London
We have concluded our trip to Ireland and the UK in London. Our friend Rex, who lives here, took us on an extended walk from London Bridge to Tower Bridge, past the old Mayflower Pub, and concluding at his home in Canary Wharf. We met up with his friend Jack and we had a wonderful evening out togeth...
Edinburgh
We have finished our tour of Scotland in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital city. We stayed in the old town area along what is called The Royal Mile. The mile between Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace, the Scottish home site of King Charles. We walked the Royal Mile multiple times through many more...
Town of Nairn & our Rose Clan Heritage
We took a Taxi on Tuesday to the town of Nairn, east of Inverness on the North Sea. It is another lovely coastal town in the Highlands. We made two stops along the way. First to see Highland & Shetland Cows. We were told by the Culloden Battlefield Manager where to find them grazing. They are very i...
Culloden
On Monday we went to the Culloden Battlefield, location of the final bloody 1746 battle between the British forces and the Highland Jacobites, supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlies effort to restore the Crown to the Stuart Dynasty. The battle only lasted one hour, but the Jacobites suffered immense l...
Inverness
We traveled by bus from Fort William to our final Highlands city, Inverness. We passed through beautiful Highlands and past several lochs, finally reaching the most famous Loch of them all, Loch Ness! We traveled along the entire length of Loch Ness, keeping a keen eye out for its famous resident, T...
Mallaig and Small Isles
We spent one night in Fort William and caught the train Friday to the beautiful Scottish coastal town of Mallaig. The one and a half hour train ride through the highlands, past lochs, over the famous bridge of Harry Potter fame, and finishing with beautiful views of the coastline and Small Isles, is...
West Highland Way
From Tyndrum we took a taxi to the Bridge of Orchy, the starting point of our planned two day hike on the West Highland Way. The West Highland Way is a popular hike through the Scottish Highlands from Glasgow to Fort William. It normally takes 8-9 days to walk this route, we decided we could only gi...
Onto the Highlands
We left Glasgow today and travelled north by train into the Scottish Highlands! We enjoyed the change to mountain and loch views. We traveled to Tyndrum, which is a point on the West Highland Way hiking trail. We plan to walk the trail for two days, starting tomorrow at The Bridge of Orchy. It is no...
Stirling Castle & Wallace Monument
Stirling Scotland On our final full day in Glasgow we took another short train ride north east to the city of Stirling, home of Stirling Castle and the National Monument to William Wallace/Braveheart. We toured Stirling castle, which was home to numerous Kings & Queens of Scotland. Queen Mary of the...
MacMillan Clan Visit
Today was another short train ride to visit the estate of the MacMillan Clan. Their estate is now a park called Finlaystone, open to the general public. It also houses the MacMillan Clans ancestral history, which goes back nearly 1,000 years. The Clans family, including its Chief, George MacMillan w...
Hamilton Clan
We hopped the train today to the city of Hamilton, home city named for Joan’s Hamilton Clan. We did not think we would find much other than a mausoleum where her ancestors are interned. But instead in addition to the mausoleum, we found a city museum that captured the rich history of the Hamilton’s...
Glasgow
We arrived in Glasgow to sunny skies, a soft breeze and our warmest weather yet! As one could see from our Ireland pics, it was a bit cool & breezy during our visit there. We are staying in Glasgow the longest of any place, four days. We rented an Airbnb in the central city for our stay. Its a nice...
Goodbye Ireland
We left Ireland on this Friday for a jump across the Irish Sea to Glasgow Scotland. We truly enjoyed our time in both Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Irish people have a worldwide reputation of being friendly and welcoming. We can now attest that that reputation is totally true. We will recommend...
The Troubles
We took in a 2 hour Black Cabbie tour of Belfast’s history of the “Troubles”. Our guide was an Irishman, Peter, who has lived his entire life in Belfast and lived through those troublesome years. He was very knowledgeable about this history and careful to present both sides of the issues that contri...
The Titanic
We spent this morning visiting the Titanic Experience at the exact location where the Titanic was built in the Belfast shipyards. It is quite the exhibition that the city has built on that historic site. Still today there is a great pride and profound sadness regarding the Titanic. The exhibition ca...
Belfast
We traveled by train from Portrush on the northern coast of Northern Ireland to the city of Belfast. Joan was a bit anxious about our plans for touring Belfast due to its history of violence from the years of the “Troubles”. We had done our research before traveling there and knew that since the Goo...
Giants Causeway
We hopped a bus from Portrush to Giants Causeway today. It is a short distance to the only UNESCO site in Northern Ireland. We hiked the trails through around and above the Causeway. It was cool and a bit drizzly at first, but got nicer as the day progressed. It is a beautiful costal spot to visit,...
