Hopefully visiting Ireland & Scotland in 2012

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Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:22 am

The travel bug is biting again and I have a wish to go to Ireland and Scotland this spring (maybe May).

For those of you who live(d) there or have traveled there, what highlights could you recommend as things I don't want to miss?

Hopefully, it will be a 2 wk trip.

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 2:36 am

Do you want historical? Dolems, circles and standing stones? Or pubs with good music? or shopping?

I can recommend a lot of places, but without knowing what your interests are, it may be redundant.

You'll have fun no matter what though

Wink

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 2:41 am

Be sure to visit Craig007. Bait him into buying you diner, then beat him up and take his pot of gold. Twisted Evil

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:02 am

My list of places to visit would be historical, stones and places out in the country. A few pubs and maybe where they make Guinness Stout. A friend visited there and said I would like it. I love Guinness Stout. I have heard that the breweries in Kilkenny and Dundalk will be closed by 2013 and one will be opened in Dublin.

And castles.

I want to keep shopping to a minimum.

Perhaps Craig007 could be persuaded in touring a brewery with us and I could take his gold and then push him into a vat. Or would that be alcohol abuse?

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:03 am

Go to Inverness, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:07 am

This is probably as good as anywhere to start your research into Scotland.
http://www.visitscotland.com/guide/
Click on the map for lots of info on individual cities/towns.

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:56 am

I guess I did not articulate it well enough.

What are the places you have been that you liked? Maybe why you liked them?

A friend is a travel agent in Texas and she is going to help me put together a package of things we want to visit.

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 5:49 am

I was in Ireland about 3 years ago and a few of the places I enjoyed the most were Dublin Castle and Kilmainham Gaol. I'm a huge history buff, so seeing things like the cells where those arrested after the Easter Rising were held definitely appealed to me. I also enjoyed touring the Guinness Brewery, but for very different reasons Wink

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 6:06 am

If you have a week in Ireland, on the way to Scotland, this tour will cover most of the highlights.

Fly into Shannon, Stay close to Limerick the first night, visit Bunratty Castle (between Shannon and Limerick) tour the grounds, the set piece village and houses will give you a good idea of life in Ireland.

Drive to Ennis, for the night, good music, great pubs, then travel west to the Cliffs of Moher, the new visitor centre is well worth visiting alone, without the cliffs. There are excellent B&B's at Lahinch, just south of the Cliffs of Moher.

then follow the road northwards to the Burren and the dolmen at Poulnabrone, also the bear cave.

Then, northwards to Galway, really great music. You don't really have time to do the Connemara tour, you could spend 2 days in Galway and still not see everything. A morning drive out to Spiddeal is worth it, just a short distance from Galway

From Galway make your way east towards Dublin, either the N6 then the N65 to the N7 roads.

The hill of Tara is a must, also Clonmacnoise on the Shannon, then Monasterboice just north of Dublin.

From Dublin, Malahide Castle is worth visiting, the tour bus leaves from O'Connell Street not far from the Post Office.

Temple Bar is a mix of over priced pubs catering to the tourist trade, but you can find good music in amongst it. Grafton Street is sheer shopping chaos at the best of times.

Trinity College is another must see, do the Library tour as well as the Book of Kells. Also in Dublin, Stephens Green, great place for lunch in the park, plus various memorial statues to Yeats, Tone Wolfe, and others.

In amongst all the travelling, there are various stones, circles and churches, I can give you more details if needed.

I presume you would then be flying out to Scotland from Dublin, a week really isn't all that long in Ireland, by the time you have been lost several times on the same road, and received 15 different directions from the same person, a day or two can just vanish.

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 8:44 am

Ireland:
Bray Head in the Wicklow mountains is a great place if you like walking. There is a little railway that runs along the coast.

Scotland:
The Camera Obscura in Edinburgh is one of my favourite visits when I'm there.

