Leaving Tramore, we did a lot of driving today, and of course it was the nicest day we’d had so far.  Our first stop took us across a short ferry which we were luckily able to drive onto as they were about to depart.  Then we went to see the Hook Head Lighthouse down at the end of Hook peninsula.  It was a pretty big lighthouse with white and black stripes.  The lighthouse dates back to the 13th century and is the oldest operating lighthouse in the World.  They had a map there showing all of the shipwrecks around the peninsula dating from 2002 back to the 1500’s, there were some wrecks so old that they only had the vessel’s name, but no record of the year.  I guess they need some more lighthouses.

We then drove towards Waterford (yes, like the Crystal).  We saw signs pointing us towards a scenic drive, but we never managed to find it.  Waterford was pretty busy for a town of 10,000, so we just passed through.  We found a little cafe outside of town and stopped for lunch.

We kept driving along the highway and made it to the Bramble Rock B&B in East Laragh, which is in the Wicklow Mountains, a little ways southwest of Dublin.  Of course, just as we arrived, it started to rain.  We got settled in our room and then went for a drive through the mountains.  The West coast has a place called the Burren, and I dubbed the Wicklow Mountains the Barren.  There is pretty much just bogs for miles, it’s weird.  It might have been nicer with some sun, but we’ll never know.

Dinner came from a pub in Roundtree, where Robyn’s fries were enormous, probably the biggest fries in the history of the World.  Then we went to see a Monastic site at Glendalough.  I’m glad we went after the park closed because it would have been to busy otherwise.  It’s crazy to see just how old some of the gravestones are.  You don’t get such history in Canada.  We didn’t get a sunset again, so we set in early and relaxed.

Here are some photos from day 7 in Ireland:

Enjoy!!!

www.DustinHallPhotography.ca

To give you a sense of scale, that’s the Hook Head Lighthouse at right and Robyn off to the left.The cafe outside Waterford where we had lunch.This is just plain nuts.  That water is freezing, and they’re swimming.  I didn’t believe it AND I saw it with my own two eyes.I finally saw some shamrocks, it only took me a week.The Wicklow’s with some rain coming in.If you look carefully, you can see a rainbow arcing over the left hill.  Alas, no pot of gold.I love how in the rain and winds, the lamb used its mother for protection.This was a good road.