Saturday, Sunday - Monday, September 16th & 17th - Days 6-7 Skerries
We needed to be on the east coast near the Dublin Airport for our flight to Nice, so we decided to stay just north of Dublin in Skerries for a few nights. We drove there - about 4-5 hours - on Saturday, September 16th, arriving around 4:30. We didn't hit the Motorway until about an hour outside of Dublin, so we wound through lots of small towns and traversed many farm lands en route. We managed to avoid the Dublin rush hour and were pleased to find that our exit for Skerries was the first one we encountered after we past the airport.
We were met by Rory, our Airbnb host, who showed us the ropes of the nice cottage. They had some nice muffins for us as we checked in - a welcoming touch if ever there was one! We would have three nights there but only one day since our flight to Nice was leaving around 11am Wednesday morning. We would need to return the car before checking in on Wednesday morning, so it was important that we get an early start.
Skerries is an old former fishing village with two fabulous beaches stretching out from a central pier. For many years it has been a holiday destination and now, increasingly, a bedroom community for Dublin. Our AirBnb rental was right on the beach behind the owners house, which consisted of a 1700's thatched roof cottage with an addition on the back. We especially enjoyed getting to know the owner, Rory , who entertained us with many stories of the area. He even made sure he was on hand to say "good-bye" as we left around 8:30
Originally our one full day was to be in Dublin - Munroe had been in touch with his former graduate student, Finbarr Lane, who works for the Irish Department of Education in Dublin to see about meeting for coffee or lunch. However, we woke Tuesday morning to weather was so amazing - hot and sunny - that we decided to take advantage of our lovely beach location and stay in Skerries. We tried to get tickets to see the Newgrange prehistoric site (https://www.newgrange.com/) but unfortunately tickets were sold out - for the entire week. We'll have to plan further ahead if we are to see this amazing spot on our next trip to Ireland (and there surely will be another one!).
North Beach view from our house
