The Notebook
Field notes from Ireland.
Hotels, roads, meals, and the moments worth writing down. Added quietly, in season.
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 half dozen flats at the pier
A thatched seventh-generation oyster cottage on the Kilcolgan weir, where the native Galway flat is still opened to order.
Entry No. 12
At the Edge of the Atlantic
Dún Aonghasa at first light, before the boats
A three-thousand-year-old fort on the lip of an Atlantic cliff on Inishmore, walked alone in the hour before the first ferry arrives.
Entry No. 13
The Long Evening of Summer
Slea Head in June, when the light refuses to go
The Dingle Peninsula on a long evening, the Blaskets pink offshore, and the closest thing Ireland has to a summer miracle.
Entry No. 14 · A featured note
What I tell every American friend before their first trip
An expat's letter to the next visitor. The expectations to set, the mistakes to avoid, and the version of Ireland that only opens for those who slow down.
The west holds onto weather longer than it should.
Connemara, late afternoon
Entry No. 15
The Pub at Dusk
Guinness in Dingle, at Dick Mack's
Across the road from the church, a leather counter, and a pint that tastes of weather.
Entry No. 16
The Drawing Room Hour
Adare Manor, the hour before dinner
The drawing rooms at six, when the house exhales and the guests have not yet come down.
Entry No. 17
After Rain
Connemara when the cloud lifts
Forty minutes of light on the Twelve Bens, after a morning of grey.
Entry No. 18 · Off-Season Ireland
Rock of Cashel out of season
Tipperary's medieval skyline, on the right kind of November afternoon.
Entry No. 19
The Long Way Round
The best day of your trip will not be on the itinerary
The moments people remember most in Ireland are rarely the ones they planned.
Entry No. 20
The Older Rooms
Glenveagh and the red deer at first light
A nineteenth-century castle on a Donegal lough, a sixteen-thousand-hectare national park around it, and the herd that walks out of the trees at dawn.
Entry No. 21
At the Table
Linnane's Lobster Bar, the pier-end oysters in New Quay
A small bar at the end of a stone pier on the north Burren coast, serving the Kelly oysters lifted from the bay outside the door.
Entry No. 22
At the Edge of the Atlantic
Inishbofin, the afternoon ferry out of Cleggan
A Connemara island reached by a forty-minute crossing, where the year still keeps its old shape.
“The best trips in Ireland are rarely overplanned.”
From the editors
Entry No. 23
The Long Evening of Summer
Brittas Bay, the hour before the cars come back
Wicklow's long pale beach, taken early, before Dublin arrives.
Entry No. 24
The Cities, Walked Early
Why nobody is in a hurry
One of the first things Americans notice in Ireland is that things take longer. One of the last things they realise is that this may not be a problem.
Entry No. 25 · The Pub at Dusk
Guinness in Belfast, at the Crown
A Victorian snug, a gas lamp, and a pint that knows the building it is in.
Entry No. 26
The Drawing Room Hour
The Difference Between Hospitality And Service
The best Irish hotels are not trying to impress you. They are trying to make you feel like you belong.
Entry No. 27 · A featured note
Stephen's Green after the shower
Twenty minutes of Dublin at its most photogenic, and no one looks up.
Entry No. 28
Off-Season Ireland
October in West Cork
The single best month in the single best corner.
Entry No. 29
The Long Way Round
Lough Tay from the Sally Gap, in the wrong weather
The dark inland lough below the Wicklow uplands, seen from the bog road above, on a day the cloud will not lift.
Entry No. 30
The Older Rooms
Loughcrew on the equinox morning
A five-thousand-year-old passage tomb on a hill in County Meath, lit on its inner chamber wall twice a year by the rising sun.
From the editors
On breakfast rooms after rain
We have a small, unscientific theory. The hotels we return to most are not the ones with the best lobbies, or the most photographed dining rooms. They are the ones with breakfast rooms that hold up on a grey morning.
