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Ireland Honeymoon Photos Part 1

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Our Honeymoon in Ireland Part 1

Canon 1v + Kodak Portra 400 & 800 film

Wicklow Mountains

We started our honeymoon off in the Wicklow Mountains, one of the best honeymoon destinations in the region, mostly because Jay didnt want to drive for hours after being awake for over 24 hours and traveling. So we picked Glendalough since it was only an hour outside of Dublin! However, as our plane descended from the sky over Dublin all we could see was gray and SNOW. Jay was the only one driving (I REFUSE to get behind the wheel in a foreign country) and he looked at me with an “oh shit” expression because not only was he tired and had to remember how to drive on the opposite side of the car and road but this was his second time ever seeing snow and his first time driving in it. I patted him on the shoulder and asked him to just not kill me please. So needless to say, that hour drive from Dublin to Glendalough may have well been 4 hours because thats what it felt like.

We checked into our B&B at 8am, went up to room, decided to take a short nap and woke up EIGHT HOURS LATER. Realizing we basically wasted our first day, we rushed to the car (trying not to slip and crack our heads open on the pure ice driveway) and we drove to the historic site I found on Pinterest last year. We had the most beautiful golden hour light coming through the ancient cemetery. Jay made a joke that “of course the first thing we do on our honeymoon is explore a cemetery”, acting like he didnt know who he married.

The next day after breakfast we decided to go back to Glendalough and actually explore and hike it! It was a sunny day and we worked up a sweat hiking up the mountain but we had a great view at the top of the upper lake!
Photos of Glendalough in Wicklow Mountains by Catherine Ann PhotographyPhotos of Glendalough in Wicklow Mountains by Catherine Ann PhotographyPhotos of Glendalough in Wicklow Mountains by Catherine Ann PhotographyPhotos of Glendalough in Wicklow Mountains by Catherine Ann PhotographyPhotos of Glendalough in Wicklow Mountains by Catherine Ann PhotographyPhotos of Glendalough in Wicklow Mountains by Catherine Ann PhotographyPhotos of Glendalough in Wicklow Mountains by Catherine Ann PhotographyPhotos of Glendalough in Wicklow Mountains by Catherine Ann PhotographyPhotos of Glendalough in Wicklow Mountains by Catherine Ann PhotographyPhotos of Glendalough in Wicklow Mountains by Catherine Ann Photography

Kilkenny

Our next destination was the medieval city of Kilkenny! We stayed at a Victorian era hotel in the heart of the city but this was so we only had to park the car in a garage and just leave it there the whole time (neither of us likes to drive in cities, coming and going was already stressful so we didnt want to do it more than once). I loved exploring Kilkenny Castle and seeing all of the Victorian era furniture inside. Its so crazy that it was built in the year 1213! We checked out the pub Kytelers Inn, famous for belonging to Dame Alice Kyteler in the 1300’s and she was the first person accused of witchcraft in Europe! All because people were jealous of her wealth that she accumulated after the deaths of 4 husbands. She fled to England and her maid Petronella was burned at the stake in her place.

We took the Smithwicks tour for Jay, though they no longer brew the beer there, but mostly we walked around the Medieval Mile. We also spent a day in our hotel room due to shitty weather (vacations are also supposed to be a time to relax, ya know?!)

Kilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyKilkenny Ireland photos by Catherine Ann Photography

Lismore Castle

 

We werent planning on visiting Lismore Castle but Im so glad we did! We were on our way to Cobh but I realized we couldnt check into our B&B for a while so I pulled up historic attractions near us and Lismore Castle popped up – it was on the way to Cobh so we werent going out of our way. I was a little disappointed when we arrived though because we were told it was just the gardens that were open to the public – the castle was a private home! We decided to tour the gardens anyway (I am a fucking sucker for historic gardens, The Secret Garden was my jam as a kid and I wanted to be Mary…yes I know she was a sad orphan). The upper gardens have been around since the castle was built around the 1200’s and the poet Edmund Spencer visited in the 1580’s and wrote The Faerie Queen when he was inpsired by it. The lower garden was constructed in the 19th century and was my personal favorite (again, my love of The Secret Garden).

