Thursday 7 June (Dalkey)

Took the DART south to Dalkey, a pretty little town with lots of history and literary connections (James Joyce taught here, wrote Ulysses in a Martello Tower a few miles away; Maeve Binchy wrote here, etc). We had a great tour of the 14th Century Goat Castle, past which we had sailed the previous day. Our guide as 'living history' was Owen, acting the part of the guard to Lord Cheevers, and he took us through the history and structure of the castle and life there in that era, and coped very well with three Finnish ladies with little English amongst them! We DARTed back to Dublin for more SH*****G and finally to Oliver St John Gogarty's in the Temple Bar district for food, Guinness and a great evening of traditional Irish music. The food included the biggest oyster in the world (had to be cut into three to get it in the mouth), and the music an extrovert lady named Julie who danced vigorously and played the spoons with great skill! Home on the last DART.