Ireland 2026 - We are off again

Tuesday 12th May
 
After three weeks at home, we were off again!  This time to Ireland.  We would start in Rosslare and drive anticlockwise round the whole island.
 
We wanted to be away about midday and when I set the alarm it was 11.59!  Pure fluke I hasten to add.

We had a good journey to Swansea where we were staying with an old friend of mine. Terry was married to my good friend, and once house mate Wendy, who died back in 2017.  Wendy and Terry along my ex-husband and I all worked together for a few years, and it was really lovely talking over old times and people we both knew. Poor Richard must have been bored stiff but didn’t fall asleep!

We walked down to Terry’s local and had a very good meal. Rio was spoilt with bits of turkey left over from Sunday’s roasts!


Wednesday 13th May

We woke up to the smell of a cooked breakfast!  Terry served us up a full English. I asked if it should be a full Welsh but apparently that would have had cockles and lava bread with it. More chatting and then it was time to set off to Pembroke Dock for our ferry to Rosslare. We should have been going from Fishguard, but five days ago Stena cancelled it due to operational issues.  Fortunately, I was able to book the Pembroke ferry which was similar timings.

We had quite a long wait while the HGVs were loaded and were fascinated by the port tugs which sped around hitching themselves onto lorry trailers and driving them onto the ship. The driver’s seat and steering wheel were on a turntable so the tug could be driven forwards and backwards with ease - real clever stuff!!

Irish Ferries don’t have pet friendly cabins, but they have a Dog Den. We didn’t know what to expect but certainly didn’t think it would be like it is. We weren’t looking forward to four hours on hard seats! 

The crossing wasn’t too bad, and I certainly didn’t feel sick, mind you I’d taken Sturgeon and had my wrist bands on!  I listened to my book while “ants in his pants” Richard played a game on his iPad and walked the deck with Rio. There were only four dogs, and they were all very well behaved.

We were intrigued to find that no one looked at Rio’s Animal Health Certificate at Pembroke Dock, and, in fact, it wasn’t until we had cleared immigration and customs in Rosslare that someone finally looked at it. Goodness only knows what would have happened if it had been incorrect.

We drove for about half an hour to a park up on the edge of a forest. It was a Rio stop as he had had a pretty boring day. I took him for a walk while Richard heated up the dinner.


Thursday 14th May

We took Rio to find the Fairy Village in the forest. It was very sweet, but Rio wasn’t that impressed! 

Our stop over was in the Wicklow Mountains. I didn’t set a direct route but chose to go from town to town hoping to find a pretty one but to no avail. In fact, we noticed that there are very few, probably about 1%, old houses. The reasons for this are a mix of economics, geology, and a very turbulent history.  For centuries, the vast majority of Irish people lived in vernacular housing. Unlike the stone manors of the elite, these were built using mud and turf with thatch roofs or wood.  In the damp Irish climate, a house made of mud and straw didn’t last long without constant maintenance. Once a family left or died during the Famine, these houses literally melted back into the earth within a few decades. The 1840s marked a catastrophic turning point. Before the Famine, Ireland’s population was over 8 million but during the famine died or emigrated, leaving entire villages to rot. During the Famine and the subsequent Land Wars, landlords often "levelled" (demolished) the cottages of evicted tenants to prevent them from returning and to clear the land for more profitable cattle grazing.  Ireland has many ruins of "Big Houses" (stately manors). During the Irish War of Independence and the Civil War (1919–1923), hundreds of these aristocratic mansions were burned down.  They were seen as symbols of British colonial rule and landlord oppression. Rather than preserving them, many were intentionally destroyed or left to decay as the new Irish State focused on building modern, humble housing for the general population.  In the 1970s and 80s, there was a massive cultural shift toward modernization and many of the new buildings were bungalows. Now you know why there are so few old properties in Ireland 🤣 

We gradually left urbanisation and headed up into the mountains - it was certainly bleak!

We found our park up. We had a lovely view over Lough Tay.

During the afternoon the weather was amazing. We had sun, rain, large hail stones and strong winds, all at different times. We hunkered down and watched TV, most unusual!

We had quite a nice sunset.