Travel to Portrush Northern Ireland
We traveled our furthest distance today by bus and train from Galway in Ireland to Portrush in Northern Ireland. We made a stop in for a few hours in Donegal Ireland. Joan had Irish ancestors in her Long & Lewis branch, had immigrated from Donegal in the 1700’s. She met a Donegal local while we had...
Aran Islands Inis Mor (The Big Island)
We travelled 1 hour today by bus from Galway to the boat dock at Rossaveal. There we caught the Aran Islands Ferry across the Atlantic waters to Inis Mor (The Big Island). The waters across were a bit of rock & roll, no issues with us, but a couple of young girls did not fare so well 🤢 Once we land...
Travel to Galway
We travel by bus from Dingle to Galway today. Ireland has a unique public transportation system, which requires much planning ahead if you wish to avoid a car rental, which we chose to totally avoid! So this day required connecting three different bus line schedules to get to Galway. All went as pla...
John Brosnan Local celebrity
John Brosnan was our B&B host and a local celebrity. He had many wonderful stories to share. He was a long time fisherman out of Dingle. In his early years he was out fishing and caught an extremely rare fish , a Sturgeon. When he got back to the harbor the word had got around town that he caught th...
Dingle Peninsula & Dingle Town
We spent the morning and early afternoon on an the Dingle Peninsula Archeological Tour. Our host was Micheal, an archeologist. He took our small group to multiple archeological sites around Slea Head and the peninsula. He was extremely knowledgeable about the history of this ancient place. It has Pa...
Marty’s Irish Roots
Marty traveled this day to nearby Ardfert while Joan stayed in Dingle to give her back a good days rest. Marty found the burial site of his 6th Great Grandfather John Shea, born 1590, died 1651. He is buried at Ardfert Cathedral grounds in Ardfert. The site is ancient, going back over 1,000 years or...
Dingle Peninsula
We traveled this day to the town Dingle, on the Dingle peninsula, about as far west in Ireland as you can go. We will be exploring here and other areas of the Wild Atlantic Way over the coming days. We met a local Dingle Pub owner, Fergus of O’Flahtery’s Pub, who fired up his corner stove for us to...
A wee bit of a change in plans
We had a wee issue today. Joan strained her back while bending, so we had to cancel our planned trip around the Ring of Kerry☹️ Instead we spent the entire day seeking some medical treatment for her back pain. After a very long day, we were able to get to see a Dr. and get treatment for her. After a...
Killarney & Celtic Steps Program
We traveled by train a short distance from Cork to Killarney. We sat with a group of older adult Irish ladies heading to Killarney for their annual long weekend of fun and music. They were all a fun loving group out for some good craic! After arriving at our B&B we walked the town and checked out a...
Blarney Castle & Cork
On this cool and very rainy day, we traveled by bus a bit northwest from Cork to the village of Blarney. The village name I’m sure gives away that our intent for the day is to visit the world famous Blarney Castle! We are very prepared for the weather here in Ireland. We have Rain jackets, ponchos,...
Arrival Cork City
We traveled today by train from Dublin to Cork. It is a comfortable and wonderful mode of transportation that is always our first choice, if available. We enjoyed the beautiful pastoral countryside of Ireland on our 2 1/2 hour ride. We met a young Canadian lady who is spending a month near Cork work...
Our Second Full Day in Dublin
For our second day we did a morning tour of the famous Trinity College. The tour was led by current students of the college. Queen Elizabeth the 1st founded the college in 1592. One of our guides is a Trinity Scholar, which is a very high honor for a Trinity student. Like a Rhodes Scholar I suppose....
Our First Full Day in Dublin
Today we spent the morning doing a walking tour of Dublin and taking in the sites of this capital of Ireland. We visited the City Hall, site of the Easter Uprising and the beginning of the effort to break free of British rule and have an independent Ireland. Even though Ireland gained independence,...
Arrival at Dublin City
We made it to Dublin safe & sound, but very tired after more than 24 hours without any real sleep. We followed the Rick Steve’s advice, when arriving to Europe, immediately adopt the new time zone. We did so and stayed up, enjoyed a pint & some dinner & music, and crashed at 11 pm. It’s never easy t...
Travel from Portland to Dublin
On April 3rd we are embarking on our long awaited trip to Ireland, Scotland and England. We wish that it had worked out for Sue & Dave Frank to join us, but we instead now hope to share our experiences with them and other family and friends interested in following us. We are starting in Dublin and h...