Ireland with a Toddler!
Hi Friends,
When Clover was just four years old we decided to make a world traveler out of her and went on a family trip to Ireland. Guys, there are so many amazing things to see and do in Ireland that are very family friendly, well except for that one place.
We did find a restaurant next to one of the Airbnb's we stayed at that didn’t allow children after 10 pm. Clover thought that was very rude of them to exclude kids but it was after 10. We don’t normally have dinner that late but we had just arrived at our next destination. LOL
So after a long flight to Ireland, we rented a car so that we could see the gorgeous Irish countryside. We visited Dublin, Cork, Portmagee, and Limerick. From there we cut through to Northern Ireland and took a ferry to Scotland. You can read more about that part of our trip here.
Let’s talk about some of the things we saw while we were in Ireland.
Skellig Michael
You might not know this about us but the WHOLE family is HUGE Star Wars fans, so there is NO way we could visit Ireland without seeing Skellig Michael. For those of you who aren’t Star Wars fans, Skellig Michael was one of the filming sites in Star Wars: A Force Awakens. Skellig Michael was the site of the secret Jedi hideaway.
Skellig Michael is a craggy formation of rocks that juts up out of the sea. It is one of only two UNESCO World Heritage sites in all of Ireland. In the 13th century, monks lived in stone huts, some of which are still standing today at the top. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate during our visit so we didn’t get to see Skellig Michael up close.
Giant’s Causeway
The Giant’s Causeway in County Antrim was another one of our favorite things to see in Ireland. The causeway is made of 40,000 hexagonal stone columns sticking up out of the sea. This is Ireland’s second UNESCO World Heritage site.
The causeway was formed by A) volcanic action under the sea or B) an Irish giant named Finn McCool who got into an argument with Scottish giant Benandonner. Legend has it that McCool placed the columns to walk to Scotland, and Benandonner knocked them down… the end result was the Giant’s Causeway!
Leamaneh Castle
Pretty sure you can’t go to Ireland without seeing a few castles, but we stumbled upon the abandoned Leamaneh Castle, and let me tell you it was amazing! A four story abandoned castle, built in the mid-1600s, and part of it still stands today! You can see the abandoned castle and some other memories from our trip to Ireland with Clover in our video here.
Ireland is just amazing, the countryside is beautiful, the people were friendly, and there was great food. I would definitely recommend taking a trip to Ireland with your family if you get the opportunity. Make sure you check out my posts about traveling to Iceland and Scotland too!
XOXO,
Ari
