Last week I got back from a week’s holiday in Ireland, staying at Mai & PJ’s house in County Kerry. I took an overnight ferry from Holyhead, so it took a couple of hours to drive there, arriving in plenty of time for a 2.30am sailing. Because of knowing how hard it is to get to sleep from my trip last year, I booked a cabin, arrived in Dublin just before 6am, having had a few hours of decent sleep.

My mum, Vikky and the kids were flying over from the midlands, and they weren’t due until the evening, so I decided to do a bit of a tour on my way to the west coast to make the most of my day.

So, after leaving Dublin, I drove south down the coast, and stopped briefly at Wicklow, but as it was only just after 7am, everywhere was still closed!

From there, I was back on the road and carried on down to Waterford, about 80 miles away. Basically, it was a place name I recognised because it’s famous for its crystal, and that’s the only reason I ended up there! I had a bit of a walk round – the weather had gone a bit drizzly, so didn’t stay there for loads of time. I had a stroll along the harbour area, and also around a bit of the town. I was starting to get a bit wet, so went back to the car, and hit the road again.

My next destination was Cork, which is in the south west of Ireland, so I spent a bit of time exploring, and it’s a really nice city. The sun had come out, and it was now pretty warm, so I found a coffee shop on the Grand Parade that had pavement seating, so I had an iced strawberries and cream smoothing whilst enjoying the sunshine!

My final stop-off was Killarney, which was a good mid-way point to stop between Cork and Listowel, and I got there just after 4 o’clock, and grabbed myself some coffee and cake. Then it was about another 40 miles or so to Mai & PJs, and the others arrived later that evening.

After a good night’s sleep, we just hung out around the house in the morning, and then after lunch, we drove over to Ballybunion to spend time on the beach.

It’s a really nice beach, and quite sheltered by cliffs on both sides. The kids love it there too, there’s so much space, and they had a polystyrene surfboard which they took into the waves (as well as dragging each other around on it!)

Thursday, we went and did a bit of shopping in Tralee (sheltering from a sudden downpour by getting coffee in Costa!), but that was all we did really. The next day was quite a busy one, with the plan to drive to the Dingle Peninsula.

We headed down through Tralee, and then drove along the north edge of the peninsula, until we came to Castlegregory Beach. We ate our sandwiches sitting on the wall at the edge of the sand, and the kids went down and through pebbles into the sea. You can see the beach is really long, stretching right around the coast back towards Tralee. We probably only stayed there about half an hour, before driving down to the south side, which took a bit longer than I thought it would because you have to go around the base of mountains to get there.

We made it down to Inch Beach, which is pretty long, and the wind was quite strong so we made our way down to some rocks for a bit of shelter. It was really sunny, and the wind wasn’t too cold, so the kids did a bit of splashing about in the sea. Chloe got her clothes wet, so we had to try and dry them out in the sun after she changed into her swimming gear! We stayed there until just after 3 o’clock, and then carried on to Dingle.

Dingle’s quite a small port town, and is known for a dolphin that lives around the harbour. We didn’t actually see it (they have boat trips where you supposedly get a better chance of a sighting), but we made do with its bronze statue next to the tourist office!

We walked down the main shopping street, where the buildings are all painted different colours, stopping to buy ice creams for us all. We then came across a bakery that had a sign outside saying ‘Brandon Bakery’, so we had to go in and buy some fresh bread! It’s actually named after the nearby Brandon Mountain, but we liked to think it was actually in honour of Brandon Wood!

Saturday, we pretty much stayed in all day. The weather wasn’t the best, so the kids just played around the house, even setting up a small tent in the hallway!

The sun was back out on Sunday, so we spent the afternoon over at Ballybunion beach, with the kids playing in the sea with the surfboard for a bit, before embarking on some sand-building projects, building large sandcastle settlements, and a rowing boat they could sit in (with quite a lot of help from Vikky!

On Monday, we had a barbecue in the rain! To be honest, we were hoping for better weather, but our luck was out! So it ended up being me outside with an umbrella cooking to mountains of meat we’d bought, and then delivering it into the house! Also, there was supposed to be others coming for it, but they cancelled at last minute, so there was far too much food for just us lot!

The weather on Tuesday was nice again, so we started off by visiting Beale Strand which in a beach on the edge of the Shannon Estuary, just before it becomes the Atlantic Ocean. The sand goes on for a couple of miles, and we only saw one other person on there walking their dog, so it felt really remote but beautiful.

The end of the beach we were on had loads of small rocks near the water’s edge, forming quite a few rock pools, so we spent some time around those exploring.

From there we drove on until we came to Carrigafoyle Castle, which is built on marshland between the mainland and the estuary. It’s a medieval castle that was partly destroyed in the late 16th century, and was never repaired (but has been made safe for visitors!).

It’s actually pretty impressive – we had a good look around, and went up a spiral stone staircase right up to the top of the tower, and the view was amazing – we could see for miles. Mum didn’t make it to the top because she’s not keen on heights, so she stayed at ground level chatting to lady who had also turned up to visit. Oh, one other thing – a bird pooed on Chloe’s head which she wasn’t too happy about… she didn’t see it as a sign of good luck!

We then headed back to Ballybunion beach so the kids could play in the sea for a bit – it was nice and warm but very windy, causing their surfboard to turn into a kite!

After the beach, we went up for tea at Tom’s farmhouse. We’d been up there to visit last year, but he wasn’t in, so had only seen the outside. When we went in, it was strangely familiar, since it was where we’d stayed twice when I was kid in the early 80s. I’m not sure it’s changed that much since then really – it had loads of original features, including an old traditional stove, plus (as I discovered when I asked for a cold drink) the water comes from a well! It wasn’t quite a clear as I’m used to!

Wednesday was our last day, and it was a bit cloudy, so we mainly did stuff around the house before going into Listowel. The Saturday before, Mum and Vikky had gone into a wedding dress shop there on a bit of a whim to get some inspiration, and ended up buying her wedding dress for next year! So they picked it up on this last day after they had made some alterations, and I had to bring it back to Manchester with me, because they wouldn’t be able to take it on their flight!

I left in the afternoon to drive back over to Dublin for my 9pm ferry. I made good use of the time on the ferry editing the ‘Edges Of These Isles’ film which is being launched next Thursday at the Whitworth Art Gallery! Nothing like leaving stuff to the last minute!!

After driving back from Holyhead to Manchester, I eventually got home around 3am, so I was pretty tired, and didn’t make it into work too early!