Malahide Castle, Ireland

 This castle had some great legends! It helps to have a tour guide who really loves their castle, they tell such great stories. The first legend is about Puck who was the castle jester. The legend goes that Puck loved a young lady who refused him and he took his life in his room, just above the banquet room. They say Puck sometimes shows up in people's photos of the banquet room and that he sometimes rearranges things when no one has been in the room. 

Another legend is about Miles Corbett who took the castle during the Cromwellian era and used it as his residence. When Cromwell fell from power, Corbett was taken to the Tower of London and tried for treason. His sentence was to be hanged and then drawn and quartered. Sometimes in July, around the anniversary of his death, he can be seen on the estate. If he is approached, he falls into four pieces and disappears! He is sometimes seen on his favorite horse named "Ghost". (The horse does not fall to pieces though) 

The last family owner of the estate was Rose Talbot. She inherited the estate from her brother. Unfortunately for Rose, the inheritance tax on the estate was 50% of its value! Rose was forced to sell her ancestral home and moved to a sheep ranch in Australia. There is a painting of Rose as a young girl, with her mother and brother, near a staircase in the home. The eyes of Rose follow you everywhere you go in the room, even up the stairs!

                                       The court jester's room is the small door by the balcony 

Trim Castle, Ireland

We stayed two nights in the pleasant little town of Trim. Our hotel was directly across from the castle and we had great views of it from the windows of our lovely room which also had a private terrace. Trim Castle was used several times in the movie "Braveheart" and a lot of the citizens were extras in the movie. They have a little donkey family in Trim that like to be fed snacks. There's a list of preferred snacks posted by their pasture. The donkeys are easy to find, just look up "Trim donkey family" on Google maps.

The keep of the castle is still intact and we had a great tour from a very interesting docent (lots of stairs).  Most of the outer walls of the castle complex remain as do the gate towers. Just across the river is the Yellow Steeple, all that remains of St Mary's Abbey. 

We loved our hotel but we had no idea there was a wedding on our second night. I knew Irish weddings were big affairs but we were located right above the ballroom. My husband went down to the desk about 12:30am and asked if they knew when the music would end. The desk said the wedding party had reserved the ballroom until 4am (!) but the music would timely stop around 1 or 2am. They offered to change our rooms but I was already sleeping so we stayed where we were. We woke up the next morning to wedding guests or members shouting in the hallway as well. We spoke to the hotel manager that morning and she said they would take 200 euro off the bill, and apologized. She said they had ongoing issues with that particular group so it was not their normal experience. We really appreciated her giving us some money back and she was really nice about the whole thing.

                                                                 The Yellow Steeple

Trim Castle

Newgrange and Knowth neolithic sites - Bru na Boinne Center

Built around 3,200 B.C., these passage tombs are older than Stonehenge and the Great pyramids of Giza! Our visit started at the visitor center where you take a bus first to Knowth then to Newgrange. 

There are quite a few of the passage tomb mounds at Knowth. These tombs are constructed of rock with a grass-covered roof and the whole thing is supported by giant engraved curbstones that circle the tomb mound.  (the roof is now supported by concrete to prevent caving in)

Newgrange is the only passage tomb you can enter and you go into it in small groups of about 10 people at a time with a guide. The people who constructed the tombs knew the importance of the sun in their lives and for their crops, they may have even been sun worshippers - no one knows. There are posts outside the tomb at Knowth that align with the sun and doorway at the winter solstice. At Newgrange the rising sun on winter solstice shines over the top of the hill across the valley, lines up with the window above the portal door, and shines into the farthest part of the passage tomb to light up the basin there. Very Indiana Jones-like stuff! You're allowed to go in with the guide but are not allowed to take photos inside. The passage is pretty narrow in a couple of spots and we had to turn sideways to squeeze through.  The roof is made of layers of stone with NO mortar at all between them. I'll admit to being slightly uncomfortable upon hearing that. It was a great day and very enjoyable, especially since it was a nice sunny day and NO wind!

Mount Stewart House and Legananny dolmen

 We drove down the west side of Strangford Louch to Mount Stewart House. It's a lovely house with several different themed gardens, some of which have very exotic statues. 

Legananny dolmen 

This dolmen has been standing in a farmer's field for 4,500 years! It's 10 feet long and 7 feet high.

