Clifden Chronicles: Connemara's Jewel in County Galway, Ireland

Clifden, Connemara & Lough Rynn Castle: Sky Road, Kylemore Abbey + Our Scariest Hike

Brittany and Josh recap two standout stops from their Ireland trip: a splurge night at Lough Rynn Castle Hotel after Teelin and several days in Clifden, County Galway. They describe the castle’s welcoming staff, luxurious room features like a heated bathroom floor, drinks by the fireplace, and a multi-course dinner with wine pairings (including seared Atlantic tuna, roasted chicken supreme, beef filet, chocolate fondant, and rhubarb mousse), plus a peaceful winter walk through the walled gardens and grounds. In Clifden they stay at the cozy Ben View Inn, run by siblings Eileen and Des Morris, enjoy breakfasts, and share tips about booking directly and traveling off-season—though many restaurants and a Sky Road coffee cart were closed. Highlights include driving the Sky Road, meeting horses, hiking the challenging Upper/Lower Diamond Loop with views of Kylemore Abbey, visiting the abbey’s tour and chocolate shop, and sampling local food at Guys, EJ King’s (including a spice bag), and Griffin’s Pub, plus live music with TikTok friend Sam at McGrath’s and Lowry’s.

00:00 Welcome and Overview

00:39 Castle Stay Dreams

02:44 Bar and Dinner Feast

05:04 Staff Stories and Visas

06:39 Morning Gardens Walk

08:18 Booking Tips Off Season

10:16 Clifden Ben View Inn

13:31 Sky Road Scenic Drive

15:04 Diamond Hill Hike Fears

18:20 Hike Stats and Wrap

20:25 Off Season Dining

21:24 Meeting Sam Live Music

22:57 Kylemore Abbey Tips

24:35 Clifden Food Highlights

27:20 Small Town Living Feel

29:53 Sky Road Beauty

30:17 Would We Live Here

31:24 Why Clifden Is Worth It

32:15 Travel Stillness Reflections

34:25 Trip Blueprint Car Rental

37:26 Final Thoughts Next Stop

@WSMHtravels

Transcript

brit 0:11

Hello and welcome to the We Should Move Here Travels podcast. My name is Brittany.

josh 0:17

I'm Josh

brit 0:18

and we are your hosts. Today we are gonna be talking about Clifden and the Lough Rynn Castle.

josh 0:26

yeah, A couple amazing stops on our Ireland adventure and we've been home for a couple weeks now recording, and I miss them both already.

brit 0:35

Yeah, me too. These stops were truly amazing. After Teelin, we stopped at the Lough Rynn Castle. Mm-hmm. And that was absolutely incredible. I wish we could have stayed longer, but it was pretty expensive to stay there just for the night. Mm-hmm. So I'm glad we splurged a little bit and did it because staying in a castle just like hits a little different than anywhere else. I know sometimes I act like I'm a princess, but like I truly felt like a princess.

josh 1:06

This was one of your wishlist items for Ireland was staying in a castle?

brit 1:12

Yeah. Well, we got to do it in Scotland. Well, it was in Abbey, but it was basically a freaking castle, I just really appreciated that time in Scotland and I wanted to do it again. So that was on my wishlist. Yeah.

josh 1:29

If I'm being honest, this wasn't quite the level of the Abbey, I think the Abbey, the setting Just the small town around it. Scotland in general just had a little more to it, but this castle was still amazing. If you're looking for a place to stay

brit 1:47

Yeah.

josh 1:47

For a night or a couple nights if you have the opportunity to.

brit 1:50

Yeah. Well, the Abbey in Scotland was right on Loch Ness, and it was, more of like an Airbnb situation. Mm-hmm. Whereas this was a castle that was converted into a hotel.

josh 2:04

Yeah.

brit 2:04

so it was really nice though. the dinner, the accommodation, the bar area, everything was so beautiful and so delicious. I really appreciated the time here.

josh 2:21

From the moment we stepped on the grounds, we were greeted by the staff who were very helpful. We went to our room, which was like you said, stunning, comfortable, heated bathroom floor.

brit 2:34

Yeah.

josh 2:36

Felt like true royalty. With that,

brit 2:39

we were living the life we were

josh 2:42

for the less than 24 hours we were there. before dinner, we had some. Gin and tonics at the bar area? Yeah, and like the fireplace bar room, which was super nice.