Long tables. Soft light. A second pot of tea without asking. A window that frames weather, not a view.
We keep a private list. We share it carefully.
— K. & L., editors
Entry No. 31
At the Table
PJ O'Hare's, the Carlingford Lough half dozen
A blackened pub on the medieval main street of Carlingford, serving the lough's own oysters with a pint of stout and very little else.
Entry No. 32 · At the Edge of the Atlantic
Lough Hyne when the tide reverses
Europe's only saltwater inland lough, in west Cork, at the half hour the Atlantic flows in or out through the narrow rapids.
Entry No. 33
The Long Evening of Summer
Pubs at dusk in the west
On the half-hour before anyone orders food.
Entry No. 34
The Cities, Walked Early
The Enterprise from Belfast to Dublin, at dusk
The cross-border train at the end of the working day, two and a quarter hours through east Ulster and the Boyne valley, with the light going behind you.
Entry No. 35
The Pub at Dusk
Guinness in Cork, at the Hi-B
Upstairs on Oliver Plunkett Street, where the rules are not written down.
Entry No. 36
The Drawing Room Hour
Sheen Falls, the second night
When the staff stop asking and the room starts to know you.
Entry No. 37
After Rain
Hook Head, the oldest light in the world, in a winter storm
An eight-hundred-year-old working lighthouse on the Wexford coast, visited when the Atlantic is honest about itself.
Entry No. 38
Off-Season Ireland
A pint in John Mulligan's
Poolbeg Street, the bar that hasn't changed since the war.
Chapter Two
Rooms for Weather
Hotels that improve when the sky doesn't.
Entry No. 39 · The Long Way Round
Fanad Head, the last lighthouse before the open sea
A working lighthouse on the northern tip of the Fanad peninsula, where Lough Swilly opens to the Atlantic and the sky is bigger than the land.
Entry No. 40 · A featured note
Glendalough at first light
The upper lake before the car park fills.
Entry No. 41
At the Table
The long lunch at Ballymaloe
What we always send foodie friends to do first.
Entry No. 42
At the Edge of the Atlantic
Dogs Bay, where the sand is made of shells
A white Connemara crescent that does not look like Ireland and entirely is.
Entry No. 43
The Long Evening of Summer
Lough Eske on a long evening
Donegal in June, the lake taking the light.
Entry No. 44
The Cities, Walked Early
The Forty Foot, at the hour the city forgets
Sandycove, Joyce's tower, and a swim that resets the day.
Entry No. 45
The Pub at Dusk
Guinness in Galway, before the match
Tigh Neachtain at one o'clock on a Saturday, when the city is already humming.
Entry No. 46 · The Drawing Room Hour
The folded blanket at Ballyfin
What nobody mentions about the room, and why it is the point.
Some hotels are really about rain.
Kerry, an unmarked window
Entry No. 47
Off-Season Ireland
September in Kinsale
After the Gourmet Festival, when the harbour goes back to itself.
Entry No. 48
The Long Way Round
The Mournes from Newcastle
An hour from Belfast, a different country entirely.
Entry No. 49
The Older Rooms
Newgrange on a clear morning
Five thousand years old, and still the quietest hour of the Boyne Valley.
Entry No. 50
At the Table
Hotel breakfasts that are worth the room
Where to come downstairs slowly.
Entry No. 51
At the Edge of the Atlantic
Inchydoney, learning to surf in west Cork
Two crescents of sand, a gentle Atlantic break, and the easiest first wave in Ireland.
Entry No. 52
The Long Evening of Summer
The Titanic Quarter at blue hour
Belfast's docks, the half-hour the building lights up.
Entry No. 53 · A featured note
What Americans get wrong about Irish people
The mistake is not that Americans think Irish people are unfriendly. It is that they expect friendliness to arrive in the American way.
Entry No. 54
The Pub at Dusk
Guinness in Dublin, after rain
The pint that does not travel, in the weather it was made for.
