Monday 20/6/2011

Left Warwick by Taxi at about 7am to Birmingham and then train from there to Liverpool (had a little trouble finding the train but not to much), then a proper “London Taxi” from Liverpool Lime St station to the Ferry terminal to catch the Ferry for the Isle of Mann..

Weather was fine and calm so the trip to Isle of Mann was excellent. Picked up from airport and taken into Douglas to get hire car (3). Mountain Rd (TT track and shortest route to Ramsey and Cottage was closed at Creg-ny-Baa, so went to the coast via the Creg-ne-Baa Backroad and Church road, eventually found ourselves in Laxey (very narrow steep roads on the way in ) and then Ramsey, found Bullavarteen Cottage after exploring backroads of Bride, Ramsay and Andreas and finally asking a friendly farmer for dierctions.

Cottage is delightful and owner is very friendly. Maritta had a couple of hours sleep and we eventually went back to Ramsay to get Fish and Chips (missed turn again but got back eventually), all the road builders went to the same school.

Tuesday 21/6/2011

Isle of Mann, late and leisurely breakfast then off to explore. Toured the top end of the island, point of Arye etc, then across the top, getting low on fuel so went back to Ramsay and Maritta did some shopping and got lunch.

After lunch and a cup of tea at the cottage, went back to Jurby to visit transport museum but it was closed.

Then went down the west coast finishing up at Peel Castle on the isle of St Patrick. Amazing place (Isle of Man National trust), started building in the 13th century but there is evidence that it was used as a defensive site a lot longer than that, various modifications up to the 17th century when it fell out of use and started to deteriorate.

Followed the TT course for a lot of the day, still had some of the "protection" barriers (which aren't very protective) from the recent TT. Roads are pretty exciting at legal speeds, still had a few bikes exploring the course, no-one seems to take much notice of the speed limit outside the townships.

Lots of good Alvis 12/50 roads although navigation is tricky all the road numbers point to each other and don't relate to the maps, and some rival Devon for width and grade.

Wednseday 22/6/2011

Isle of Man, Travelled to Laxey and visited the Great Laxey Wheel (also known as Lady Isabella), amazing piece of construction (National Trust worked again). It is the largest working water wheel in the world. There is no coal available on the Isle of Mann so steam power was inconvenient and would have been expensive, except as a backup supply. Water, however, was plentiful and could provide almost limitless power. Aparently, in its heyday, water could travel from Mt Snaefell to the sea without ever touching a river bed, running totally through an extensive syetem of pipes, cisterns and machinery.

The Great laxey Wheel is still turning after first being opened in 1854.

Laxey in the 1700's was a quiet hamlet with its main industry being the bleaching if linen and maybe a little smuggling (their words). Lead was first mined in 1790, then in the 1840's mining in Laxey gathered pace with the formation of the Laxey Mining Company. At one time, more zinc was produced here than from all ather mines in Britain put together. Even tourism a tourist industry grew around the mining complex with visitors eager to climb the Great Laxey Wheel. Copper and Silver were also extracted at various locations on the island..

The wheel revolves at just over 2 RPM and produces about 200 Horsepower. The wheel is 21.75 Metres in diamer and 1.8M across. It was capable of pumping 90,000 litres of water out of the mines in an 8 hour day and an inspection by a Dutch Engineer in the 1950's estimated it was capable of operating at twice this speed and pumping twice the normal volume, this icrease in capacity was never needed. Water from the wheel could then be used further down the valley to drive other machinery.

After the wheel and mine complex we went to McDonalds for lunch and their wifi.

After lunch we found the Steam Railway but wouldn’t have had time to go to Port Erin and back so we went on the electric tram instead. Rode it to Laxey then up to Mt Snaefel, unfortunately the weather had closed in so we couldn’t see anything at the top, great ride up though.

After taking the tram back to Douglas we drove around the Mountain road section of the TT track (backwards), returning to Ramsay, then went to the Pub at Surby for dinner, excellent meal and free wifi.

Thursday 23/6/2011

Drove some more of the TT course today and then made our way to Port Erin and Cregneash (south end of the island).

We then visited the "Home for Old Horses" on Richmond Hill in Braddon.

After this we went Rushen Castle in Castletown, the Isle of Mann's historic capitol, apparently one of the best medieval castles in Europe and thought to have been cosntructed in the 10th century.

Friday 24/6/2011

Isle of Mann to Dublin, got lost finding hotel (as usual) but found it eventually, nice hotel, visited the National Museum of Ireland whitch had an excellent display of early army uniforms, was very good.

