Hi All!!!

My in-laws have been living with us for the past 3 years. My FIL passed on last week and we have decided to give my MIL something she has always dreamed of, a trip to Southern Ireland for 12 days. We will be going from June 22 until July 4.

The trip will include my wife, her sister, myself and MIL. She is 81 and has limited mobility, but we do have one of the folding electric scooters for her.

We all enjoy driving and touring by car, in other words I get to drive, they get to tour (ha ha). I know nothing about Ireland, but do know it is beautiful. The idea is to perhaps rent a cottage in a centralized location and then drive to the various places in Southern Ireland. I've previously driven all over Scotland, Wales and England and even kept the left front hubcap on the rental car most of the time (ha ha).

Interests include castles, churches, scenery, history. Not to much on city life. We enjoy off-the-beaten-path kind of things.

So,would love to hear from others on ideas, things to watch out for and such. I guess the weather will be anywhere from chilly and rainy, to warm and rainy and perhaps even some sunshine.

Has anyone else used a mobility scooter around Ireland? If so, what should we look out for?

Comments and criticism is welcome!!!

Thanks all

dave

I am afraid I can't help with the motor scooter part, but when I visited Ireland 10 years ago (yikes!) we really ejoyed the Rock of Cashel...Cashel is in the middle of Ireland, sort of, and there isn't much to see there but the church, but I thought it was very cool. We did the Waterford tour and, well, eh. It was OK, but not sure I'd recommend it. We did Blarney Castle, but you have to climb to the top, I believe. We also drove the Ring of Kerry and that was nice. Have a great time!

Years ago, we rented a house from Shamrock Cottages. My brother rented through them, as well. We were happy with our experience. You might give their website a try. I haven't written reviews because my experiences were more than 5 years ago.

I can't help on either scooters or centralized locations. We've been to Ireland twice and both times we stayed in County Kerry and focused on the coast south of Gallway. We really love the Dingle Peninsula. The house we rented was quite remote, and the gaspingly beautiful setting was hardly handy. We like it that way, but it's not what you're looking for.

With a little research you should have lots of great options. One thing you might keep in mind when planning daytrips, is that the roads are quite narrow and everything seems to take much longer than expected. Sounds like you've done quite a lot of driving in Britain and may know what to expect!

Enjoy this experience. Sounds great.
Linda

Hi Dave,
My family of 4 stayed in Dingle town last June in a a 3 bedroom house that was very reasonably priced.
Here is the website: http://www.coiscuain.com/thehouse.html

We really enjoyed the town of Dingle. There is beautiful natural scenery very close. A drive around the Dingle Peninsula is not to be missed! Lots of beautiful coastal scenery.

The house was a real highlight for our trip. It has 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, dining room, living room and 2 bathrooms. We especially enjoyed the patio and garden.

There is a washing machine and dishwasher in the kitchen and the dryer is in a little shed in the back yard. I should tell you that the house is on 2 levels, this may be a problem if your MIL cannot climb stairs.

Enjoy Ireland! Laurie

Another vote for the Dingle Peninsula and Dingle Town here. Definitely one of my favorite places in Ireland. I can't recommend a rental since I was last there in 2001 and stayed in a youth hostel, but I loved the boat trip out to the Blasket Islands (it was during foot-and-mouth, so we couldn't disembark), seeing Fungi the dolphin swim alongside us, and a visit to the Blasket Islands interpretive center.

If by Southern Ireland you mean the Republic as opposed to Northern Ireland--I'd also recommend Connemara, just north of Galway City. My husband and I spent a few days there in February and loved it.

And yeah, as mentioned, don't be too ambitious in how far you can get in a day's driving...as you may already know from driving in parts of the UK, distances can be deceptive in Ireland.

Hi again,

Thanks to all for the excellent suggestions. We are considering a slight change to the plans. We are now leaning towards doing daily drives of about 4 hrs per day, with nightly stays in B&Bs. Using the centralized cottage idea didn't seem to work, with the type of roads available.

So, for now, the first night we intend to stay somewhere in Westmeath. Next, drive over towards the west coast, south of Sligo. From there daily drives down towards the ROK, but not as far south as Cork. From there back up through the middle of the country, to Dublin. We will probably not spend any time in Dublin itself.

So, do you have any ideas on great, out-of-the-way villages that you really liked, but may not be on a normal tourist route?

Thanks again to all,

Dave

DaveB. I used to live on the Meath/Westmeath borders....but many years ago. This house Mornington is situated in the countryside, not far from Mullingar, and very near to one of the many lakes in this area. I knew the family as a child and used to visit the house, very typical of the Irish 'Big House' so I think you might find it an interesting place to stay. I can't say that I am recommending a friend (which would not be allowed here anyway) because I haven't seen them for over thirty years but they seem to get very good reviews and I can vouch for the location! It is a very easy run from Dublin (it should take you about and hour and half) and only a tiny detour off your route for Sligo.

May I ask how well your MIL travels in a car? If being shaken up on the roads is not your idea of fun, be careful in Co. Clare -- I've just left there, and the car trips left us all feeling pretty thrown around. We astonished people in Kerry by telling them how wonderful their roads are.

Up Sligo and Mayo way, Ballina in Mayo is lovely, and you can visit Enniscrone and take a seaweed bath, if you dare. Gorteen has the Michael Coleman Centre, if you're into Irish traditional music.

Clare is where you want to be if you want Irish trad music, actually. (Of course, there's also the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher.) I'd suggest Lisdoonvarna's Roadside almost every night of the week. Doolin is crowded with tourists, I'd rather go to Miltown Malbay. In Miltown, there's music almost every night of the week, any of the pubs can tell you which one has the session that night. (Don't miss Friel's on Friday or Saturday. You can tell which pub is Friel's, because it says Lynch's on it. The pub isn't actually owned by either Friel or Lynch any more.)

At Kilfenora, you'll find lots of music and dancing. Thursday and Sunday nights is set dancing at Vaughan's Barn, which is fun to both dance and watch, and great music besides. The Burren Centre is there, and that's worth a visit. Do drive up to Mullaghmor.

Dingle is lovely, if stuffed with tourists in season. Not so sure about getting the scooter around, tho. If you're in Dingle town, and want a beautiful if expensive meal, go to Global Village, which despite its name serves beautiful French-inspired cuisine. Murphy's makes great ice cream. They're releasing their new book of sweets this week. Look for singer Tommy O'Sullivan at the pubs along the Marina, he's great. (His new CD has Tim O'Brien on it and has an American bluegrass twinge to it.)

Remember "Go Mall" and "Tog Bog E" both mean "go slowly".

Do go out to Breandon Point. It's the northern edge of the most western bit of the Dingle Peninsula. You'll pass some lovely scenery and if you want a bit of an easy but windy climb, the Kerry Way at the end is just up over the turnstile and go up to the top where the old shelter is. (The sheep won't bite.) There's a lovely pub on the right hand side as you go back, they make lovely apple pie there.

In Ballyferriter, there's a pub with the world's most beautiful view from the smoking porch. It's worth stopping in just for that view. The museum there is nice, too.

Hope something in there helps.

Oh, and Lahinch in Clare has a promenade along the beach that I think the scooter can get onto quite easily. (There's also one at Spanish Point, but I think there's steps.) The Celtic T-Shirt Shop on the Promenade is great for gifts to take back home. The Emperor Chinese restaurant is nice. I was surprised at how good Lahinch's SeaWorld was, too.