Howth, Ireland – Oct 11-13, 2026

By Kathleen Ennen / October 13, 2026

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Sunday, October 11

Today we drove off to our last stop of this great road trip. Cobh is a really nice seaside village and we enjoyed our brief time here. Our next stop is also a seaside village but only about 40 minutes from the Dublin airport where we fly from on Tuesday.

The route northward passed near to the fortress known as the Rock of Cashel, about a 1.25 hours drive. The weather, once again, was stinky. Rain. Grey. Not sure if there would be a viable stop.

We were very lucky as we drove north the skies brightened significantly and then about the time we parked at the base of this huge rock outcrop and fortress on top, the rain stopped.

The view up from the car park was amazing – the fortress is high above the adjacent lands, overlooking the Tipperary plains. It’s a medieval fortress on a large limestone outcrop, with a 12th-century round tower and cathedral ruins with well-preserved medieval architecture. The art work in the chapel is under preservation so we weren’t able to see those, though they are reported to be the only surviving Romanesque frescoes in Ireland.

This site was originally the seat of the kings of Munster, and, according to legend, St. Patrick himself came here to convert King Aenghus to Christianity. Brian Boru was crowned High King at Cashel in 978 and made it his capital. In 1101 the site was granted to the church and Cashel swiftly rose to prominence as one of the most significant centers of ecclesiastical power in the country.

I’m glad we stopped. Our destination, Howth, was about 2 more hours of driving. The day cleared up nicely and by the time we got to our hotel and checked in it was nice enough to go walking. As it was a Sunday we could see lots of activity in the very protected Howth harbor. Sunday afternoons offer coaching for young sailors in little Optis – Optimists. These are less than 8’ long and are sailed by kids until they are about 15 years old.

We walked along and ventured in to the Howth Yacht Club. There were lots of Optis and there had been racing trials for older kids sailing Lasers. I spoke with a mom and learned that her son, 14, was sailing a Laser and loved it. I think this town is really big on teaching kids to sail. Evidently the entire country is really focused on youth sailing with a great many inter-club challenges.

We were able to get “permission” to have a drink at the bar overlooking the bustle of activity of putting all the boats away. Howth is a terrific harbor!!!

We had previously contacted our friends Celine and Mark to meet up for dinner. Howth isn’t far from where they live. We had a great dinner, had a lot of fun, said our farewells and asked the bar tender to take a photo of the four of us.

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Monday, October 12

It was a beautiful day to have as our last day. It was sunny, nearly warm and little wind. The harbor was calm and we decided to first take a quick loop drive around Howth, starting at a high viewpoint overlooking a lighthouse and looking south and slightly west to Dublin. We could see a cruise ship. Apparently, cruise ships come and go and travel to France, or England and elsewhere.

Tide range here is more than 10 feet. When we arrived on Sunday, we didn’t see any rocks on the far side of the breakwater. In the morning, the tide was way out, and there are lots of rocks. The channel markers in the marina show where it is very shallow at low tide.

The view point was pretty high up and looking east. Garath, at reception, said on a very clear day you can see Snowdon in Wales. It’s about 100 miles away and today wasn’t completely clear, but I think we might have seen a land mass and a “bump” that could have been the mountain. It’s the tallest mountain in Wales and England. I remember when at the top of Snowdon in 2018 that we could see a land mass to the west and we were told it was Ireland.

As we were getting ready to leave a motorcycle came by with the dramatic colors of the Garda, the police. It was a BMW R-bike, very new, but I had to say I had a 2000 R1100. The new one was a R1300 police version. It had everything!!! Heated seats, heated grips (I had those), cruise control, and a motor assisted center stand! They are still very tall and the fuel tank is big and makes it very top heavy. He admitted if it tipped over he wouldn’t be able to pick it up by himself. I know that feeling! I sold mine 9 years ago and every now and then think it would be fun to still have it.

We completed our little 10 minute loop drive and parked at the lot by the harbor. We started walking along the harbor front intending to explore the two long piers we hadn’t been on yet.

We started with the middle pier which was where the predominantly large fishing boats are tied up. There were a lot of men mending nets and handling the big spools of nets that go on the sterns of the boats.

The RNLI life boat station (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) was near the end of the third pier. It had been closed on Sunday but we found it open today. We started talking to Ian who has been in the service for 40 years. He just got his service pin! He didn’t really know how often they go out on rescue missions. Last year, though, they did 80. Seems like a lot!!!

We had a good chat and then explored the life boat. It’s an amazing machine with tech stuff everywhere.

We continued exploring the outer edges of the pier and enjoying the distant views due to the clarity of the day.

We walked along in front of the shops and restaurants on the pier. Everything seemed a bit pricey and with empty tour buses parked nearby it seemed better to walk on and avoid the crowds and potentially too high prices.

We found a spot, very close to our hotel, and had the soup and half sandwich option. There is a tower/round house just up the hill from the main waterfront street that is a radio and clock museum. We had heard it was very interesting but we learned it closed at 4 and we didn’t finish lunch in time to visit it. However, it is somewhat uphill and gives great views of the marina and the piers and the expanse beyond.

When coming down from the hill top we spotted a very hidden but not too tiny beach. It seemed to be somewhat sandy, not too pebbly, and someone was swimming. The air temp reached a balmy 64 degrees today, but the water is about 58, so the swimming seems a bit challenging. People we’ve spoken to here say there are some who swim every day of the year.

It was time to pack things up for the trip home. We had dinner at the hotel and got ready to say goodbye to this fun and beautiful country.

Tuesday, October 13

It’s departure day…. 5 weeks since leaving DC and 1 month in Ireland. We returned the car nearly empty as we had pre-purchased gas in anticipation for fuel cost increases. They didn’t change so much, but we did manage to drop the car off with 1/8 of a tank.

Final mileage numbers revealed this great road trip covered 1,442 miles.

It’s been a fabulous trip. We’ve gotten to know some new friends and spent enough time here in Ireland to really appreciate the wonderful sense of humor the Irish have. It’s truly unique and can’t help but make you smile.

A sample of it was demonstrated when we were summoned to go to the boarding gate for our flight home. Our boarding passes indicated the gate closed at 1150. When we got to the gate it was nearly 1150. The agent at the gate said boarding hadn’t started yet and to sit for a bit longer.

When I mentioned the passes indicated the gate was to be closed at this time, the agent smiled and said “Yes, it does, we lied. It helps keep our on-time departure record good.”