Saturday 25/6/2011

Dublin to Kilkenny, lost several times, road signage is dreadful, anyway, good day with excellent scenery in the mountains.

Visited an excellent Japenese Garden near Tully (It's also one of several Irish National horse studs).

Tried to stay along the coast as much as possible, travelling through Kilmacanoge, Sally's Gap, then on to Kilkenny for the next two nights

Sunday 26/6/2011

Visited Kilkenny Castle, although it dates back to 1195, most of it was built in the mid 19th century. Very well setup but we much prefer the derelict really old ones like Grennan (around 1200).

Then off to the famine ship, Dunbrody, in New Ross, it was a very interesting look at life for an immigrant during the potato famine.

Next, we went to the Hook Lighthouse built in the 13th century, the oldest lighthouse in the world.

After that we travelled through Templetown to Ballyhack and took the ferry to Brookside, then on to visit Waterford Crystal (bit of a letdown, very cramped and they pushed you through very quickly, commentary drowned out by group in front).

After Waterford we made our way to Cork for the night.

Monday 27/6/2011

From Cork we went to Bantry and then continued around the coast via Glengarriff.

From Glengarrif we travelled down the Beara Peninsula following the Ring of Beara, stopping briefly in Garinish. There is a cablecar suspended over Dursey Straight reaching from the Mainland to Dursey Island. This is a great walking spot apparently but we were more amused by the reluctant sheep being transported across.

We left the coast at Kenmar and travelled via Molls Gap to Killarney for the next two nights, scenery is magnificent here, much better than east coast.

Nice garden along the way somewhere (see next phot)

Tuesday 28/6/2011

Killarney to Castlemaine and then down the Dingle peninsula via Lispole to Dingle, rugged scenery.

Followed Slea Head Drive and visited visited Dunbeg Fort, a hill fort which dated back to 500BC although most of it was around 12-1300AD.

Next stop Brandon Creek and then back to Killarney.

Statue of King Puck, Killorglin. A festival dating back to the 1600's which involves catching a wild Billy Goat and making him King of the town for 3 days. Apparently this commemorates the failed invasion by Oliver Cromwell. A Billy Goat was disturbed by Cromwell's men and galloped into town, the townfolk, realising something was up had time to fortify against the oncoming force and save the day.

Wednesday 29/6/2011

Heading north today via Listowel, thena ferry across the Shannon from Tarbert to Kilrush (via Lower Burrane).

Visited the Cliffs of Mohan and took boat trip out to them for about an hour.

Followed the coast via Doolin and Fanore and around some rock outcrops, part of the "Burren" area, a unique limestome formation which somehow the cows and sheep manage to survive in on the grass growing in the crevasses.

Then on to Ballyvaughen for the night.

The cliffs of Mohan are very impressive and well wporth the boat trip out

Thursday 30/6/2011

First we went to Cathair Chonail, a stone fort where we had an interesting time chatting to some archeologists excavating on the site. they were quite chatty and happy to dicuss their work, I think they were happy to have someone different to talk too.

Visited The Burren Birds of Prey centre, Ballyvaughanin and then Ailwee Cave..

From Ailwee we went around the coast road to Gallway, visiting a ring fort in the Burren and an ancient portal tomb along the way.

Burren Birds of Prey, near Ailwee Cave. The birds are exercised regularly and released back to the wild if possible. The sanctuary is also heavily involved with the Irish Golden Eagle release program.

Friday 1/7/2011

Galway to Westport, travelled around the coast via Spiddal and Inveran to Recess along small roads and saw some very good scenery.

Stopped at Connemara National Park to learn about the “Bog” and also saw some Connemarra ponies.

Kylemore Abbey near Connemrara National Park

Saturday 2/7/2011

Westport to Dublin. We followed the Atlantic Drive for a while via Newport, Ballycroy (National Park), Ballina, Bonniconlon and Sligo before joining the M4 through Longford and Kells and back to Dublin.

Stopped at Roscommon for lunch in the Kings house (Mr not “The King”), then on to Kells, looked at a replica of the book of Kells at St Columba's Church and wandered around the church grounds, unfortunately the building was closed on Saturday.

Tthen on to Dublin via Motorway.

3-5/7/2011

Flew to Manchester in the morning, collect another hire car, drive approximately 30mile south of Manchester to have a quick visit with Claire and Norman and collect our extra suitcase (which they kindly minded whilst we visited the Isle of Mann and ireland..

Then drove about 200 Miles to Heathrow for the flight home via Hong Kong, arrived in Melbourne about 6am Tuesday.

Was a great trip but we are both glad to be home.