Fun fact: Fred Astaire’s sister Adele married the Duke of Cavendish, owner of the castle, in the 1940’s and became the Duchess of Cavendish!

Lismore Castle pictures by Catherine Ann PhotographyLismore Castle pictures by Catherine Ann PhotographyLismore Castle pictures by Catherine Ann PhotographyLismore Castle pictures by Catherine Ann PhotographyLismore Castle pictures by Catherine Ann PhotographyLismore Castle pictures by Catherine Ann PhotographyLismore Castle pictures by Catherine Ann PhotographyLismore Castle pictures by Catherine Ann PhotographyLismore Castle pictures by Catherine Ann PhotographyLismore Castle pictures by Catherine Ann PhotographyLismore Castle pictures by Catherine Ann PhotographyLismore Castle pictures by Catherine Ann PhotographyLismore Castle pictures by Catherine Ann PhotographyLismore Castle pictures by Catherine Ann PhotographyLismore Castle pictures by Catherine Ann Photography

Cobh

Oh Cobh. Pronounced COVE we learned. It was originally called Cove, then called Queenstown after Queen Victoria paid a visit, and then after the Irish gained independence they called it Cobh which is the Gaelic spelling of Cove.

Youre welcome for saving you the embarrassment of calling it COB to Irish people…

Anyway! So we loved Cobh! We adored our Victorian B&B, called Elmsville (Olive the owner was so fun to chat with fireside at night with cups of tea), and we loved walking around the downtown area which was only a 5 minute waterfront walk from our B&B. The skyline is absolutely DOMINATED by this cathedral, it literally took our breaths away. I lost my shit when I got to go into the ORIGINAL WHITE STAR LINE OFFICE, which houses their Titanic experience. This office was where the very last passengers of the Titanic boarded and where 7 very lucky passengers disembarked. On the tour you get a boarding pass with a name and class on it of a real life passenger that boarded the ship from Cobh and at the end of the tour you find out if they lived or died.

When I saw that we were both in 3rd class I turned to Jay and said “$40 says we both died”. He was convinced he lived. The poor fool, thinking he knew more about the Titanic than I…
We both died.

It was pretty surreal to look out at the harbor, standing on the balcony that Titanic passengers stood on, not knowing what awful fate was about to hit them. The original dock is still there too though it is in terrible condition. It was known as Heart Break Pier because back then a steamship ticket was so expensive that when you left your country the chance of seeing your friends and family again were pretty much zero, so a lot of people had their hearts broken saying goodbye to loved ones on it.

Another terrible maritime tragedy that hit Cobh was the sinking of the Lusitania just 12 miles off the coast. Many survivors (and the dead) were brought to Cobh. I knew quite a bit about the Lusitania but I decided to finally buy the book Dead Wake by Erik Larson about the sinking and read it in 2 days while we were in the city. It was kinda weird and cool to be sitting in the city and trying to imagine survivors wandering around.

However, not all was bad in Cobh! The very first immigrant to go through the brand new Ellis Island was an Irish girl named Annie Moore and she left Ireland through Cobh (-: so theres a statue in her honor!

My own grandmother actually emigrated to America via Cobh in the 40’s so that was really surreal for me to walk around the city and trying to picture my grandma as a young lady about to leave behind her homeland & family. Im making her a book full of our Ireland photos since we visited her hometown 2 years ago so I’ve got plenty to shove in there for her (-:

We did go to Cork City for a few hours. We didnt like it…

Cobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann PhotographyCobh Ireland photos by Catherine Ann Photography

Stay tuned for the second half of our trip!

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Catherine Ann Photography is an international luxury wedding photography team creating colorful, documentary images for fun, fashionable party people in the U.S & Europe!

 

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