As you can see from the photos, the tip of the top slab is balanced on the stone below it. How did they do that 4,500 years ago? It would be so awesome to have something that ancient right in our own backyard. 

Carrickfergus Castle

We had a good time here. There is a large area of the castle that is intact and it was fun to see the rooms set up for feasts etc. It was also a sunny day but still windy. We had just entered the castle complex when we saw a worker open a door to a below-ground room. My husband jokingly asked if that was the dungeon. The man said no, it's just storage much as it would have been in the old times. He let my husband go down inside and look around. This is the man I wrote about earlier that told us a story about Dunluce Castle. 

We continued on and looked at all the canons they have there, some with the year of manufacture still engraved in the barrels. Carrickfergus was besieged but the Scots, English, Irish and French but is still one of the best-preserved medieval structures in Northern Ireland. We spent at least a couple of hours here climbing up and down stairs and stone passages. Mike had lots of fun taking selfies with all the statues and sending them to the grandkids. I think this would be a great place to take kids. 

Belfast, Northern Ireland

 I have mixed feelings about writing of our experience in Belfast. I originally booked a walking tour that focused on the architecture and ALL the history of Belfast. I was actually trying to avoid any tour that focused on the unrest that happened there in the 1960's and continued for the next thirty years because I am of the age where I remember hearing about it on the news. All the violence and hatred... 

Unfortunately my tour guide had made a mistake and missed our booking but he set us up with a taxi tour later in the day free of charge. So we spent the morning at the Titanic Experience because it was brutally windy and raining outside. It was okay in my opinion but I'm not one of those people who are giant fans of the movie. The movie lovers all seem to think it's great. The first part focused on the construction of the ship. Then there were just a few exhibits about some of the people onboard etc. They had furniture and things from the sister ship the Olympic to look at. I will say that it was quite hot inside the building which diminished my enjoyment of the exhibits. Everyone was fanning themselves in an attempt to cool down. We left the museum and got some lunch nearby and then returned to the hotel to wait for our tour guide.

Our guide drove us past a couple of buildings and spoke a bit about the architecture but it wasn't long before he started sharing about this own childhood in Belfast which eventually led us to the peace gates - which are still promptly locked at 7pm each day. We walked the no-man's-land between the gates and later stopped at a memorial that has haunted me ever since. It was a memorial to several victims of the violence but I was particularly moved by two of them. Maybe it's because I have young grandchildren, but the stories of these two little boys left me in tears for quite a long time afterward and I even now have trouble talking about it without crying. I have tears running down my face even now as I'm typing. Why does violence have to touch our young people? Why can't innocent children be safe? I knew I would react that way which is why I tried to avoid the political past. I did tell the guide when we started out that I didn't want to focus on the "troubles" but I think it's such an interwoven part of their lives that it's just natural for them to speak of it. My husband is interested in world politics so it didn't effect him the way it effected me. 

Anyway, we finished our tour at City Hall where I was supposed to be able to appreciate the lovely architecture inside which would have been a welcome distraction. Most of the interior public rooms however were closed for an event so we left and walked back toward our hotel. We stopped to look at some of the "entries", narrow passages between buildings with pubs and business inside. We found a nice, cozy pub where we had dinner before returning to the hotel for the night. 

On the way to Belfast - The Gobbins Cliff Walk

 The Gobbins Cliff Walk was such a fun thing to do, even in the pouring rain. We got drenched but still had a good time. You have to go with a guide and a safety helmet because sometimes they have rockfalls. They had one the day before we arrived and so we couldn't go in the sea cave at the end of the walk because that was where the rockfall had occurred. The man who built the cliff walk actually used to throw parties in the cave during Victorian times. I couldn't imagine navigating that walk in a long dress and petticoats! 

You start the cliff walk with a short bus ride from the visitor center then a long steep walk downhill to the shore. The walk then continues along a narrow ledge cut into the side of the cliff (there is a railing) and you cross a couple of bridges. There are also some spots where you gave to go through openings in the rock, some were pretty low and even I had to hunch over. They warn you on their website that it's like climbing 50 flights of stairs and with the steep climb down and then back up again plus the ups and downs on the cliffside, I think that might be a modest estimate! Even so, we had a great time and I really recommend doing it.