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:05 pm

take a swim in the Loch Ness!

here · Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:22 pm

the tips from irishemigrant are excellent, the west coast of Ireland is wonderful, we have been to many of the places mentioned

I'd add for lunch in Galway a must is McDonaghs at the bottom of Quay Street (they have a web site)

and if time permits for drop into Peppers Bar & Restaurant in Feakle (Co. Clare), they have their own music festival in August but Wednesday night is awesome at any time of the year (from 10pm)
per Tripadvisor "They also have a service, if you are nearby and want to have food and drinks, where they will collect you and drop you home"
- in my case I had Mrs BMH who doesn't like Guinness Laughing

Do buy a copy of "McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland"** before you go, it will make you laugh a lot - and even more when you have similar experiences yourself. If you are a stranger in a local bar in Ireland you will have a new friend within 10 minutes

** sadly Pete McCarthy is no longer with us, a wonderful writer

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 2:47 pm

Ireland - definitely the Cliffs of Moher

Pictures never do the scale of them justice, one of those things you have to see with you own eyes. Also a pub crawl in Dublin's Temple Bar, when we went it was very smoky in the pubs, but it won't be now - there's a smoking ban. The Guiness is to die for.

The Scottish highlands are well worth seeing, if you go anywhere in Scotland you need good insect repellent, the midges there are famous and voracious little buggers.

If you want to see a man made wonder of the world, go to Queensferry (North of Edinburgh) and see the Forth rail bridge.

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 2:52 pm

Thanks for all those ideas. Sounds like I will need a month to travel.

I will be sending ALL those tips to my friend the travel agent in Texas and let her sort it out.

I love Guinness Stout so this will be partly pub crawl! Wink

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 2:56 pm

If you're only going for two weeks, I'd forget Scotland and just concentrate on Ireland.

If you do insist on going to Scotland, you're better of heading East or North rather than West.
I must admit, I spend a week in the West of Scotland every year and most of that time, I'm sitting there twiddling my thumbs.

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 3:09 pm

Quote:

I spend a week in the West of Scotland every year and most of that time, I'm sitting there twiddling my thumbs.

Nothing wrong with the West of Scotland ( I was born there.... Laughing

)

Scotland has some of the best scenary in the World !

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 7:21 pm

Good to see that I'm not the only one travelling in the new year but of course I won't be in Ireland or Scotland though.

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 7:30 pm

Great suggestions, every one.
Still, I'm a sentimental, family loving type, so my suggestion is-
If your have ancestry from these places, try to visit their stomping grounds if time permits.

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 8:01 pm

Scotland?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Brae
Been there, just a baffling bit of road.
Isle of Skye - just a nice place
Kyle of Lochalsh - another nice place

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 10:06 pm

The edinburgh whisky tour is fun, have a like of whisky is useful but not required Wink

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 10:19 pm

Slightlyoutofit wrote:

I must admit, I spend a week in the West of Scotland every year.

The nuts are good there, are they?

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 3:11 pm

lord goldblade wrote:

The edinburgh whisky tour is fun, have a like of whisky is useful but not required Wink

Thanks. I hadn't thought of visiting distilleries there! Must add that to my list!

This is fast becoming an across-the-Pond-pub-brewery-distillery crawl!

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 3:33 pm

Well, you have to keep your priorities straight.
I'd vote for the Edinburgh whisky tour.
Edinburgh also has lovely teashops.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

jose_cuervo wrote:

Be sure to visit Craig007. Bait him into buying you diner, then beat him up and take his pot of gold. Twisted Evil

Do please - there's a new hospital just opened up and I've been dying to give it a try. Smile

SOOI's advice is sound - there isn't a whole lot of appeal to the west coast, most especially not Glasgow. If you were really desperate to touch that point of the compass, Loch Lomond and surrounding scenery is beautiful, although it chock full of tourists ( Wink

), and in summer, the local troublemakers are frequently causing a fuss. Villages along the west coast of the Loch, such as Luss, are 'preserved' in a bygone era, but I guess that's the appeal. There are various boat tours you can take, some of which can deposit you on the various islands. However in Balloch (southern shore of Loch Lomond) there is a McDonalds so the area hasn't escaped the clutches of modern advances.

Ideally, Edinburgh should feature on your list, despite the abundance of shopping opportunities. By far the 'cleanest' feeling city in Scotland, and lots of things to do depending on when you visit and what you like. You're better off researching Edinburgh attractions yourself, there is plenty of information out there.

There are castles dotted all over the place, from the major tourist attractions at Stirling and Edinburgh, through to lesser known buildings in and around the Loch Ness area. Inverness too is a fairly harmless place, and if you make it as far as Loch Ness, you should definitely stop in.

Loch Ness and surrounding area is fairly pleasant, and villages such as Fort Augustus give a rather cosy feel to the experience, much like Luss does for Loch Lomond.

If there's anything more specific I can help you with, I'll try and answer as best I can.

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:08 pm

Craig007!!!

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