormous set of cliffs about 15 minutes from the Ocean Spray B&B. We had wanted to view the cliffs from a boat trip, but they were not going out today. Some pictures from a hike up the side of the cliffs will have to do...

A view of our view from the VW Golf, and a perspective of how narrow the roads are in Co. Donegal - hardly wider than our car.

Hiking up the side of the Slieve League. You can do a 2hr hike up to the peaks of the cliffs, but we chose to just hike up the side this time around.

Slieve League

Slieve League

The roads are only wide enough to fit traffic one direction AND the sheep like to lounge on the edge of the road.

From the Slieve League, we continued to loop up and around Co. Donegal. Here are a couple of pictures from along the way...

Another set of cliffs father up the coast (I think we were near Ardara). There seemed to amazing views of cliffs around every turn in Donegal.

Mount Errigal (no snow, just rock - seems weird, right?)

After driving through Co. Donegal, we headed down to Sligo, after stopping in Letterkenny to buy a new cell phone (the other one broke). Funny thing is, because we did not have a cell phone, we had not booked a place for tonight. Also, since we did not have Internet for the past couple of days, we hadn't really researched a place. So, when we bought the phone around 3pm, we called the only place that was listed in our 4 tour books that we could afford. Turns out, they had a room and this was the most stunning B&B yet!

The Ardtarman Farmhouse is about a 20 minute drive northwest of Sligo. The family home hat was passed down to the couple that runs the B&B is tucked back in the country along the coastline. This gorgeous property looks like a castle on the outside and is perfectly Victorian inside. It is just a beautiful stroll away from a private beach (too bad it was too cold to swim!). We feel that this place is a gift from God, and that it was no coincidence that it is the only place that we had contact info for and could afford. It is perfectly relaxing!

The wooded drive up to the farmhouse.

Ardtarman Farmhouse B&B

The entry way.

The dining room.

The hallway outside of our room.

Mapping out our next route in our HUGE room!

On the short walk to the beach, you stroll alongside a few pastures.

The beach that we had all to ourselves! We had a very romantic walk along the water.

That is all for today! We pray that everything is well with everyone back home. Please pray that God would continue to bless us in our travels and that He would keep us safe.

Antrim & Donegal Coasts: It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere

(This blog is about Wednesday, June 30th)

A&J: We started out with a beautiful, sunny day today, but the afternoon turned quite rainy. From Ballygally Castle, we drove back up the Antrim Coast to the Bushmills Distillery. Bushmills is just past Giant's Causway, where we had our last adventure yesterday. We enjoyed our tour of the working distillery, despite that the factory was in a "resting period." This meant that no whisky was being processed while we were looking around. Also, no photography was allowed of the grounds or the tour, so unfortunately, we don't have any pictures to share with you.


Bushmills is special because it is distilled three times, instead of two, and they use hot air to dry their barley, instead of with peat moss. This means that Bushmills whisky does not have a smokey flavor and their whisky has a higher percentage of alcohol content before they dilute it to a bearable percentage. At the end of the tour, we were offered our choice of a shot of whisky, a "hot toddy" (hot whisky with cloves and cinnamon), or a fountain drink. Jon took the shot of whisky, which was unappetising at 11 o'clock in the morning, while Alison tried to hot toddy, which wasn't quite as painful. It was quite the experience.

From Bushmills, we headed over to Dunluce Castle. This was originally a 13th-century castle that was rebuilt and remodeled during the 16th- and 17th-centuries. It sits out on its own tiny island just few meters from the coast. The castle takes up the entire island. Today the roof has caved in and some of the walls have collapsed, but much of the cobble-stoned floors remain and the views are still spectacular. We were free to roam what is left of the castle, which we found very exciting. We even came across a tower which was mostly still intact. The bottom of the tower seemed to have been a dungeon of sorts, while up the stairs there was a small guard tower. We had fun in the guard tower as Alison pretended to be princess in captivity, while Jonathan a knight coming to rescue her. Unfortunately, Sir Jonathan got eaten by a dragon.

From Dunlace, we embarked on our two drive down to Donegal Bay. Thankfully, the rainy weather held off until we were in the car for the afternoon. We drove through Donegal town, where we believe Jonathan's family is from, and along the coast to the Ocean Spray B&B just past Kellybegs. It was quite the adventure to get out to the house because it is along a one-lane coastal road. We'll have more on that tomorrow. The B&B is in a beautiful spot right along the ocean, with gorgeous views of the cliffs near by. We had a lovely dinner near by at the Clock Tower. The servers and the food were wonderful.

We need to get some rest because we have a long drive ahead of us tomorrow. Please pray for our safety on the roads and we continue our way around Donegal and down to Sligo tomorrow.

Belfast & Antrim Coast: Rallying Our Way Up the Coast

Alison: Today, we were blessed again with amazing weather. We started our morning with a traditional Irish breakfast at Windmere House. An Irish breakfast consists of two slices of ham (which they call bacon), two links of sausage, an egg (either fried or poached), and a tomato (either roasted or raw). YUM! After breakfast we made a reservation for a black taxi tour of Belfast. By the time we were finished packing up, the taxi was waiting for us. Our tour took us around West Belfast, where there was a very violent disagreement between Protestants (British) and Catholics (Irish) over whether North Ireland should be British or Irish. This disagreement, called the Troubles, lasted from 1969 until 2000. We started on the Protestant side where our tour guide walked us around to the different murals on the sides of the buildings and explained what they each meant. The most interesting mural was that of a man in camouflage and a mask with a rifle pointed at the viewer. As you walk all over this neighborhood the rifle is always pointed on you. This is to represent to the people who live in the neighborhood that they are being protected at all times, and to visitors that they are being watched at all times.

