I've been home for almost a week and now that the fog and fatigue of travel and jet lag have abated I feel I ready to review my time hiking in Ireland. Unfortunately internet access wasn't readily available during our trip. That combined with the painfully slow process of typing out blog posts on my Zune, limited the number of posts we were able to produce while on the trails, but hopefully this overview along with our previous posts, will give folks an idea of what it is like to hike in Ireland.
As mentioned below, I was joined for much of the hiking portion of this trip by my friend Jaime, who hopefully will have a chance to drop in and leave some of her own thoughts on hiking in Ireland. Together we hiked portions of the Wicklow Way, located on the east coast of Ireland, just south of Dublin and the Dingle Way, located on the west coast of the country. People from western Washington will likely feel very much at home in Ireland, especially in places like the Wicklow Mountains. The weather, the feel of the air, the landscape even the plant life, feels very much like hiking in the Cascade foothills. During those first couple of days on the trail as we worked our way north from Glendalough to Dublin, only the cars driving on the left side of the road and the accents of those people we met, reminded us we weren't back home.
The Trails: Both the Wicklow and Dingle ways are well signposted and marked. Posts with a yellow walking man silhouette and an arrow pointing in the trail direction, were plentiful and as far as I can remember always accurate. The trails themselves were in good condition, although boggy/muddy/mucky in places where farm animals also used them. By going in August, we happened to be hiking when wildflowers were blooming along the trail and roads. We were treated to beautiful displays of orange and red blossoms nearly every day. Finally, Because Ireland doesn't have the same "right to roam" laws England does it's waymarked ways are forced to use paved roads...a lot. Most of the time the road walking is on quite country roads, but there are still cars to avoid and even a quiet paved road can be murder on your feet in hiking boots.
The Landscape: The Wicklow Way has ascents and descents aplenty. If you love hiking high hills only to descend immediately down the other side and then repeat this pattern a few more times throughout the day, then the Wicklows are the place for you. Interspersed in all these hills and valleys are some great views of lakes, streams and waterfalls. The Dingle Way trail prefers to go around the hills instead of over them, although it does have it's own monster climb up Mount Brandon. However, aside from this steep ascent and knee busting, boggy descent, the rest of the way is largely made up of flat or gently undulating hills. The Dingle Way also offers several miles of beach walking (Ireland's best kept secrets are it's beautiful golden sand beaches), which feel wonderful on your feet after days of paved roads and rocky paths. The Dingle Way also offers great views of the Atlantic Ocean and a whole host of bays, islands and spectacular cliffs.
The Weather: I used to think Seattle had changeable weather, after visiting Ireland, I now know what "changeable" really means. It rained nearly everyday. It was windy nearly everyday. The sun shone nearly everyday. A typical day found me dressed in capris, with a short sleeved shirt and being quite warm, while the wind blew around me and I reached for my rain jacket for the third time that day. Thankfully the landscape of Ireland allows you to see the rain coming towards you, giving you time to decide if you want to put on your rain gear or just get wet (you'll probably also be able to see the sun break following the rain). The temperature was never hot (it likely never got above the low 70's) and I never felt particularly cold. The weather for the entire trip can best be described as mild, and yet with all the rain, clouds and wind, I still managed to come home with a decent tan...go figure.
The People: The Irish are some of the friendliest, kindest most helpful people I have met while traveling abroad. From the first Irishman we met, Mick who picked us up at the airport and took us to Glendalough, to Gill, the hostess at my last Bed and Breakfast in Fanore, I don't think I met a single unpleasant person. It was hard not to slip into conversation with people. Whether it was on a train, in a pub or at our B&B everyone was ready for a chat and soon you were exchanging names, handshakes and learning all about the christening they had just been to or how they know everyone in the pub. A few of the great friendly folks we met: Mick-airport driver; Betsy and Ann-two elderly ladies returning from a christening in Dublin (we talked to them for the whole 4 hour train ride and covered just about every topic possible), John-Junction House B&B Owner in Camp; Kent and Allison-newlyweds from Wisconsin on their honeymoon who were staying at Junction House as well; Finbar/Diedre and Hugh/Maureen-two couples we met at a pub in Castlegregory who seemed to know everyone in the pub...even the priest; Gill-owner of Orchid House B&B in Fanore who was a wealth of walking information and helped me reschedule my surfing lesson and assisted me in hailing my bus back to Galway. This is just a few of some of the wonderful people we met who welcomed two tired, exhausted American girls into their homes, pubs, cars and restaurants and made us feel welcome and ensured we had a good time.
The Animals: While you don't have to worry about bears, cougars, coyotes or snakes when hiking in Ireland you do have to worry about the most fearsome, unpredictable and scariest of all animals...the cow. You may laugh. You may roll your eyes and think I'm joking. I am not. You may have noticed the Cow vs. Angella/Jaime count on our previous two posts from Ireland. That was no joke. That was an accurate tally of how many times cows scared us shitless and had us hiding behind stone walls, trespassing on property and running for stiles and fences. Keep in mind we are not talking about bulls here, we are talking about COWS. Two encounters with very, VERY aggressive cows left us city girls wary and nervous around them. Cows behind fences=good. Cows blocking the path in front of you with no way to go around=bad. On the opposite end of the spectrum you have sheep. Both the Dingle and Wicklow Ways cut across miles and miles of sheep pasture. You get to see more sheep than you ever wanted to see (and their poop as well). But since sheep are very skittish, you aren't likely to get very close unless you come upon one sleeping. Other animals seen on the trail include horses, donkeys and farm dogs (some of whom will chase you down just to be petted). I didn't see much in the way of wildlife.
The Guidebooks/Maps: For both the Dingle and Wicklow ways we primarily used the guidebook published for each by the Rucksack Readers. Overall they both provided us with accurate and reliable directions in a bullet point format. It would've been nice if the books told you how far it was between each bullet point, but that's the only suggestion I'd have for them. To supplement the guidebooks we also used the OS maps that corresponded with the Dingle and Wicklow ways. These offered us a better idea of elevation and we could visual distances better on them. Even though the trails are very well marked, I'd definitely take along a guidebook or OS maps, as each shows slightly different versions of the trail at some points and having the maps and books allows you to see what route would work best for you.
I think that covers most of the hiking aspects of the trip. It really did turn out to be a fun trip, even though we didn't make all the miles we planned. I look forward to returning to Ireland and revisiting some of the places I didn't get to spend enough time in! :)
Angella
ps. Pictures will be added soon!
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