Day 5: Cliffs of Jameson

In theory, day five was supposed to be more relaxing and less driving. But one thing Paul and I have discovered about Ireland is that there is TOO MUCH to see here. It’s really hard not stopping at extra places along the way.

We were originally planning on leaving our airbnb right away in the morning. However, our host, a lovely old lady, charmingly insisted on us coming in ‘for tea’. One thing Paul and I had been looking forward to was doing one of those ‘tea socializing things’ they do over here in Europe. So we went on in for biscuits and tea. It was wonderful getting to know a local like this. Except I was also fiercely jealous of her life. I mentioned that I was super excited to see a stone circle, and she said ‘oh my friend down the road has one of those in her backyard.’ WHAT? That’s so crazy. She eats lots of lamb and walks in the mountains by her house, too. Sigh…

Anywho, after our later than expected start, we were off to Ballycotton to cliff walk. It was a beautiful path along the ocean. We walked, then found benches to sit and talk, then walked some more.

 After that, we were getting thirsty to it was off to the Jamison whiskey distillery.

We did the tour, which was WAY cooler than the Smithwicks tour. We had looked at google reviews before going, and they all said ‘volunteer at the end of the tour!’ So Paul and I had our hands ready and when the tour guide asked for volunteers, we were the first to raise our hands, so we were both chosen, along with six other people in the crowd. Woohoo!

The volunteering was to sample three whiskeys and then tell the crowd which we liked best. It was Jack Daniels (American), Johnny Walker (Scotch), and Jamison (Ireland). Naturally, we were supposed to say Jamison was the best. I thought it was easily the winner. Paul has a fondness for Scotch, though, so secretly he liked both Johnny and Jamison about the same. But he played it cool and said Jamison was the winner. Laugh. After trying the three whiskeys, we got to end the tour by having some more free whiskey. Yum.

After our tasty beverage, we went off to Gougane Barra National Park. It was really really pretty there, however, it started pouring soon after we got there, too. There was this weird holy island thing there, too, where Catholics are supposed to go in a circle and say Hail Mary’s or something at 9 different arches and then do some ritual with well water or something…um, I don’t understand Catholics. But hopefully it was a cool thing for those people to do…?

Anywho, since it was pouring, we decided not to hike at Gougane, which was too bad because it was so pretty. So we went off to find our next airbnb. On the way, we drove past an awesome castle ruin, so we turned around and went to check it out. Even though it was raining pretty hard by then. I LOVE rain, so I didn’t care. The castle was Carriganass Castle, and Paul had too much fun joking about the end part of the castle name. Laugh. It was pretty cool and I am super glad we stopped to see it. 

Then it was off for a late dinner at the first pub we found. Not the best food, so we learned that we need to look up a few restaurants before leaving places with good internet. Then the airbnb where we crashed. SO many busy days, but so much fun!