“A fire changes a room completely.”
Entry No. 55
The Drawing Room Hour
Mount Stewart, the walled garden in early summer
A National Trust house on the shore of Strangford Lough, with a microclimate warm enough to grow what nowhere else in Ireland can.
Entry No. 56
Off-Season Ireland
Late October in Kerry
When the deer rut is on at Killarney and the lakes go dark.
Entry No. 57
The Long Way Round
The Mournes when the bracken turns
C.S. Lewis country, on the week the colour comes in.
Entry No. 58
The Older Rooms
The Aran Islands on a bicycle
Inis Mór in a single afternoon, hired wheels and the wind behind you.
Entry No. 59
At the Table
Aniar in Galway, the tasting menu
JP McMahon's terroir room, still the city's best argument.
Entry No. 60 · At the Edge of the Atlantic
Lahinch, the wave that taught Ireland to surf
A north-facing Clare beach with a town built around the lineup.
Entry No. 61
The Long Evening of Summer
May on the Wild Atlantic Way
Long days, low crowds, the light still soft.
Entry No. 62
The Cities, Walked Early
Trinity College, just after dawn
The cobblestones of Front Square, before the day starts.
From the editors
What Americans tend to misunderstand
Ireland rewards the visitor who slows down. We say this often, because it is the most useful thing we know.
Two counties, deeply, beats six counties skimmed. A long lunch beats a third castle. A morning at the same hotel beats an early checkout to chase weather you cannot outrun.
Plan less than feels comfortable. The country closes the gap.
— K. & L., editors
Entry No. 63
The Pub at Dusk
Dublin when it rains all day
Bookshops, gallery rooms, bar light. What to do when the weather decides for you.
Entry No. 64
The Drawing Room Hour
Ashford Castle, when the lake goes still
Eight hundred years on Lough Corrib, and the hour that earns the trip.
Entry No. 65
Off-Season Ireland
November in Dublin
The four o'clock dusk and the bookshop windows lit early.
Entry No. 66 · A featured note
The Vee Pass in Tipperary
A road that opens up the entire valley, best seen when the mist is lifting.
Entry No. 67 · At the Table
Loam in Galway on a Friday
Enda McEvoy's room, the version of modern Irish cooking we send people to.
Entry No. 68
At the Edge of the Atlantic
Strandhill, surfing under Knocknarea
Sligo's serious Atlantic beach, with a mountain at its back and a sauna on the sand.
Entry No. 69
The Long Evening of Summer
A July afternoon in Connemara
When the bog colours turn and the heather catches.
Entry No. 70
The Cities, Walked Early
An afternoon in Marsh's Library
Dublin's three-hundred-year-old reading room, almost empty in the rain.
Chapter Three
Roads We Return To
Drives taken slowly, mostly without a schedule.
Entry No. 71
The Pub at Dusk
The Stag's Head after six
Off Dame Street, the late Victorian room with the original mirrors.
Entry No. 72
The Drawing Room Hour
Kinsale on a low-tide evening
The harbour town when the day-trippers have driven back to Cork.
Entry No. 73
Off-Season Ireland
Early December on Grafton Street
Before the office parties start and the city is at its best.
Entry No. 74 · The Long Way Round
The Healy Pass from Adrigole
The serpentine road across the Beara Peninsula.
Entry No. 75
At the Table
Chapter One, the room that keeps getting better
Mickael Viljanen's Dublin, a year and a half on.
Entry No. 76
At the Edge of the Atlantic
Keem Bay, at the end of the Achill road
A horseshoe of pale sand under green cliffs, ten miles past where you'd stop.
Entry No. 77
The Long Evening of Summer
March light in the Burren
The first week of long evenings, before the season starts.
Entry No. 78
The Cities, Walked Early
Kilkenny Castle on a quiet Thursday
The river side, the rose garden, the long room at the back.
The road matters more than the destination here.
