Wednesday, April 20, 2022 - Day 21 - Greencastle, Newcastle, Castles in general

 It was another lovely day so we set out on a little road trip. Our destination was to go see Dundrum Castle but we had the whole day so were open to any detours to see other sites. The first opportunity to do so was a detour on the Greencastle road - there was a van really holding up the cars behind them, driving 40 in a 60 mph zone, so once I saw the turnoff to Greencastle I took it rather then dawdling behind a line of cars. We had chatted with a young woman at the pub the night before who had mentioned taking the ferry from Greencastle to Carlingford town and I knew there was a castle there so it seemed worth checking out.

This is as close as you can get to the castle, it's closed to the public.

The ferry pier. It runs from 10am to 6pm every hour on the hour.

These two motorcycles boarded the ferry and then it immediately left, it was 10:05.

Lovely beach here.

We stopped in the parking lot for the Bloody Bridge and the coastal walk to use the facilities and have a coffee and brownie from a coffee truck. I was looking at the two rock sculptures there and realized they made the shape of a face, probably meant to be a sailor.

When we got to Dundrum town we didn't see any obvious signs pointing the way to the castle so we put in into the navigator on Don's phone. Or so we thought, he clicked on the wrong thing and we ended up going to a tiny village but we did see a few nice sites along the way:

There was a sign for the St. Patrick's walking route and another one pointing up these stairs that said "National Heritage Cottages"

Lovely fields plus a cat.

We turned around and went back to town and saw the signs for Dundrum castle.

 

Heading back to Newcastle we stopped for a very late lunch (or very early dinner). It was very busy in town as it is the school Easter holiday week and the weather is so nice. We had a heck of a time finding a place to park but we did finally. A note about the parking: it is free all over Newcastle, on the street and in the parking lots, and in all of the towns we have been in, except for the city of Belfast of course. Try finding free parking in Stillwater, Minnesota!

My seafood crepes. I do believe that they just scooped up the seafood chowder I saw listed on the menu and tossed it between two crepes. Not bad at all but I thought it could have been better.

Don's hake with a very tasty sauce and "baby boils" which are new potatoes. The little red chunks are bacon. His was much tastier than mine. We were at the Mariner Bar and Restaurant and seated upstairs. We were next to the window and had a great view of the ocean and the boardwalk.
 

Tuesday, April 19, 2022 - Day 20 Rostrevor

 Today was a really lovely day so we went for a walk in Kilbroney Park in the morning via the Fairy Glen. We also walked part of the Kilbroney Forest route.

I know you have all seen this bridge before, but just look at the blue skies and how green everything is becoming with the rain and then the sun we have had here.

The hilly part of Rostrevor. Those are the Cooley mountains in the background and that is across the border in the Republic of Ireland. We are surrounded by the Mourne mountains on this side.

Compare this picture to the next one that was taken on April 2nd.

I walked into town (three blocks away) and then up the hill to The Good Craic where I shopped for gifts and took this picture of Patrick Murphy, which is painted on the wall upstairs in the shop, and who was over 8 feet tall.

It was such a nice day that I was even able to sit outside for a short time and knit in the yard by the river. 

We also went for a walk by Carlingford Loch.

The tree in bloom at the place we're staying:

Later we went to Fearons (Henry's) pub.