I feel a little sad writing this blog post as its the end of the Emerald Adventures series, so its kinda like Im leaving Ireland all over again.
Belfast
For the last leg of our journey, we started in Northern Ireland which is actually part of the UK. Our home base was a super cute boutique hotel in Belfast because, hello, this is where the Titanic was built, and while I HATE large ships, Ive always been obsessed with the Titanic. On the first day we decided to just walk around downtown Belfast and take pictures. We somehow ended up at City Hall and there was a sign outside saying FREE HISTORIC TOURS – um, yeah. We’re totally doing that.
So we popped inside and my jaw hit the floor. You guys. Belfast knows whats up. Belfast built the Titanic for a reason. This is flippin City Hall, and it was like walking into a palace. I mean the outside was super nice, but I wasn’t expecting the interior! Anyway, we go on the tour and we start to learn…
First, this is the City Crest of Belfast. I think the thing on the right & top are seahorses.
A statue of Queen Victoria. Ladies, you can thank her for being the reason we all wear white wedding dresses.
Is this a public city building or is this a palace? I dunno…
SERIOUSLY, WHICH IS IT?!
I was bummed to find out that this wasnt the original light, I think that one was destroyed in WWII, but its an exact replica
Ok, anytime you see hand carved wood in City Hall you almost get a sense of what the Titanic interior looked like because the SAME craftsmen worked on both places! Ugh. So much talent. Why dont people put this much effort into places today?
I dont remember why but King George & Queen Elizabeth (the current Queen’s mum) sat in these chairs and then during WWII they were in hidden in the basement (the chairs not the King) and they were down there for a super long time and the chairs started to rot.
They used to hold city balls in this room! Again, the wood is by the Titanic builders
For once, Pinterest did not lead me astray. I found an article saying that I HAD to go to The Crown Saloon in Belfast because its the oldest bar in the city and gorgeous…and it was right! The downstairs was too crowded so we didnt get to sit in the awesome old timey booths but we did pop upstairs to eat lunch.
We made a last minute decision to go to the Titanic Museum. I didnt want to at first because the website didnt make it sound all that interesting, but now Im glad we did because of this little ship right here: The Nomadic. This is the only existing White Star Line ship in the world. For those of you who dont know, WSL built the Titanic. The Nomadic was used as a ferry boat for passengers to board WSL ships, including the Titanic. Prominent Titanic passengers such as Margaret Brown & John Jacob Astor rode the Nomadic to board the doomed Titanic.
Aghavannagh Barracks
We used Air B&B for the first time ever while in Ireland and I wanted to stay in places that were “unique”. Thats how I found Aghavannagh Barracks! This place was built in the 1700’s by the British army and its one of 4 along a route called Military Road and it goes from Dublin down to Waterford I think. It used to be a youth hostel back in the day and was abandoned in the 1990’s. The current owners, Veronica & Rory, live here with their super adorable children and their dog and they put a lot of time and love into restoring this place. Every morning we would wake up and the 4 of them would be in the garden working.
Kilruddery House
This was actually the last thing we did in Ireland and so its kinda special! Kilruddery House is still owned and lived in by the same family that built it in 1651. Theres only one room that dates back to that time period still standing. As per usual with these kinds of places, no photography was permitted inside. Ok, like, I get not using FLASH photography, but come on people! Let me take photooooos.
Also, I would LOVE to photograph a Kilruddery House wedding one day!
On our tour we were told that this building is a Victorian dairy barn (now a tea shop!) and it was built for the ladies of the house as a fun past time. Jay did NOT understand how that would be a “fun past time” and I had to explain to him. Sometimes his lack of historical knowledge makes me chuckle.
I love the story behind this Orangery (in the states we call this a Conservatory). So back in the 1800’s England put on the World Exhibition and the Crystal Palace was built to house it. It suddenly became fashionable to have your own mini Crystal Palace aka an Orangery (why that name, I dont know). The lady of the house wanted her own Orangery but her husband said no because they had already put too much money into other repairs and updatings of the house. This woman was ahead of her time. She basically said “F u honey, I want an Orangery and Im getting it” so she sold her TIARA to fund this project. They say that the design on the top of the building is supposed to look like her Tiara (-: Pretty neat!
Giants Causeway & The Dark Hedges
Jay was really excited to go to the Giants Causeway from all the photos he saw on Pinterest. I’ll say that we were both disappointed in this place. I think it was mostly because of how crowded it was since its a huge tourist spot. He was sad because it was super overcast and he couldnt get a decent landscape photo. Right after that we arrived at the Dark Hedges, also a big tourist spot but we got lucky and there werent too many people. We did wait a while to get no one in our photos though. For you Game of Thrones fans this road was used as the Kings Road.
Loftus Hall
Loftus Hall is supposedly the most haunted house in Ireland – so of course, I had to visit! I will say the tour was good but it was also done the way I dont like ghost tours to be (theatrics). But that somehow didnt completely ruin it. Anyway, I first heard of Loftus Hall when I watched an episode of Ghost Adventures. Again, we werent allowed to take photos inside the house, which was a right shame because the main staircase? The staircase at Loftus Hall has 2 sisters – one is at the Vatican and the other is on the bottom on the Atlantic (Titanic). I wanted a photo damnit! Anyway, it was a private home for hundreds of years, then it was sold to nuns (they say 2 nuns were found dead on the beach and one died from falling down the stairs in the house), and then it was turned into a hotel which then shut down but the owner lived there for many years after he husband passed but one day she left. She got up and left everything behind and never came back. Now the people who own it do ghost tours and all the proceeds are going into restoring the rest of the house.
After Loftus Hall, we went down the road to Hook Head light house which was built in the 1100’s and is one of the oldest lighthouses in the world.
Altamonte Gardens
When we first arrived at Altamonte Gardens at 9:30am I was a little nervous because we were the only people there and I thought we were trespassing or something! Then we saw people setting up for a wedding and I was like “Im not sure we should be here??” but Jay powered through and I followed. It was so beautiful! I kept imagining myself living out Pride & Prejudice (the Kiera Knightly version). By the time we looped back to the house, there were a ton of people wandering the gardens and I felt better. I’d love to photograph a wedding at Altamonte Gardens too!
Huntington Castle
Huntington Castle is the second castle we stayed at in Ireland. During the day its open to the public to tour the gardens and have a pot of tea, but they also rent out a few rooms on air bnb which is how I found it. The current owners ancestors built the castle in 1625 – Charleston wasn’t even a twinkle in someones eye at that time! We are infants compared to Europe. The gardens were so pretty and were laid out in the 1680’s. And guess what? You can get MARRIED here! So if you need a photographer for your Huntington Castle wedding, we’d love to chat!
Powerscourt House
I really loved exploring the grounds of Powerscourt House but to be honest, I was disappointed when we arrived because I learned that its not a house tour…the house has been turned into shops! The exterior was nice though. I think a fire ravaged the interior and they renovated half the house to hold the shops but you CAN have a wedding at Powerscourt House!
It didnt rain the WHOLE time we were there (-;