Above the Ring, golden hour
Entry No. 79 · A featured note
Rooms where the windows stay open to the sea
Ballynahinch Castle, in the small hours.
Entry No. 80
Off-Season Ireland
Christmas week in an Irish country house
Ashford or Dromoland, when the fires are lit all day.
Entry No. 81 · The Long Way Round
The Sky Road out of Clifden
Where Connemara meets the Atlantic.
Entry No. 82
At the Table
Liath at Blackrock Market
Damien Grey's twenty seats, the hardest room to get into in Dublin.
Entry No. 83
At the Edge of the Atlantic
Coumeenoole, the small wild beach below Slea Head
A gold cove on the Dingle Peninsula with the Blaskets sitting offshore.
Entry No. 84
The Cities, Walked Early
Derry walls on foot
The full circuit, mid-afternoon, ending at the Guildhall.
Entry No. 85
The Drawing Room Hour
Hotels for weather
What you actually want when the rain sets in for the day.
Entry No. 86
Off-Season Ireland
New Year's Day on the coast
The walk every Irish family takes, somewhere with the sea.
“Ireland becomes quieter after October. We prefer it then.”
Entry No. 87
The Long Way Round
The Headford road into Connemara
The transition from farmland to wildness.
Entry No. 88 · At the Table
Variety Jones on Thomas Street
Keelan Higgs's room, when Dublin starts cooking like itself.
Entry No. 89
At the Edge of the Atlantic
Barleycove, the empty beach at the end of west Cork
A vast sheltered Atlantic strand on the Mizen Peninsula, reached by a floating boardwalk.
Entry No. 90
The Cities, Walked Early
The Long Room at Trinity
Two hundred feet of oak and marble, taken before the queue.
Entry No. 91
The Drawing Room Hour
Dublin in December
When the city is gentler than people warn you it will be.
Entry No. 92 · A featured note
January in an empty castle hotel
When the rates are kindest and the staff have time.
Chapter Four
Winter Notes
December, dusk, and the months we keep for ourselves.
Entry No. 93
The Long Way Round
The road to Slea Head, just after rain
Dingle Peninsula, when the light comes back.
Entry No. 94
At the Table
Glas on Chatham Street
Dublin's vegetarian room, the one that converts the doubters.
Entry No. 95 · At the Edge of the Atlantic
Donegal when the light breaks
The northwest after a long week of weather.
Entry No. 96
The Cities, Walked Early
Georgian doors on Merrion Square
Walking the south side, the half-hour the light is on the brick.
Entry No. 97
The Drawing Room Hour
The Merrion on a quiet Tuesday
What the drawing rooms feel like when no one is checking in.
Entry No. 98
Off-Season Ireland
Easter week in Galway
The Latin Quarter, the bay walk, and the festivals starting up.
Entry No. 99
The Long Way Round
The Ring of Kerry, the wrong direction
Why we drive it counter to the buses and what you see.
Entry No. 100
At the Table
Mr Fox on Parnell Square
Anthony Smith's basement, the most fun two hours in Dublin.
Entry No. 101
At the Edge of the Atlantic
The Burren on a grey afternoon
Limestone, low cloud, and the part of Clare that rewards bad weather.
Entry No. 102 · The Cities, Walked Early
The Dark Hedges with no one else
Antrim's beech avenue, taken before seven in the morning.
Entry No. 103
The Drawing Room Hour
Adare Manor after the leaves turn
The week the village goes quiet and the manor opens up.
Entry No. 104
The Long Way Round
The Causeway coast in late light
Antrim from Belfast to Bushmills, taken in the wrong order.
Entry No. 105 · A featured note
Pichet on a rainy Tuesday
Trinity Street's bistro, exactly the room you want when it's raining.
Entry No. 106
At the Edge of the Atlantic
An evening walk on Howth Head
Forty minutes from the city centre, and the cleanest air in Dublin.