brit 2:53

I will say this is one of the only times on this whole trip we got a little turned up. I mean, we had the gin and tonics. We had wine at dinner, which we paired with each course of the meal. And then we had a Guinness after dinner. So we were feeling pretty good at the end of the night.

josh 3:21

But like you said, it was wonderful. Dinner was delicious. What did we have for dinner there?

brit 3:26

so we had a couple different courses to start. We had a amuse bouch, We had a sliced carrot puree with sliced carrot on top. that was really nice. And then a lemon sorbet to cleanse the palette after that. And then for our appetizer, we had a seared Atlantic tuna, which was delicious. Ugh. I loved it. It was so good. the outside was seared, the middle was raw. It was really, really good. And then for dinner, we had the roasted chicken supreme and the beef filet, which again, delicious. absolutely loved the roasted chicken. I would highly recommend that dish. And then for dessert, we had the chocolate fondant and rhubarb mousse. I remember really loving the chocolate fondant, which was like a chocolate lava cake basically. And I love anything chocolate, so it was so good though. this whole meal it was super fancy. a place where you knew that you were gonna be taken care of. a place where I kind of felt like out of place a little bit, which I love putting myself in those situations. Right. Um, just'cause they don't happen very often and sometimes it's fun to act like, I don't know, royalty. Mm-hmm. But that does not mean that you're not nice to your servers when you're acting like royalty because the server was incredible. She had just, moved from, where did she move from?

josh 5:16

I wanna say Spain.

brit 5:18

Oh yes. It was Spain. so she was from Spain and she was doing like a, a work visa

josh 5:24

mm-hmm.

brit 5:24

Kind of thing. And we got to know her a little bit. She was so kind, so sweet.

josh 5:29

Really nice. And we've seen that on a lot of our trips now since we started the podcast where young adults come from many different countries to do a holiday work visa or something similar and just save up money, explore.

brit 5:47

Yeah.

josh 5:47

And then once they've had their fun or they're ready to move on to the next thing, they go somewhere else or they go back home. So she said, I, I think she said she was gonna try to be going to Canada next, if I remember correctly too.

brit 6:00

Yeah. She also said she wanted to come to the States and we were like, maybe hold off until we get a different administration.

josh 6:08

Wait till everything cools down a little bit.

brit 6:10

Yeah. Because right now like immigration, no way. I would never recommend somebody from another country to move here right now.

josh 6:20

Well, it's just unfortunate'cause you're not a hundred percent sure if you know you're gonna be welcomed with open arms. Yeah. Even if you come about legally.

brit 6:30

Yeah.

josh 6:31

So unfortunate. But regardless, staff was fantastic, really great place to stay. The next morning we woke up and we took a walk around the grounds.

brit 6:42

Mm-hmm.

josh 6:43

In the gardens along the lake. Wonderful.

brit 6:47

It was so beautiful. No, it was stunning. I really appreciated that walk. so we took a walk around the walled gardens. Mm-hmm. And then we walked around the rest of the grounds. Mm-hmm. And there was, I remember this cute little bridge that I was like, can we walk on that? Because it looked like old and mm-hmm. Like, it was gonna cave it and you're just like, ah, fuck it. And you just like, walk out there. And I'm like, oh my God, if you fall through into that river. But then I was like, Ugh, if he can do it, I can do it. So I walked out there too, but

josh 7:28

just a, just a little encouragement is all you needed.

brit 7:32

Yeah. I don't even know if you knew that was going through my mind.

josh 7:36

No. But the walled gardens, even though. We went in the winter, and so it wasn't really much of a garden area.

brit 7:48

Yeah,

josh 7:48

because everything was dormant. It was still beautiful. We were the only ones out there in the morning, so it was a really nice walk. Just really nice. I can imagine how much nicer it'd be when everything's in full bloom. Maybe late spring, summertime. Mm-hmm. Maybe even early fall with different color leaves on the trees. But it was still lovely. Really enjoyed it.

brit 8:10

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I bet in the fall it is absolutely beautiful.

josh 8:14

Mm-hmm.

brit 8:15

We just gotta go back.

josh 8:16

Yeah. Gotta go back. And this was a place where. Because you wanted to stay in a castle. We had looked at a few different options and through the website we're able to book this with the dinner included, obviously an upcharge for the dinner.

