Motorcycle in Ireland, back to the roads of the Emerald Isle

Good weather and some free time had me thinking about where to go for a short break – and to be honest on this occasion I wasn’t really thinking of anywhere other than Scotland or Ireland.

Regular readers will know I was in Ireland on my bike a couple of times last year (2022) and you can check out the first trip here and the second trip here.

I also spent an excellent couple of weeks there later in 2022 when my wife and I went across in the car.

On that trip we stayed in three very different but quite superb locations. There’s plenty of pictures and information about where we stayed and where we visited posted over on my rainycity blog – here’s the link to Part One of that trip.

I would have liked to have stayed longer but …

Although this was to be my fourth trip to Ireland in the last 12 months I was probably looking forward to it just as much, if not more than my first trip.

Ideally it would have been good to have stayed longer but my son and I had tickets to the FA Cup Final at Wembley on the Saturday which reduced my flexibility a little.

I needed to give myself a little contingency time to make sure I was back for that, nevertheless despite it being a fairly short trip I had another wonderful time motorcycling in the Emerald Isle.

Overnight in Anglesey

I took the Sunday morning Stena Line ferry from Holyhead in Anglesey to Dublin. It’s a pretty decent crossing and once off the boat it is quite easy to get away from the port without entering the city of Dublin.

As I was on booked on the morning ferry, I decided I would stay over in Anglesey on the Saturday night. Finding accomodation there was untypically difficult. It seemed almost everywhere was fully booked up.

I ended up staying in Beaumaris a small town at the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait.

Although the hotel I stayed in was generally decent enough, my room wasn’t great (think shoe box proportions). The staff were kind and accommodating, there was somewhere to park my bike and it was convenient for the 25 minute journey to the port on Sunday morning for the 09:00 crossing, but on the basis of what I paid for the tiny room, it isn’t accomodation I could recommend or a place I would stay at again.

Good company

The ferry crossing was completely routine and I would say that paying a little extra for the Stena Plus lounge is worth it. It’s a comfortable environment with a decent selection of refreshments provided throughout the  the journey.

On this trip I was sat next to a couple who were heading to Dublin for a few days and then directly on to Scotland.

We struck up a conversation and whiled away the time swapping travel stories of places been and places to go, family and football.

Bill and Lisa were from Montana in the western United States and were on what sounded like a superb trip in Europe. It’s fair to say that my journey and day were all the better for meeting them.

 

 

Anglesey pictures

Clicking on any of the images below will open a picture gallery that can be clicked or scrolled through. Scroll down past the gallery for more from my trip and my stay in Mulranny.

Off the ferry and heading for Mulranny

On my second trip to Ireland last year one of the places I stayed at was Mulranny.  Oddly enough it has multiple ways of being spelt including  ‘Mallaranny’, ‘Mulrany’,^] ‘Malaranny’, ‘Mullaranny’, ‘Mullranny’ or ‘Mulranny

I suppose you might describe Mulranny as something of a very small seaside village. It’s in County Mayo, which is lovely and I’m pretty sure it’s a place I’ll be going back to at some point.

I booked the same accomodation in Mulranny as I had stayed in last year  Mary’s of Mulranny.  Mary who owns and manages it (yes I know there was quite a clue in the name) is a superb host.

Happy to recommend this place

I can only repeat more or less what I wrote last year when I stayed there.

My priorities for travelling on a motorbike were easily met: decent parking for my bike (at the back of the property), a good shower, tea and coffee making facilities in the room and a comfortable bed.

It’s accomomdation only but given there is a pub within a two minute walk that is friendly, serves good food and has fantastic views from the outside veranda, sorting an evening meal out is easy. There is also a local shop that is ideal for a takeaway breakfast as well as apizza/burger type take away.

The accomodation is just right

I said last time that I thought Mary has got things just right and there was nothing on this trip to make me think otherwise. Mary is essentially someone who is kind, decent and helpful and has got her accomomodation  well sorted.

From the Port of Dublin Mulranny ia about 180 or so miles and it’s an easy route from east to west. I was off the boat and away from the port for around 12:30 or so and was in Muranny before 5pm

One of the reasons I went back to Mulranny was that I wanted to check out Achill Island.

Last year after leaving Mary’s I spent a long time sheltering in a bus shelter from an absolute storm which in turn meant that I didn’t get to go to the island – but this time there were no such issues and with near perfect weather I set off after breakfast on Monday to have a day that I think ranks in my top 20 days ever on a motorbike. You can read about that in Part 2 by clicking this link.

Sunday picture gallery

Clicking on any of the images below will open a picture gallery that can be clicked or scrolled through