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8 day trip to Ireland summary September, 2016

I posted back in July 2016 of a golf trip with my 3 buddies and me for 8 days. I was told that I was trying to do more things than we had time for. The trip started on time or at least when we landed in Dublin we were still on our schedule. Day 1 worked out fine, day 2 we were not able to see Waterford Crystal. Day 3 we missed Cobh, day 4 we missed The Burren and Limerick. and Day 7 we did not make it to the Walsh Distillery.
Now the trip:
Somehow not sure we ended up in a pub every night and some during the day. The first day of golf at Old Head, golf course was beautiful and challenging. It rained on us all the way to the course. We arrived it stopped and the wind picked up. By the time we teed off the wind stopped, no sun or rain probably 55 degree F. We had a couple of great caddy's they earned their wages. Ballybunion Old GC did think the courses could get any better. Completely different from Old Head but very challenging. We teed off early sun came out and to around 65 degrees F. Again caddy's great I would never golf without them. They have great stories to tell and they enjoyed our stories as well. The next day Tralee was played. I was unable to play but the guys really enjoyed it. The last day of golf was Cashen. Our caddy had talked to our caddy's from a couple days before. He was told we play quickly. That day we played in 3.5 hours. We did take time for pictures. Between the 4 of us we took in excess of 3,000 pictures.

We visited some of the same sites that my father and I visited 10 years earlier. And everybody enjoyed all the places we visited. Dublin, Kilkenny, Dunmore East, Kinsale, Cork, Killarney, Tarbert, Cliffs of Moher, Dingle, Cashel, Blarney, Birr. A lot of stuff to see and not enough time. We were always on the move, no regrets gives us a reason to go back with our family. We played 4 of the top 6 courses in SW Ireland. We were concerned we might lose a lot of golf balls so we ordered 100+ reclaimed golf balls from Ireland delivered to our house. We also rented sticks that were delivered to the 1st course and picked up from the last. It made travel a lot easier. We maybe lost a total of 10 golf balls. So I had a lot to bring home on my carryon. Customs did question that. I could go on and on but i'm running out of space and you are probably tired of reading. We will have stories to tell for years. No regrets and we are so glad we did it now. I did trace my heritage to Kilkenny circa. 1816
•day 1 arrive Dublin early - spend the night at Parliament Hotel and take the hop-on hop-of bus ride
•day 2 pick up rental car drive to Kilkenny - tour Smithwicks, Waterford - Waterford Crystal, Dunmore East - Hayes Pub I have a Hayes in my group then drive to Killarney spend the night
•day 3 play golf at Old Head GC then travel to Kinsale, Cork, Cobh and return o Killarney
•day 4 play golf at Ballybunion Old GC early, take ferry ride at Tarbert on way to Cliffs of Moher, The Burren, Limerick back to Killarney
•day 5 play golf at Tralee GC early then to Dingle and then back to Killarney
•day 6 play golf at Cashen GC early then to Blarney and Cashel. Spend the night in Cashel?
•day 7 drive to Birr (visited 10 years ago wanted to stop and see proprietors of the place my father and I stayed) then to Walsh Distillery in Carlow then on to Dublin for 2 nights Arlington Hotel O'Connell Bridge ?

Posted by
238 posts

I loved our golfing experiences in Ireland--I didn't play, but walked along with my husband when he played. The courses there are so green--all that rain no doubt:-)

Just a suggestion--you might want to edit the title of your report. As it stands one would think you were in Ireland in 2006 rather than 2016. Some readers might skip it as happening too long ago to be of relevance.