Ireland Trip - Day 1
In late September, I took a road trip around Ireland. Over the course of nine days, I drove 2311km, spending a majority of my time either driving or in nature (or driving through nature) and then heading into town to grab dinner. Usually when I plan a trip, I'll plan every detail and book all my accommodations beforehand, but I decided to wing the trip in terms of plans, just to get myself out of my comfort zone (since I'm a big planner). I brought a tent so that I could stay at a campsite or wild camp in the worst case scenario, but hoped that being the shoulder season, I wouldn't have too much trouble finding comfortable accommodations.
Flying in on a red-eye flight, I arrived in Dublin at 5:10am, and headed straight to Europcar to pick up my rental car. I don't want to rant about it, but basically there's fine text saying that you need a document from your credit card company to prove you have coverage, otherwise they will not let you take the car unless you purchase their (extremely overpriced) coverage. I didn't have many options, since the customer service phone lines wouldn't be open for another 7 hours. To prevent this, my very strong recommendation is to book at a company that doesn't run this scam, like New Way.
I needed to kill some time before heading to Four Knocks tomb, so I stopped by Howth, a peninsula near Dublin, which has a nice cliff walk. I wanted to catch golden hour for my first hike in Ireland. The walk was pleasant and gave me a chance to finally stretch my legs from the flight and shake off the bad car rental experience.
I had initially planned to go to Four Knocks tomb first thing in the morning, but normally you need to drive to a home nearby and borrow a key from the family that looks after the tomb. I wasn't sure how early in the morning would be an appropriate time to stop by, which is why I went to Howth and then grabbed some breakfast first. When I arrived at Four Knocks Tomb, I learned that they run tours on weekends and I had arrived just in time for the start of one!
The outside of the tomb looks like a mound or hill, but the roof itself was originally made from wood. There are many other Neolithic tombs all over Ireland, this one was built around 3000 BC.
Inside there were many stones carved with intricate designs of spirals, zig-zags and diamond shapes. The guide explained that the archeologists found bones and ashes of 65 individuals young and old in the communal chamber.
After that first dose of Neolithic architecture, I grabbed a very delicious garlic mushroom pizza from Strandfield Cafe and headed to Proleek Dolmen, which was incredible! Massive stones delicately stacked to form a megalithic tomb.
Finally it was time to head farther up into Northern Ireland and the Ring of Gullion, an "Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty". There is a nice scenic drive that you can take, which also takes you to the trailhead of Sliabh gCuillinn. After a short hike, you reach the top, where there's a view of the fields nearby, as well as a path to the lake on top of the mountain.
After visiting the lake and making my way back down the mountain, I headed off to my accommodation in Newry for the night.