The Notebook
Field notes from Ireland.
Hotels, roads, meals, and the moments worth writing down. Added quietly, in season.
Featured essays
Long-form guides we return to. The Northern Irish links, what to eat after a round, and the sandhills at Portmarnock.
Essay · How to shape the trip
St Patrick's Day In Ireland: The American Traveler's Reference
The definitive American guide to March 17 in Ireland. The real rhythm of the day, where to stay, which hours to disappear, and which hours to show up for.
Essay · Golf
Royal County Down, Shot By Shot: The Course That Reads You Back
The Championship course at Newcastle rewards a specific kind of decision-making. Most Americans arrive without it. Here is what we have learned.
Essay · Golf
Where To Eat Near Slieve Donard After A Round
Newcastle, County Down has a golf-course problem when it comes to dinner. Here is what we actually book around a Royal County Down trip, in what order, and why.
Essay · Golf
Portmarnock, Shot By Shot: The Most Honest Links In Ireland
The Old course on the Sutton peninsula is flat, blind-shot free, and the truest links test in Ireland. Here is what we have learned from returning to it as our round out of Dublin.
Browse by topic
The notebook by subject. Follow the thread you came in on.
Entry No. 01 · A featured note
Silver Strand at Malin Beg, the stairs nobody talks about
A small Donegal beach at the bottom of one hundred and seventy concrete steps.
Entry No. 02
The Long Way Round
Why we never stay one night anywhere in Ireland
The most common American mistake on the itinerary is also the most fixable. A note on the two-night minimum, the three-night luxury rule, and the half-day every hotel change quietly costs.
Entry No. 03
The Older Rooms
The Irish hotel test we use before booking
The most expensive mistake is not the wrong county. It is the wrong hotel. Six tests we apply before we book, and why we are not booking rooms. We are booking moods.
Entry No. 04 · The Cities, Walked Early
The biggest mistake Americans make in Irish pubs
The mistake is not ordering the wrong beer. It is treating the pub as a sight to be ticked off instead of a room to be inhabited.
Entry No. 05
The Pub at Dusk
Guinness in Kilkenny, by the Nore
Tynan's Bridge House at dusk, with the castle floodlights coming on across the water.
Entry No. 06
The Drawing Room Hour
Cashel Palace, the garden suite in October
A small house, a long bath, and the Rock through the window when the rain clears.
Chapter One
Atlantic Weather
Notes from the western edge, mostly after rain.
Entry No. 07
After Rain
The Irish house is the centre of everything
To understand Ireland, stop looking at the castles and start looking at the kitchen table.
Entry No. 08
Off-Season Ireland
Glendalough on a Tuesday in February
The upper lake when the coach park is empty and the head goes quiet.
Entry No. 09
The Long Way Round
The Irish weather is not the problem
The rain rarely ruins the trip. The fight against the rain usually does.
Entry No. 10
The Older Rooms
The Irish luxury Americans don't notice
The greatest luxury in Ireland is rarely the castle suite, the Michelin star, or the private driver. It is the feeling that nobody is in a hurry.
Entry No. 11 · At the Table
Moran's Oyster Cottage: the best oysters near Galway
The seventh-generation thatched oyster cottage twenty minutes south of Galway city, where the native Galway flat is still opened to order. What to order, when the season runs, and how to find it.
165 more entries
The rest of the Notebook is kept in one place, listed alphabetically, so nothing goes missing.
View the full indexEnd of Volume One
Volume Two arriving in season. New entries are added quietly, most weeks.
From the notebook
Editorial itineraries from Ireland.
Collected notes. A few times each season.