tourism

Skerries Mills

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30 KM north of Dublin, along the M1 into county Fingal, and out toward the coast is a small town of Skerries. Skerries isn’t a particularly big town, nor is there anything particularly different about it in the town center. There are pubs, shops, and the typical Irish curving town main street. What is interesting about it is that not far from the main street of town are two gorgeous “Holland style” windmills which are located, along with the mill pond, in the town’s main park.

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Opened year round and restored by the Fingal County Council, the mills are pretty spectacular on a sunny day and allow for views of the coast and off shore islands. There’s tours 7 days a week, a handful of crafts at the visitor’s shop, and they often have the two windmills (and the watermill – there’s been a watermill on the location since the days of Henry VIII) working during tours. There is a nice little cafe, plenty of ducks to feed if you choose to take a stroll around the mill pond, and a farmer’s market on Saturdays featuring organic foods.

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If you’d like more information on Skerries Mills, you can see their website at: http://www.skerriesmills.org/

If you’d like to read more about the nearby New Bridge House and gardens, please click here.

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Tour Guide

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Last week, after having photographed J’s beautiful wedding in Mullingar (photos coming / blog post coming – I promise) I had an extra day off. A friend of mine had his brothers in town, so I volunteered to take all 3 of them up to visit New Grange Passage Tomb in the rain. I’ve written about this place before (see link above) and am always fascinated when I take other people up here.

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My plans, however, were foiled by the typical Irish weather. It was slightly cloudly when we left, and by the time we took the hour drive up to the Boyne Valley, it was sprinkling… Just after lunch, it started raining. While we were up at the monument itself (it is open and there is NO protection from the elements) it started lashing rain. Thankful I had remembered umbrellas and my multiple raincoats, I had to laugh as Matthew popped up his umbrella and started with his rendition of “Singing in the Rain” in a Glasgow Accent.

Cancelling the idea of going to Knowth and Tara (posts behind each link here), I took the guys up to Trim Castle just in time for the rain to clear – and for me to find out that we missed the last tour of the gorgeous keep and grounds.

The good news, however, is that the guys are never deterred – and we went to the pub I knew about in Trim -where the owner promptly came forth and regailed the guys with tales of Trim, expounded about the locals that were extras in Braveheart, showed off tons of movie memorabilia in the hallway and really salvaged the day out. In the end, despite the lashing rain and getting soaked – we had a great time, and a few laughs.

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Newry, UK

Newry Bernish Overlook Panorama

I was thinking this morning that I should go up to Northern Ireland to go shopping again. Some things are cheaper there, like food and clothing – even with the conversion rate from pounds sterling to euros, and others are not eg. Petrol, cost of living, etc. It’s because of the tax rate difference between the UK and Ireland. Well, that, and retailers from the UK just charge those in Ireland a lot more than they maybe should to those in Ireland because they have to have the items shipped to the UK and then re-shipped to the lower half of the island.

The picture at the top is from just above Newry, at the Bernish Overlook, looking the town of Newry. It’s from the last trip I made (I snagged a dress for 78 pounds that was selling in Dublin for double that!), and as you can see, there was a snowstorm moving in.

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