Ireland had a place on my bucket list since I was young. I would always imagine renting a quaint cottage out in the middle of nowhere, a fireplace crackling, and rolling green hills surrounding me, and just existing in all that beauty. Scotland made it onto my list a bit later on, and jumped higher on said list after I started reading the Outlander series. Once I knew I was going to be taking a two week spring vacation, the Scotland/Ireland combo made sense.
A lot of planning went into this trip. I did tons of research, asked multiple questions on forums, looked at SO MANY vacation rentals, and finally built out our outline. I think I was right on track for most of it, but if I were planning it over again, there are a couple changes I would make.
But to start, the highlights.
The Highlights
Skellig Michael – 100% the highlight of the trip. While the boat ride there was a bit harrowing, the island itself was awe-inspiring in its history and beauty, and the puffins and other birds (and seal sighting!) made it that much better. The entire time, I tried to imagine I was a 6th century monk – riding in a little wooden boat out on that crazy Atlantic sea, pulling it up to this island without the landing bay, climbing up the steep cliffs prior to any steps being there, building the beehive huts and figuring out how to actually live on this little jagged island with no fresh water and only bird life as company.
If you want to visit Skellig Michael, you need to plan way in advance. They only have landings during the summer months, and even then, it is completely weather-dependent, and only 13 small boats can land per day. I had thought I could wait until the week before to book so that I could better pick a day with good weather, but two months before the trip, I saw that the days I could go were already booking up. Fortunately, I found one operator that still had space and I took it, and we lucked out with wonderful weather the day of.
Trotternish Ridge, Isle of Skye – The Isle of Skye is full of dramatic scenery, but driving the northern loop, and stopping to hike provided some of the most spectacular scenery of the whole trip. We hiked the Old Man of Storr, which was fabulous, and the Quiraing, which was even more fabulous. The whole ridge was formed by landslips, and the Quiraing is still moving, creating some truly unique vistas.
Glenfinnan Viaduct – Ok, so this is mostly because of me being a Harry Potter nerd, but the viaduct is actually really cool, and the scenery around it is gorgeous, and seeing the steam train pass was AWESOME. You have to time it right to see it, and there is a path with the best views, so don’t just go to the lookout point at the visitor center. And make sure you take time before or after (or both) to explore all the lochs and mountains galore.
Glencoe – It’s kind of weird putting this on my highlights since it was rainy and dreary the majority of the time we were there so that we weren’t able to do much, but Glencoe itself is a really pretty little village with tons of outdoorsy things to do in the surrounding area. The drive to Glencoe is wonderful, the trail system was more than pleasant, and if we had had the weather for it, it would have been awesome to take a kayak out on the water or go hiking the various glens and mountains.
Dingle Peninsula – Dingle town was not my favorite, as it was just a bit too busy and full of tourist buses, and Anthony and I were about the youngest ones there. We did enjoy the town, but we enjoyed other towns on the trip more. The peninsula, however, was probably our favorite drive of the trip. In fact, this is where I experienced that daydream I had about Ireland as a kid – sitting by my fireplace in my home, surrounded by green hills and sheep. And it was every bit as great as I figured it’d be. The peninsula was lush and green, and the coastal views were spectacular with cliffs jutting out, and there were multiple quality beaches which I never really imagined for Ireland.
Galway – I’m not sure how much I would like Galway in the winter, but with the sun shining and 65 degree temps, I loved it. It was at the end of our trip when we were content to slow down a bit, and walking around the pedestrian-only part of town, listening to musicians, watching performers, and stopping to sit on a patio to eat and drink, without a care in the world, was heavenly. It’s a small and attractive city, and both Connemara and the Burren are close by, so it would make a good base for anyone traveling to Ireland.
What I Would Do Differently
Day 1 – Stay Put – I knew we weren’t going to want to drive a long way after a trans-Atlantic red-eye flight. I figured we could handle a two hour drive, though. And technically, we could and did handle it. But it wasn’t the smartest decision ever. Anthony was sick which made it even worse, but in general, we were tired and grumpy, and probably would have been better off if we had spent that first night in Inverness, instead of immediately jumping into driving on the opposite side of the road, on narrow one-track streets through the mountains after very little sleep.
Do More, Drive Less – I planned out some truly awesome road trips. None of them involved more than five hours of actively driving, and all of them had incredible scenery that could be a highlight of any vacation. But there were too many. They all started to blur together. It felt a bit like we had seen it all already. Because of this, we ended up skipping out on our last one (Connemara) because we were just done with the whole “let’s-drive-around-and-look-at-beautiful-things” thing. I wish I had planned a couple different activities, whether that was taking a short flight or ferry over to one of the Aran Islands, or getting a bike and cycling around Killarney National Park and Gap of Dunloe. A 16 night trip requires a bit more variety.