Following viewing the murals on the Protestant side, we visited the Peace Wall. The Peace Wall completely divides the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods, and to this day, the gates in the wall are locked up at 7:30 every night. The wall itself contains murals and graffiti. In Belfast, it is not illegal to write graffiti, so by a suggestion from our tour guide, we joined in on the fun.

From here, we crossed through the wall to the Catholic side. In the Catholic neighborhood we saw several monuments to people that had died during the Troubles and ended with some murals on a large wall. The tour was supposed to last an hour, but lasted two. Our tour guide was very generous and only charged us for one hour. He also led us out to the exit we needed to leave Belfast and head up the Antrim Coast.

This depicts a point in time where a section of the Catholic neighborhood was under a strict curfew by the Belfast government.

Jonathan: After a quick stop at our future hotel/castle at Ballygally, we continued our way up the northeastern coast of Ireland to Carrick-a-rede swinging rope bridge. Fishermen originally used this type of bridge to fish the sea below. We started with a brief walk out to the bridge. It is hard to describe the beauty here in Ireland. The climate is cooler than Virginia and some of the plants and wildlife look similar to those at home, but the sheer brilliance of colors, a patchwork of red, yellow, and pink wildflowers on a background of the most intense green carpet of foliage you have ever seen. I wasn’t expecting the ocean to look so similar to that of the Caribbean, intense shades of dark blue and aquamarine.

When we finally made it to the rope bridge, it looked like something out of a storybook. I felt like a six year old running across the rope bridge, excited and exhilarated. On the far side of the bridge was a menagerie of plants and animals as described before, our own little private island in the sea. Who can deny such a magnificent God when sitting on a lush little patch of land amidst the crashing waves. He not only can inspire you with his artwork but He can take your breath away.

Giant’s Causeway was our final stop of the day. This cluster of hexagonal stone steps is a geological phenomena. The Irish legends and folklore about the place seemed to be as numerous as the stones themselves. We spent some time walking around the causeway and took in the beautiful sight. Some say the stones look like a giant box of cigarettes being offered to God. Since it seems like 99.5% of the population here smokes, this interpretation isn’t surprising. The scenery was gorgeous, in fact it look incredibly similar to the mountains seen in Jurassic Park. We finished our 3 km hike exhausted but satisfied. We made the trip back down the coast to Ballygally, but not before I played rally car driver on the windy roads with an 80 mph speed limit that was almost impossible to maintain!

A & J: Time to sleep in the castle by the sea. Tomorrow will bring more coastline adventures!

Knowth & Belfast: To the left, to the left... Left Jon, LEFT!

Alison: Just kidding! Jonathan was actually an excellent driver on the left side of the road!

Jonathan: Driving stick shift on the left, from the right side of the car, on the left side of the road posed new challenges for today. But thankfully our only hiccup in driving was trying to get the car into reverse in the Budget parking lot at the airport. For those planning on driving in reverse in Ireland, it left (push down) and back. Wheew. I had an excellent navigator, though. We made it through the entire day with only a few minor wrong turns and some confusion in speed limits (km/hr in Ireland changing to mi/hr in N. Ireland - yet, there are no signs that distinguish the two). We definitely got some air on one particular bridge. Who knew 80km/hr was so fast?!?

Alison: From the Dublin Airport we drove north 45 minutes to Knowth, a Neolithic burial ceremony site. It was absolutely spectacular to see something that is older than the pyramids! Our tour guide took gave us some background info on Knowth (the large dome structure pictured below), took us underneath the dome to explain some artifacts found in the structure, and allowed us to hike up on top of the dome. Knowth served as significant burial site for a Neolithic community with parts of the site dating back to 5000BC. Following the Neolithic age, traces of fortresses from the Iron Age and the Early Christan Age and a Medieval monestary were also found on top of the dome.

Jonathan: I found two facts about the tombs particularly interesting. One, in 5000 years, the roof of the dome has never leaked. That's some extreme engineering using nothing but gravity and layers of rock and dirt! Second, one of the artifacts that was found in the center of the tomb was a large ceremonial basin. The basin measured 1.9m across. The largest opening in the tomb passageway measures only 1.7m across, meaning that the basin was placed in the tomb and then the structure was built around and on top of it. Our tour guide called this the first known example of an anti-theft measure!

Knowth


Our tour guide explaining the artwork chiseled around (and originally supporting) the dome.


Leaving the display room inside the tomb.

Jon with a smaller dome structure.

The view from the top!

Alison: From Knowth we drove up to Belfast in Northern Ireland and checked into the Windermere House Bed and Breakfast. Once settled, we headed into Belfast to get dinner and check out some sites. We had dinner at the Crown Royal Saloon, which is an ornately decorated Victorian saloon. It was absolutely gorgeous!

Jonathan: The food was probably the best I've had yet in Ireland. Alison had some fish and chips with vinegar, while I had the Guinness beef stew. The stew was more like a beef pot pie, paired with some delicious garlic potatoes, peas, and steamed carrots. The beef stew was superb, with perfectly tender beef in a thick, rich stock made with Guinness. The cheapest meal to date was delicious, finished with nothing else than a pint of Guinness.

Alison: On the way home we stopped by Queen's College for a quick photo-op before we meandered back to our cute little B&B.

Jonathan: We are thankful for safety today and for the rain that only seemed to downpour when we were indoors or in the car. On to the northernmost part of the island tomorrow! Please pray for our continued safety on the roads and for more blessings of good weather.