Entry No. 107
The Drawing Room Hour
Cashel Palace, the first morning
Breakfast under the Rock, before anyone else is up.
Entry No. 108
The Long Way Round
The Sky Road out of Clifden
Connemara's small loop, the one most visitors drive past.
Entry No. 109 · At the Table
The Greenhouse, the old room
Mickael Viljanen's first Dublin home, before Chapter One.
Entry No. 110
At the Edge of the Atlantic
Lahinch on a still morning
The first tee at half past seven, the Atlantic on three sides.
Entry No. 111
The Drawing Room Hour
Mount Juliet for a long weekend
When you want golf, food and a fire, on the same estate.
Entry No. 112
The Long Way Round
The Beara peninsula when everyone else is on the Ring
Cork and Kerry's quieter peninsula, driven slowly.
Entry No. 113
At the Table
Patrick Guilbaud, still the room
Two stars, forty years in, still doing the longest lunch in Dublin.
Entry No. 114
At the Edge of the Atlantic
The Burren on a grey afternoon
When the limestone is the right colour for it.
Entry No. 115
The Drawing Room Hour
The K Club after the rain
The Liffey course in the half-hour the sun comes back.
Entry No. 116 · The Long Way Round
Sheep's Head, driven slowly
The smallest of the south-west peninsulas, and the best for an afternoon.
Entry No. 117
At the Table
Bastible in Portobello
South Circular Road's neighbourhood room, with the best Sunday lunch in town.
Entry No. 118 · A featured note
Achill Island after the bridge
Mayo's largest island, fifteen minutes from the mainland.
Entry No. 119
The Drawing Room Hour
Sheen Falls when the river rises
Kenmare in November, the falls running full.
Entry No. 120
The Long Way Round
Mizen Head on a clear afternoon
The south-westernmost point, when the bridge is open.
Entry No. 121
At the Table
Forest & Marcy on a Wednesday
Leeson Street's small room, the wine list better than the room is big.
Entry No. 122
At the Edge of the Atlantic
Wildes at the Lodge in Doolin
Above the cliffs, the dining room facing the Atlantic.
Entry No. 123 · The Drawing Room Hour
Powerscourt, from the upper terrace
The Sugar Loaf framed exactly the way the architects meant it.
Entry No. 124
The Long Way Round
The Wicklow Military Road
Dublin to Glendalough the long way, over the bog.
Entry No. 125
At the Table
Pilgrim's in Rosscarbery
West Cork's small village room, one of the best on the island.
Entry No. 126
At the Edge of the Atlantic
The Burren flora in May
Ireland's strangest landscape, the week the gentians come out.
Entry No. 127
The Drawing Room Hour
The Shelbourne, properly
How to stay in the room everyone walks past.
Entry No. 128
The Long Way Round
The Gap of Dunloe on foot
Kerry's narrow valley, walked rather than driven.
Entry No. 129
At the Table
Sage in Midleton
The twelve-mile menu, the original local cooking room in East Cork.
Entry No. 130 · At the Edge of the Atlantic
Music in Doolin on a Tuesday
Gus O'Connor's, before the season starts in earnest.
Entry No. 131 · A featured note
Dromoland in February
When the lake is still and the dining room is half full.
Entry No. 132
The Long Way Round
Inishowen and the northern headlands
The most northerly road in Ireland, almost no one drives.
Entry No. 133
At the Table
Ichigo Ichie Cork, the counter
Takashi Miyazaki's kappo room, one of the most surprising tables in Ireland.
Entry No. 134
At the Edge of the Atlantic
Skellig Michael when the boat runs
The hardest day-trip in Ireland to plan, the easiest to remember.
Entry No. 135
The Drawing Room Hour
Kilkea with the fires lit
Kildare in the dark months, a castle that takes you in.
Entry No. 136
The Long Way Round
The Cooley peninsula out from Dublin
Louth in a half-day, the bull and the mountain.
