The fast ferry from Holyhead (Wales) to Dublin.
The university of Dublin
The famous Guinness brewery.
Memory Column in the gardens.
The "needle" in the high street of Dublin.
The Temple Bar in Dublin.
The statue of Molly Malone in Dublin.
Powerscourt Gardens in the neighbourhood of Dublin.
The Japanese garden in Powerscourt Gardens.
The castle of Powerscourt.
The highest waterfall of Ierland (121 m) near Powerscourt.
Wicklow mountains plateau: heather everywhere.
Te Glendalough cemetary with "roundtower".
The church at Glendalough cemetery.
The mainstreet of Cork.
The (former) coal quay in Cork.
The Penrose Wharf in Cork, now a pleasant shopping centre...
Blarney Castle nearby Cork.
Blarney Castle tower.
If you lie on your back and kiss the underside of the rampart (the
"Blarney Stone"), you will
get
the gift of eloquence. John F. Kennedy has done that too (but he didn't
really need it!).
The gardens of Blarney Castle seen from the tower.
Drombeg Stone Circle.
Monument at the end of one of the many peninsula.
With impressive cliffs.
Path to Mizenhead fire.
The bridge to Mizenhead fire.
View of the gap from Mizenhead bridge.
Mizenhead fire.
The path back from Mizenhead: a nice climb to do.
The gardens of Bantry House.
Bantry House, splendid location.
Pass in the Beara Peninsula.
Ring of Beara overview.
Dredgers from Antwerp in Ireland...
The end of the Ring of Beara: no ferry to go to the island...
Today rain on the Ring of Skellig.
Valencia with one of the oldest weather stations of the world.
Valencia, nice painted houses.
Ballaghisheen Pass on the Ring of Kerry.
Church ruin in Killarney National Park...
...with cemetery.
The castle of Killarney NP.
Reconstruction of an old Celtic settlement...
...with an old house.
A side road from Camp on the Dingle Peninsula.
Near the endpoint of Dingle Peninsula.
Pastures just to the edge of the cliffs (without fence!).
Overview of the Dingle Peninsula (in the rain).
The ferry over the Shannon river, that makes a difference of 137 km
less driving...
The ferry is completely full.
The Cliffs of Moher, spectacular, but awfully touristic, troops of
autocars come here together.
The Cliffs of Moher to the other side.
The strange landscape of the "Burren". Water disappears here into the
underground of the limestone rocks.
More than enough church ruins in the neighbourhood...
...with inside some old graves.
And even much older grave monuments in the Burren landscape near
Poulnabrone.
Castles everywhere!
Hiking routes in Connemara NP.
Overview around the "Diamond Hill" in Connemara NP.
The steep path back downhill from the "Diamon Hill" in Connemara
NP.
Typical Irish landscape: many small meadows, bordered with stones.
Kylemore Abbey, founded by Belgian nuns from Ypres (refugees of the 1th
WW), now an (expensive) boarding-school.
Sheep frequently block the road...
...until they reach the next meadow.
Also typical for Western Ireland: peat still is used for domestic
heating.
A nice waterfall.
...and fishermen on the lake.
The road to the Achill islands.
The endpoint of the Achill islands.
Nice overview along the "Atlantic drive".
Again a church ruin...
...of a cloister (Rosserk Friary).
Glencar Falls, nice walk along a park.
The road to St. John's Point: known for many kinds of orchids growing
there.
St. John's Point, rough landscape.
With a (locked) fire.
and more flowers...
Picnic on a desolate beach.
The entrance of the castle at Donegal NP.
The gardens and castle of Donegal NP.
In the garden, tens of rododendron types from all over the world...
...again another type.
A near empty beach along the coast.
The road to the Sleave Cliffs.
Still a though walk from the parking lot.
There they are, the Sleave Cliffs, over 500 m high, the highest of
Europe.
The entrance of the valleys is guarded by a high hill.
A typical pub in Dungloe.
Along the upper walk to the Giant Causeway in
Northern Ireland.
30 km across the sea in Scotland we see the same basalt forms.
The Giant Causeway seen from the upper walk.
All basalt...
...pritty high...
...and at the upper side, all different.
A lot of people walking around.
The rope bridge near the smallest distance between Ireland en Scotland.
With thanks to the park guard, who did take this picture. We were two
minutes after closing time!
The overview on our way back.
Glencariffe NP with a walk along many waterfalls...
...like this one.
Back in the Irish Republic: nice cemetery with the high Celtic crosses.
Newgrange (restored) king's grave...
...with its narrow entrance...
...and many runic signs.
The fast ferry back to Wales at noon didn't go out, due to bad weather.
We had to
wait for the "slow" ferry late evening.
That was the end of a nice roundtrip in
Ireland. After the ferry from Dublin to Holyhead (Wales) we were a few
days in Oxford (also a nice city!), then back home via London and the
channel tunnel.
