Donegal Castle and the Giants Causeway

The Sandhouse Hotel is a pretty nice place to be. The breakfast is pretty nice because we sit in a dining room that overlooks the beach. They serve you on fancy china too. My fruit bowl was on a pedestal!

After our first breakfast here we went to the Donegal Castle. The coolest thing about that castle was the “bathroom”. It was a fairly large room with a wooden bench along one wall. The bench had a butt-sized hole in it. They said there was a shoot that went to a hole underground. It made both of us laugh… the first indoor plumbing!!











We spent most of the rest of the day relaxing. It was sort of a nasty day anyhow and we didn’t really feel like going out on the beach and getting wet and cold. It was nice to just hang out. We spend a good chunk of our afternoon sitting in front of our window watching a surfing class. We couldn’t believe that these crazy people would put on a wetsuit that went from head to toe and try and surf in the rain in freezing cold water. It was also very fun to watch them wipe out!

We woke early the next morning and left for Northern Ireland. We had a couple of things we wanted to do before we checked into our castle.


Our first stop was the Bushmills Distillery. I’m not really a fan of whiskey, but the tour was very interesting. Apparently Bushmills is the oldest licensed distillery in the world! They are also the only distillery in Ireland that does the entire process on the premises. I was happy that we skipped the Jameson Distillery in Dublin in favor of this one. As we went through the bottling rooms, she explained that they bottle Jameson’s whiskey for them! The barrels they use for some of their whiskey come from the US. They use second hand barrels from Kentucky because it gives their whiskey a unique character.

Of course, the tour came with a free drink. Even though I don’t care for whiskey, I have to admit that it was very nice. We opted for a taste of the 12 year, triple distilled, single malt whiskey. You can only find that at their distillery, they don’t sell it anywhere else in the world.

After the distillery tour we drove a few minutes to the Giants Causeway. It was a nasty day and since we were at the beach it was also very windy. You can imagine the lovely sideways rain we experienced. That part was a little disappointing, but we made the best of it. I took lots of pictures and I hope to frame a couple of them.

We wanted to go to the rope bridge too, but they were closing so we just headed to the castle.









Dungiven Castle was the big finale to our trip. I have to admit that I was a little bit underwhelmed. The outside of the castle was cool, but once we got inside we realized it had been completely rebuilt. It was still nice though. High ceilings, tapestries, suits of armor and candelabras  made the modern surroundings seem a little more old world. It was also a little bit frustrating that even though we were the only guests staying there, they put us in their smallest room.

Despite being in cramped quarters, we enjoyed our stay. It was nice to have a shower that actually had good water pressure… something we’d been lacking since entering Ireland. The bed was also the softest bed I’ve ever slept in! I’m still not completely sure it was worth what we paid, but it was comfortable.