Adventures in Ireland: 10 days around the Emerald Isle

I spent Christmas in the town of Ardee in County Louth, Ireland with family. While the town itself is pleasant, Ardee is hardly one of the country’s biggest tourist draws. It is, however, ideally located to check some of them out.

So, I decided to put my time on the Emerald Isle to good use and do some exploring: here’s what I got up to.

Dublin

From Dusseldorf, the only direct flight to anywhere in Ireland is to Dublin (until Aer Lingus start a seasonal route to Cork this summer) and despite having landed at the airport twice before, I’d never actually ventured into the city – so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

My time in Dublin was brief (made all the briefer by a bad hangover from a great night out), but we still managed to fit in some of Dublin’s essential sites, courtesy of a great guided tour from a friend. During my two days we managed to visit the the Famine memorial, cross Ha’penny Bridge, stroll through Temple Bar and had a hot whisky in a traditional Irish pub.

We then wondered around Merrion Square, the heart of Georgian Dublin, where I might have taken a few too many photos of doors…

Of course one real highlight was having the some of the best fried chicken of my life (coupled with the worst customer service) at CrackBIRD.

Ardee

From Dublin, it was on to Ardee, where I spent a lovely and relaxing Christmas. To my British eyes, Ardee is a very small village (with a population of just 5,000) but the town is actually the third largest in County Louth. With the exception of a few day trips, I spent most of my time in Ardee getting better acquainted with Christmas FM.

Newry & the Cooley Mountains

First on the list from Ardee was a pre-Christmas shopping trip to Newry via the Cooley Mountains. I can’t say I saw much of Newry (though with its own Primark, KFC and Topman it had enough to win me over), but our drive through the Cooley Mountains was absolutely beautiful. The clear skies gave us a view all the way over to the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland.

Local rumour has it that there’s a road heading to the top of the mountains, where if you turn the engine off, your car will carry on going uphill… Unfortunately we didn’t find this spot, but we did pay a visit to the Long Woman’s Grave.

Read more: The perfect road trip from Belfast to Dublin

Hill of Slane

Around 20km south of Ardee is the village of Slane, which boasts a few sights of its own. On our itinerary was the Hill of Slane. According to legend, St Patrick lit an Easter fire here in the 5^th century to proclaim Christianity throughout the land. No doubt thanks to this connection, the hill was once home to a monastery and later a Franciscan friary, the remains of which can be still seen today.

Brú na Bóinne

From Slane, it’s just a hop, skip and jump to Brú na Bóinne. Meaning ‘palace of the Boyne’, this area is covered in Neolithic burial chambers older than both Stonehenge and the Pyramids, the most famous of which is Newgrange.

Very little is known about the people who built the mound or why they did so but a trip inside is no less fascinating. They do, however, know that the civilisation who built the structure had engineers as the roof is entirely watertight, meaning no water has entered the chamber since at least 2500 BC.

The small chamber is lit up by sunlight only five days a year – during the Winter Solstice and anyone who visits can enter a lottery draw to be one of just 60 people permitted to experience it.

Belfast

After a week in Ardee, it was off to Belfast to meet up with some friends and explore the city. I have to be honest: I was more excited about Belfast than anything else on this trip and the city did not disappoint.

I spent the first day taking in a very thorough and thought-provoking private tour around West Belfast from a good friend who grew up in the area. This is the area of Belfast that most British people either can’t believe or don’t know exists in what is basically their own back garden.

Read more: A tourist guide to West Belfast

Signing the Peace Walls

West Belfast is home to the city’s Peace Walls, which have continued to rise since they were first built in 1969 and are still getting taller today. The walls separate seemingly-identical Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods in an effort to curb violence and unrest in the city. Elsewhere, the alignment of different areas can easily be made out from the prevalence of flags, icons and murals.

On my second day in Belfast, we potted around the city centre, taking in the town hall, Queen’s University buildings and – most importantly – having an Ulster Fry. We then spent the rest of the day at the incredible Titanic Belfast. Not just focused on the ship, the museum offers an incredibly detailed insight into the development of Belfast as a booming industrial town and also offers some of the best interactive and 4D elements in a museum I’ve ever seen. Well worth a visit (less so the very steep £17 entry…)

So there you have it: my nine days in Ireland. I had an amazing time seeing friends, family and new cities and I will definitely be writing about my time in a lot more detail in the coming weeks. So if you want more details on above of the above: check back soon!