Wicklow Gap-Laragh-Glenmalure-Aughrim-Avoca-Rathdrum-Laragh and Home! 'Driving while the sun shines' is our current motto. We drove through the Wicklow gap again today. The gap links East and West Wicklow and is a stunning drive that starts from Hollywood, about 6 kms away and meanders across the mountains to Glendalough - via a whole lot of scenic views. As we found out from listening to the locals that's actually pronounced Glendalock. So we're all over it n...

Blessington is a get ahead little town with a growing population and lots of lovely new shops (including a Dunnes and Aldi). It still has a quaint main street, even with the N81 running straight through town. Pubs, cafes, real estate agents and hairdressers seem to be in the majority. There are 3 signs pointing to the Tourist Information centre (all at different angles) and on Saturday we found it after a bit of a hunt. And found that it's only open Monday to...

Our first official scenic drive and we decided that since it was a stunning day we would go hard (and then go home). We headed to the jewel in Wicklow's crown, the Wicklow Mountains National Park and Glendalough (work with me and start pronouncing it as Glendalock now). The drive was outstanding - amazing day for photography with a grand mix of blue sky, stormy clouds and sunshine. Glendalough means 'the valley of the two lakes' and we enjoyed a bracing walk f...

Well here we are - in the tiny hamlet (hamletito?) of Crehelp, just down the road from the quiet village of Dunlavin and a mere 14 kms from the local big town (it has an Aldi!) of Blessington. Our new owners picked us up yesterday, Halloween, (heavens... it sounds like they found us at an animal shelter) and it was a mere 90 minutes up the N81 to our new home for the month of November. It being Halloween and all, and the property being a very swish, upmarket ca...

Happy Halloween! It's the October long weekend here today - sort of mid-term/clocks have just gone back/bank holiday weekend and this year rather conveniently falls on Halloween. Massive pumpkins have been on sale in the supermarkets since we flew in from Dubai 5 weeks ago - a great deal of home-carving must be going on somewhere. There are muffins with eyeballs, fabulous witches costumes to buy for a few euro and spooky decorations galore. No - Ireland isn't ...