brit 8:33

Mm-hmm.

josh 8:34

But came out to a pretty decent deal as far as we thought. A night in this castle. And then the dinner as well.

brit 8:44

Yeah. Because we were staying there in the winter.

josh 8:47

Mm-hmm.

brit 8:47

It gave us a pretty good deal.

josh 8:49

Yeah.

brit 8:50

so definitely look on the website. If you are looking to stay here and it's kind of off season, you can probably get a deal.

josh 8:57

Yeah. And I think that goes for a lot of places. We used to be very travelocity, booking.com. Mm-hmm. People, but now we're definitely cross checking with the website.'cause a lot of times they want you to book right through them to avoid the fees you we'll still book through booking.com and travel velocity sometimes because of points or specials they have going on. We've been getting a lot more hits on the websites as of recent, so

brit 9:27

yeah, we have been, which I, I think is really interesting because we've also been traveling during the off season. Mm-hmm. Or we've been trying to do that, so I wonder if there's more deals on the websites because of that. Mm-hmm. So I wonder if that's also like a, a suggestion I would have is maybe travel during the off season. You're not gonna, get all of the tours and all of the things you might want during the tourist season. Mm-hmm. So maybe weigh your options if that's something that's worth it to you, take it into consideration for

josh 10:02

sure.

brit 10:02

If, if you're coming here

josh 10:03

plus as we will get into in this one, if you come during the off season in Ireland and some of these places, it's gonna be a lot. Narrower or slimmer

brit 10:13

mm-hmm.

josh 10:14

Options for

brit 10:16

you. Mm-hmm.

josh 10:16

Um, because after the castle we went to our next stop Clifden.

brit 10:21

Mm-hmm.

josh 10:22

And we stayed at the Ben View Inn there.

brit 10:25

Oh my gosh. I loved it here.

josh 10:27

Mm.

brit 10:28

The Ben View Inn was so cute.

josh 10:31

Yeah.

brit 10:31

it was like the cutest little B&B.

josh 10:33

Mm-hmm.

brit 10:34

In the middle of town.

josh 10:36

Yeah.

brit 10:36

So cute.

josh 10:37

Really great location. Easy access. In and out parking right there. It's not included with it, but street parking is insanely cheap. And then you can just walk the whole town from right there.

brit 10:50

Yeah. And we got breakfast every morning there. Mm-hmm. I think we missed one morning, but every morning you got the Irish breakfast and I got the pancakes.

josh 10:59

Mm-hmm.

brit 11:00

Because there were, I think, three options and one of them was smoked salmon.

josh 11:06

Mm-hmm.

brit 11:06

Right?

josh 11:07

Yeah. Yeah. I believe smoked salmon was one of them, but because you're not a smoked salmon fan, we just, we decided not to go with that, so we could still split the, split the breakfast.

brit 11:17

Yeah. So we split those breakfasts every morning and, the pancakes were incredible there. Mm-hmm. So good.

josh 11:25

this place was, is run by Eileen and Des Morris brother and sister. Really fun people. Des was there the majority of the time that we were there, and he gave us lots of suggestions on where to go to eat, what to go to see around the peninsula. Just a really great fun gentleman.

brit 11:45

Yeah. And one of your old family names is Morris. It is. And we didn't find that out his last name out.

josh 11:51

Mm-hmm.

brit 11:51

Until the end.

josh 11:53

Yeah.

brit 11:53

Uh, which is interesting. Mm-hmm. You guys couldn't, could have been related.

josh 11:58

Yeah. It could have been. One of my uncles has done some family research and the Galway, Donegal area is kind of where some of my family is from back before they immigrated to the United States. So who knows? regardless, really great people would suggest staying there. especially in the off season. There are other places you can stay, but. This was one that was open.

brit 12:26

Yeah. I really appreciated how, clean the room was.

josh 12:31

Mm-hmm.

brit 12:31

And the breakfast. I think those are the two highlights that I'll give this place. And it's just like a really, a cute and cozy kind of vibe.

josh 12:42

Mm-hmm.

brit 12:42

So cute. Um, which I think is what they're going for. And they nailed it.

josh 12:47

Yeah, for sure.

