Continued from Part 4…
Our last morning in Dublin started like the others, with a big breakfast and saying hello to the lobby birds, but then we packed up and checked out early on to have one last adventure before heading to the ferry. We said goodbye to Bubble and Squeak (the lobby birds), and set off in the car.
We headed North for the first time this week to visit a prehistoric site at Newgrange, an ancient passage tomb, but when we arrived we found out you needed to get a shuttle-bus out there and we’d just missed the hourly bus by 5 minutes, so didn’t have the time to wait around. Still wanting to go somewhere before we boarded our ferry, we headed to the town of Drogheda (the ‘g’ is silent).
Drogheda is one of the oldest towns in Ireland, but is also very industrialised, so it was an interesting town to drive around. There’s a lot of history in the town, but unfortunately we didn’t have as much time to spend there as we wanted to (we could’ve easily spent half a day if not more there, but we only had around an hour before we needed to leave for the ferry). We checked out a local gallery first, where there was an oil painting of Drogheda from 1921 by Thomas Markey, and an oil painting on slate of Slane Castle (which is just West of Drogheda) from 1849 by Anderson Paisley which I liked.
Just down the road from the Highlanes Gallery was Saint Laurence’s Gate which is part of the old town walls, and features on the town’s Cote of Arms. Not much remains of the walls other than the gate, but apparently it’s one of the best examples of its kind in Europe.
With only 15 minutes before we needed to set off, we decided to stop in at Drogheda Cathedral, Saint Peter’s Parish, for one last look at some stained glass. This was yet another beautiful and enormous cathedral, with a lot of history about Oliver Plunkett, who was the last person executed due to the Popish Plot back in 1681.
There was a little market on outside, so we took a look around a few shops before finally heading back to the car to get on the road for the ferry. The roads around Dublin port were just as confusing as when we arrived since they’re all being changed around, but this time we only took one wrong turn on the way to the ferry. We got there with plenty of time to spare, arriving 20 minutes before check-in even started, but we were able to go straight through and park up on the ferry immediately. This ferry was much different from the one we got on the way across to Ireland, it was more of a freight ferry with a lot more car space but a lot less living space.
After being aboard for around 4 hours in fairly cramped quarters, we were glad to see Anglesey appear on the horizon. We had to wait 15 minutes or so for our dock to free up, then when the other ferry left we realised it was the ferry we took on our way in to Ireland!
At long last we were back on home soil, we got straight on the road and headed home. We contemplated eating out, but instead decided to just head home and cook something easy. And so comes to an end our adventures in Ireland. It was a great week, but we’re both thoroughly exhausted. Looking forward to picking up the cats in the morning and getting life back to normal.
Exciting times. Glad you enjoyed it.
Really enjoyed reading these blogs Thom, you have certainly crammed in a lot in the few days you had in Ireland, think you will need to go back again to visit the places you weren’t able to see or couldn’t spend long enough.
The food looked amazing, something I remember about our visit there, and I imagine you must feel like you have seen enough stained glass to last a lifetime!
I liked the arty photos too shot through the windows, shame you didn’t have better weather and a bit of sunshine.
Looking forward to your next blog from Cambridge.