Day Trips from Dublin

The second day we were in Ireland (June 2) was without a doubt my favorite day of the whole trip. We only went to 2 places, but we spent several hours at each place and the weather was absolutely gorgeous (I don't think it rained once that day!)

The map on the left outlines our plans for the second day… due to our pesky navigation system, we got a little off track. The first thing I wanted to do was go to the Hill of Tara. According to myth, the Hill of Tara is the location where they crowned the High Kings of Ireland. I entered Hill of Tara into our navigation system that morning and was surprised when it actually came up- and even more surprised when it appeared to be taking us in the wrong direction. I thought maybe I was mistaken about the location or how to get there, but after driving about 45 minutes from Swords (I think we may have gone into or south of Dublin), we ended up in a town at a place called the Hill of Tara House… not to be mistaken with the Hill of Tara House B&B that is literally right across from the entrance to the Hill of Tara. We were about an hour south of where we'd intended on going. So we pulled over and typed the city into the navigation system (Castleboy, Co. Meath) and went an hour back in the direction we came.

I thought there would be road signs at that point but we were still having a lot of trouble finding the place. We paid a toll on the way (1.90 euro) and the toll booth operator told us we were headed in the right direction. We got off on an exit and stopped at a gas station, bought a couple sandwiches (I think they were about 4 euros each- we had planned on buying bread and peanut butter the first day to save money, but we didn't have time), and asked the attendant for directions. He knew no more than we did. So we pulled out the cell phone and paid the $10 international fee, finally arriving at the Hill of Tara an hour later than we had intended (we also left about half an hour earlier to give us more time because I'm paranoid... which turned out to be a good thing!).

When we arrived at the Hill of Tara, the road leading up to the entrance was a one-lane road and there were tons of cars parallel parked along both sides (we could barely get between them when we left, it was a wonder we didn't scrape up anyone's car). It seemed like there was some hippie festival going on… there were a lot of people camped out along the road and they warned us about the hippies that were already in there. After the warning I was afraid we'd see a tribe of nudists and some crazy animal sacrifices, but we got through the morning unscathed. The entrance wasn't very well marked, but we found a few signs and walked through a weird, twisty gate. We first headed up and to the left to the visitor centre and bought a couple of guidebooks (maybe a euro each) for our trek around the hills.

The land was gorgeous. Just past the church lies the Rath na Seanadh (The Rath of the Synods), which had been damaged by excavators looking for the Ark of the Covenant about a century ago. These hills were a lot different from the other hills on the land, I

assume because of the damage that was done during that excavation. (If you buy the guidebook, it'll tell you all about this stuff!)

We continued past the Rath na Seanadh to get to the Dumha na nGiall ("Mound of Hostages"). The Dumha na nGiall surrounds the main/large area of Tara. It's a circular passage and encases two mounds, the Forrad ("The Royal Seat", the mound where they would crown the kings) and Teach Cormaic ("Cormaic's House"). On top of the Forrad is the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny. This was the inauguration stone of the High Kings. We also walked down the Teach Miodhchuarta ("The Banqueting Hall"), which was kind of like a long ditch with trees lining the pathway. Archaeologists and historians have thought this was a ceremonial walkway that led from one end of the area to the crowning site. I can just imagine all the medieval royalty and nobles parading

down the walkway, so majestic. And just beyond and to the west of the walkway are a few smaller burial mounds with trees and a creek alongside. By this time we were so far from the visitor centre that my boyfriend had to urinate in the creek instead of taking the long trek back. It was such a magical time.

The next stop on our itinerary was Irish National Stud & Gardens (11.50 euros each). This would be an excellent place to tour, even if you aren't a horse person. Two gardens had been planted on the grounds, and the Japanese garden there is supposed to be one of the finest on the continent. When we arrived we spent about an hour going through the Japanese garden. It was an interesting place to explore because it had a story line for each section of the garden. It was trying to tell the story of the founder's life, and explaining how different areas reflect different things that happened to him.

We then joined a tour that took us all around the property. We first went to a barn for broodmares and a barn for studs, then we were taken to the pastures where the retired racehorses were turned out, so we got to see some of Ireland's more famous horses (Hurricane Fly and Beef or Salmon). After this, we were taken to some more pastures where the mares and their foals were turned out. Our tour guide called them over and I got to pet a few of them, which made my day (I have rarely encountered foals in all my years of riding!). The

tour ends by these pastures, which is also right next to a little fairy garden. We took a walk through the fairy garden and, though my boyfriend was bored and thought it was installed to appeal to little kids, I loved wandering around and looking at the little fairy houses.

Afterwards, we headed to our next airbnb in Wicklow and got ready for dinner. This

airbnb was one of my favorite places we stayed (at least, I thought it was the prettiest). It was also the first one where we didn't know how to work the radiator and felt like we were freezing to death when we got up in the morning. We had a little apartment to

ourselves with a bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a separate entrance from the

back deck, which overlooked a hill. The scenery was beautiful, but the driveway to get down to where we parked next to the deck's stairway was so steep that I was afraid we'd drive off the cliff and plummet to our deaths. The shower was kind of weird, too, where the floor had slats and I couldn't see the drain. I don't know if it was clogged, but I took a 30 minute shower (I was that cold that I wanted to stay in the hot water!) and when I got out the bathroom floor was soaked in water. I mopped it up with the 3 towels that had been left for us, left them soaking wet in the bathtub, and I was too embarrassed to ask for more fresh ones the next morning.

We had dinner at Tinakilly Country House. I had thought about staying in a room there but it was outside our budget. We splurged on a fancy dinner (roughly 40 euros per person). The house had gardens and ivy crawling up the walls. All you saw was green when you looked outside- the ivy, trees, etc., were a little on the wild side, just like everywhere else in Ireland. That evening a wedding was taking place there so the grounds were done up with lights and flowers, and it felt so enchanting walking around the place.

Total costs for Day 2: ~60 euros per person, + $5 USD per person

Cost of airbnb: $82