brit 12:49

So,

josh 12:49

and all the Bed and Breakfast, we've stayed in on all of our trips so far. We make sure they have en suite bathrooms because not our. Ideal situation to be sharing bathrooms with other people while we're on these trips. So,

brit 13:03

yeah, that's a no go for me.

josh 13:05

So it, it had an en suite bathroom and this was one that I think we had to book through the website and I actually had to email back and forth with'em. So it's worth the effort to, to have to book through email or book through someone's website similar to Lough Rynn and now Ben View. So yeah, I think that's a good suggestion, like you said, is to kind of dig deeper, go into the websites instead of

brit 13:28

Yeah.

josh 13:29

The usual booking or travelocities.

brit 13:31

As far as Clifden goes.

josh 13:33

Mm-hmm.

brit 13:34

I really loved Clifden. I would compare Clifden and Teelin a little bit because there were cliffs in Clifden. Well, on the outside of Clifden, if you take a drive or if you're a brave soul, a walk, down sky road. It is incredible. It's so beautiful. Mm-hmm. We met a horse, we met two horses Yep. on this drive, and we stopped over to say hi to them and they were so sweet. But they get this stunning view all day, every day. And they're just overlooking the ocean. And they have all of this like mountainside with tons of fresh grass to eat. Like they're just such happy horses. Yeah. It is truly so beautiful and we loved every minute of exploring around this area.

josh 14:38

Mm-hmm. We did so much driving we did another great hike here. It just another place. There's so much to do.

brit 14:48

Yeah.

josh 14:49

And like you said, the Sky Road. Very well known and for good reason.

brit 14:54

Yeah. Look up the sky road.

josh 14:56

Mm-hmm.

brit 14:57

It's, it's insane with the beauty.

josh 15:00

Mm-hmm.

brit 15:01

It's just so wild. Ugh. It was so beautiful. We also, like you mentioned, did this hike.

josh 15:08

yeah. We went ahead and did the upper lower diamond loop.

brit 15:14

Mm-hmm.

josh 15:15

Yes.

brit 15:15

Yeah. Yeah.

josh 15:18

This was definitely on the All Trails app, a moderate, but it could have been a high difficulty hike for sure.

brit 15:29

It was much harder than the first one that we did.

josh 15:32

Mm-hmm.

brit 15:33

Um, it was much scarier than the first one we did. I wish I knew going in, but then I wouldn't have done it. I'm really proud of us and happy that we did it, and it's a huge accomplishment, I think that we did it. however, I will say, I don't think I wanna do a hike like this again. It was really scary. There were points where I was like, I was shaking because we're like on the edge of this cliff and we have to climb basically up these rocks. Um, and at one point I'm like on the hands and knees on these rocks because I'm too short to make the step and one wrong move. And you're like on the bottom,

josh 16:24

you weren't gonna fall. I was. You're splat right there.

brit 16:28

Oh my God. It was so scary

josh 16:29

there. There were some parts where it was steep and like you said, you had to have both feet down, both hands holding on.

brit 16:38

I just don't think I wanna do more hikes like this. I loved the first one that we did. That was probably the extent of what I wanna do. Mm-hmm. On future hikes. I'm just not the kind of, uh, heights and cliff person that this hike entailed me to be.

josh 16:59

But the view at the top was definitely worth it.

brit 17:02

The view at the top was so beautiful.

josh 17:05

Mm-hmm.

brit 17:05

You could see the abbey from there. Mm-hmm. So there's an abbey, uh, called Kylemore.

josh 17:12

Yep. Kylemore.

brit 17:12

Abbey, Kylemore Abbey. Really beautiful. You can see all of the lakes, all of the mountains around you. It was, it was pretty cool. Yeah. It was stunning to see up there.

josh 17:23

I enjoyed it. We just have a, a different sort of liking for,'cause I enjoy those moments where it's like, you gotta be meticulous with your, with where you put your feet in, how you climb up things. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was nice. I'm not saying it was better than the first one and Wicklow or the next one when we were in Donegal.

brit 17:46

Yeah.

josh 17:46

But that view at top, I was, I was blown away by it for sure. Yeah. And it, it's definitely a popular one. There was a pretty good crowd hiking it when we were there, even at this time of year. Mm-hmm.

brit 18:00

So

josh 18:01

it'd be interesting for people to say if it's even more busy during like high tour season.

