Day 8 – Sligo & Derry

We left Dingle, and headed out on the road to Sligo. In the interest of making time, we decided to skip Westport and Connemara. I feel good about that decision because it has allowed us to spend more time in the north.

It took us under two hours to get to Sligo, which was largely because the roads up north are SO MUCH BETTER! The speed limits were almost justified. We got some lunch in Sligo, and realized it was a town without much going on. The reason for stopping there was mostly that it had surfers (we couldn’t find any) and was a stopping point to prevent another 4 hours driving day. Since it had no craic, we decided to move on and go to Derry.

Derry was another 2 hours down the road. Just outside Sligo, we headed past Benbullben, one of northern Irelands flat top mountains. It was fun because the clouds were in low, and we could see the base of this HUGE mountain. As we drove around it the clouds began to clear and we could see that the mountain just stops, and has a flat top. So weird looking.

As we continued on our way, I saw a castle on a bluff off looking over the ocean and asked Jared to take a left. We headed down roads that turned into some of the prettiest fields and stonewalls we have ever seen.

We couldn’t get to the castle, turns out it’s owned by one of Prince Charles’s cousins. I did climb up on their wall and get some great photos (I acted just like the paparazzi!)

We got to Derry (Londonderry) at around 4:30. For the first time since arriving, did not get a room in the first place of our choice, but that might be because it was the first hostel we tried. We did get a room in the second, which was a lovely townhouse just near city center.

Derry is a walled city. The wall still remains and you can walk the mile loop of the city center right on top. It is also where the much of the early modern day Troubles took place in 1968.  It was a fascinating city, and completely different from what we have seen so far.

We headed out around 5:30 for one of the self-guided walking tours in our guidebook. The information was very interesting and I feel like I know more about the North Ireland Troubles then every before.

Much of our walk overlooked Bogside, the Catholic neighborhood that was “the tinderbox of the modern Troubles in Northern Ireland.”  The intensity of the history was compounded by the fact that the entire city was dead as we walked around, and it was a Saturday evening! All the stores were closed up tight and there were very few people out and about.

Riverdance was in town, and the area around the theater showed signs of life. We popped our heads into two restaurants and both were completely packed. I still don’t know why the city was so completely shut down, but we did ultimately find the people.

We ate at a lovely wine bar where we had to wait 45 minutes to be seated. The food was very much NOT traditional Irish, which was a nice break. After eating, we headed over to a pub recommended by the guidebook. It was relatively empty (20 people) and we sat at the bar and started talking with two Irish gentleman.

By the time we left at 11:30, the place was so full there were ~40 people standing outside. There was live music and most definitely craic. Most of the crowd was Irish and it felt like we were finally out of the “tourist” part of Ireland.

The evening ended a little oddly when one of the Irish blokes asked Jared if he “liked to share his wife?” We decided it was time to leave shortly there after.