Continued from Planning Your Trip to Ireland Part 11

HEADING EAST FROM BELFAST
Traveling along Belfast Lough’s southern shore and down the long arm of Northern Ireland, County Down, you would get to the very tip of the peninsula, which is full of ancient abbey and castle ruins, and then catch a ferry across Strangford Lough to get back to the mainland. The short ferry trip is lovely, as is the town of Strangford, with its many small alley and lovingly preserved old Georgian homes (and some are even older!)

Once back on the mainland you would head to Carrickfergus, which has two castles from the 12th century. It is a lovely old medieval town, and is an antique hunter’s and foodies’ paradise. From there you would head south along the coast back to Dublin, where suburban sprawl hasn’t quite ruined the village type atmosphere of the north Dublin County coast.

TRAVELLING NORTH FROM DUBLIN-JUST REVERSE THIS ROUTE!
The great thing about the places I have mentioned in the north of Ireland are that they are all within easy driving distance of Dublin, simply by heading north rather than south. Leave yourself plenty of time if you are driving to stop and eat and just soak up the atmosphere. You will not regret a trip to Tara or Newgrange, I promise.

FROM DUBLIN WEST TO GALWAY
The middle of the country is very lush and fertile, though it has few towns of huge interest compared with the ones we’ve already mentioned on our circular clockwise tour of Ireland.

Planning Your Trip to Ireland Part 13