brit 18:08

Yeah. Oh, I'm sure it is. Mm-hmm. I'm sure it's really busy. there were quite a bit of people I, I enjoyed it. I did like it. And when we got to the top, it felt worth it.

josh 18:19

Yeah.

brit 18:20

And then we had to come down.

josh 18:22

Mm-hmm.

brit 18:23

And here's the thing. I fall a lot. I am, I'm not a graceful human. Okay. I fall, and if I fell on this hike, I would've died. Okay?

josh 18:43

Don't get me wrong. There were points where if you would've fallen a very specific way, could someone die? Absolutely. this was a. four hour hike, almost five miles over 1200 feet of elevation gain. So not even quite as high as we did on our first one, I don't think.

brit 19:04

Mm-hmm. In the Wicklow Mountains.

josh 19:06

Yeah.

brit 19:06

it's steeper in the first one for sure.

josh 19:09

Yes, absolutely. That one took longer because you're slowly ascending for a very long time. This is like

brit 19:16

mm-hmm.

josh 19:19

You go straight up.

brit 19:20

Yeah. No. At one point you're like looking down and you're about to go up and you're like, how the fuck are we getting up there? I remember looking up and I'm like, we're not going up there. How? That's not possible. You need to rock, climb to get up there.

josh 19:38

Faced our fears and we did it.

brit 19:40

We sure did.

josh 19:41

And for people who are listening, if you haven't listened to our Teelin or Wicklow episodes, we did some beautiful hikes on there as well. If you're looking for some hikes.

brit 19:49

Yeah. And if hiking is not your thing, we have many other things that we did too, so stay tuned.

josh 19:55

Mm-hmm.

brit 19:55

If hiking is your thing or even just walking is your thing, I highly recommend you do some hikes

josh 20:02

mm-hmm.

brit 20:02

In Ireland because it is stunning here and you will miss out.

josh 20:07

Yeah.

brit 20:07

If you're looking for the nature kind of vibes Yeah. From Ireland. Mm-hmm. So. I'm glad we did them.

josh 20:14

Huge part of our trip. Of course.

brit 20:16

Yeah.

josh 20:16

Otherwise driving it. Like we said, sky Road was lovely. with it being off season, there was supposed to be a coffee cart out there that we tried to go to twice. Just wasn't open for the season yet.

brit 20:27

Yeah.

josh 20:28

And that was a struggle that you had at this section'cause there was a lot of places closed.

brit 20:35

There were so many places closed. We for dinner every single night we went to the same place, which was guys.

josh 20:42

Mm-hmm.

brit 20:42

Which was incredible.

josh 20:44

Minus one night we went to EJ King's.

brit 20:46

Oh yes. Yes. Mm-hmm. It was incredible and I loved it, but I also really appreciate being able to explore different restaurants in a city.

josh 20:56

Mm-hmm.

brit 20:57

Um, I think it helps me kind of envision what date nights would look like with you.

josh 21:01

Yeah.

brit 21:01

and I really loved guys. I think every single meal was delicious. Mm-hmm. It was a really cozy atmosphere. EJ King's was really nice too. That was more of like a pub atmosphere. Yep. I really did want more restaurants. I was wishing at that time that not everything was closed.

josh 21:23

Yeah.

brit 21:24

And we met up with, uh, Sam

josh 21:27

mm-hmm.

brit 21:28

Who we had found on, well, he had found us on TikTok.

josh 21:32

Yeah.

brit 21:33

he plays music, And it, it was incredible. I mean, he plays really good music and I really enjoyed listening and, I don't know, exploring the town with him that one night.

josh 21:45

Yeah. Yeah. his family's pub is McGrath's, which just happened to be a hundred yards from Ben View Inn. Didn't plan that at all. It just turned out that way. He told us that we had to come listen to him play, and we did for a couple nights. Really great. His entire family plays, so we got to hear his grandfather play a little bit. His brother played with him.

brit 22:10

Mm-hmm.

josh 22:11

And the first night that we met up with him and talked to him a little bit, he took us to Lowry's, another very popular bar pub.

brit 22:21

Mm-hmm.

josh 22:21

And we met up with some of his friends, and I think his cousin or his uncle,

brit 22:27

his uncle was playing,

josh 22:29

was playing in that pub.

brit 22:30

Mm-hmm.