Entry No. 137 · At the Table
Aimsir, the drive out
Cliff House to Celbridge, the Power family room outside Dublin.
Entry No. 138
At the Edge of the Atlantic
The Cliffs of Moher at five thirty
When the bus tours leave and the cliffs are yours.
Entry No. 139
The Drawing Room Hour
The Europe Hotel, the third morning
Killarney's lake from a balcony, taken slowly.
Entry No. 140
The Long Way Round
The coast road from Galway to Doolin
Two hours of Atlantic with the Burren on the inside.
Entry No. 141
At the Table
The Cork English Market for lunch
Upstairs at the Farmgate, the easiest meal in the south.
Entry No. 142
At the Edge of the Atlantic
Howth cliffs on a bright Sunday
Dublin's coastal village, with the cliff loop ending at the Bog of Frogs.
Entry No. 143
The Drawing Room Hour
Carton House for two quiet nights
The Fairmont rebuild, settled in at last.
Entry No. 144 · A featured note
The back roads of West Cork
From Skibbereen to Schull, by way of nothing in particular.
Entry No. 145
At the Edge of the Atlantic
June light in the west
When the sun doesn't go down until eleven.
Entry No. 146
The Drawing Room Hour
Ballyfin, the third evening
When the house finally stops feeling like a museum.
Entry No. 147
The Long Way Round
The Headford road into Connemara
Galway to Cong, the road few visitors take.
Entry No. 148
At the Edge of the Atlantic
August in Donegal
When the rest of Ireland is on holiday and Donegal is the best version of itself.
Entry No. 149
The Drawing Room Hour
The Bushmills Inn after dark
Antrim in October, the gas lamps and a peat fire.
Entry No. 150
The Long Way Round
The Vee Pass in Tipperary
The Knockmealdown mountains, in a one-hour drive.
Entry No. 151 · At the Edge of the Atlantic
Early October in the Burren
When the limestone darkens and the gentians have finished.
Entry No. 152
The Drawing Room Hour
Ballygally Castle with the sea in the window
The Antrim coast, from a window cut into stone.
Entry No. 153
The Long Way Round
The Healy Pass from Adrigole
Beara's mountain road, twenty minutes that takes an hour.
Entry No. 154
At the Edge of the Atlantic
February in West Cork
Storm-watching and the first signs of spring on the same day.
Entry No. 155
The Drawing Room Hour
The Merchant in the Cathedral Quarter
Belfast's grandest room, used the way it was meant to be.
Entry No. 156
The Long Way Round
Kinsale harbour before the boats leave
Cork's south-east town, the half-hour before lunch in summer.
Entry No. 157 · A featured note
Early April on the Causeway coast
Before the Easter crowds, when the cliffs are yours.
Entry No. 158 · The Drawing Room Hour
Grand Central Belfast as a base
The view from the twenty-third floor, after the city goes quiet.
Entry No. 159
The Long Way Round
Blarney Castle, without the stone
What every visitor misses by going straight to the top.
Entry No. 160
The Drawing Room Hour
Doonbeg, the morning room
West Clare from a window, before the wind picks up.
Entry No. 161
The Drawing Room Hour
Portmarnock by the sea
The Jameson family house, then the resort, then the dunes.
Entry No. 162
The Drawing Room Hour
Waterford Castle on its own island
Sixteenth century, Norman and accessible only by ferry.
Entry No. 163
The Drawing Room Hour
Clontarf Castle for one Dublin night
A castle inside the city limits, twelve minutes from the airport.
Entry No. 164
The Drawing Room Hour
Markree Castle in Sligo
Yeats country, with the Cooper family still on the door.
Entry No. 165 · The Drawing Room Hour
Ballyseede in Tralee
The drawing room dogs and the late dinner.
Entry No. 166
The Drawing Room Hour
Cabra Castle in the banquet hall
Cavan, the eighteenth century kept honestly.
End 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.