josh 22:31

It just felt like such a, I don't know, small town Ireland experience to be like, oh, my brother's playing here tonight with me. Oh, my grandpa go over this pub. My uncle's playing here.

brit 22:45

Yeah.

josh 22:46

Go to McGraths. There was live music from him and his family pretty much every night we were there. Same with Lowry's. Lots of live music going on, in this town. as far as what else we did besides hiking, you had mentioned Kylemore Abbey

brit 23:04

Yeah, it was really fun. We got to learn a lot about the history of the building. Mm-hmm. And there are still nuns that are in the building.

josh 23:14

They continuously change up how they make money in the area.

brit 23:21

Mm-hmm.

josh 23:22

And some things that stick and work out well, they, they keep doing. So one thing that we ended up purchasing was chocolate there, which was delicious. as far as the Abbey as a whole, it's massive.

brit 23:37

Mm-hmm.

josh 23:37

We came at, I think close to two o'clock, two 30, and they have free tours of the Abbey, and we did that. And then after that it was basically closing time, so we didn't actually get a chance to go to the garden, which is beautiful. Another kind of church on the property.

brit 23:56

Mm-hmm.

josh 23:57

They didn't get to go to that. So if you end up trying to go to Kylemore Abbey, which they suggest it's beautiful, it's like got a beautiful backdrop. You gotta give yourself probably at least three full hours before they close.

brit 24:10

Yeah. And if you wanna explore and stuff, maybe four or five.

josh 24:14

Yeah, for sure. It could definitely be a whole day trip if you wanted to. It could

brit 24:19

be. Yeah.

josh 24:20

They have a cafe there so you could get snacks, breakfast, lunch, it seemed like.

brit 24:26

Mm-hmm.

josh 24:27

Lots you can do there.

brit 24:28

Yeah. It was really beautiful too. And as we were walking out, there was a rainbow. Super cute.

josh 24:34

Yeah. Yeah.

brit 24:35

coming back to Clifden, we, when we ate at guys, we had some really delicious meals. Mm-hmm. the first night we had butternut squash, coconut and chili soup. That was divine. then we also got a Caesar salad and then, beef stroganoff. Mm-hmm. we had also got, on other nights, the chicken go Johns, the beef stew, which was amazing. Beef stew, especially paired with a Guinness. I don't know what it is about Irish beef stew, but it really hits we also got some dessert here.

josh 25:15

Mm-hmm.

brit 25:15

Moroccan orange cake.

josh 25:17

Lovely.

brit 25:18

Ah, it was so good. And then a pistachio cheesecake.

josh 25:22

Yeah.

brit 25:23

Also really good.

josh 25:24

Yes. Love pistachio.

brit 25:26

And then at EJ King's

josh 25:28

mm-hmm.

brit 25:28

We had our first experience with a spice bag.

josh 25:33

I think that's a problem. It took us this long to have a spice bag.

brit 25:36

It was a problem. It definitely was a problem. Because it was delicious.

josh 25:41

Yes.

brit 25:42

And I want one now. Everything is seasoned to perfection. they have a lot of spices on them, and then you can dip them in like a curry sauce, maybe a mustard. So good.

josh 25:55

Delicious.

brit 25:56

So delicious. And then we also got a chicken sandwich. That was amazing as well. We also got a Bailey's and chocolate cheesecake that was amazing as well. Mm-hmm. Yeah, highly recommend going here, especially if you want kind of like a bar pub environment. Mm-hmm. And then for lunch, the day that we were heading out, we went to Griffin's Pub and we got a Cajun chicken with spicy mayo wrap. That was so delicious.

josh 26:25

Mm-hmm.

brit 26:26

It was so good. I wish that we would've came here sooner'cause I would've gotten that a lot more.

josh 26:32

That was fantastic. This is like dark horse, like one of the best like single items we might've ate,

brit 26:40

honestly. Yeah.

josh 26:41

Mm-hmm.

brit 26:41

We also got a chicken on sourdough sandwich,

josh 26:45

which was good as well.

brit 26:46

It was good. But the Cajun chicken with spicy mayo wrap was out of this world.

josh 26:51

Mm-hmm. And because it was off season, they didn't have their point of sale system up yet, so it was the only place I'm pretty sure. On the entire trip, that was like, you have to use cash.

brit 27:04

Mm-hmm.

josh 27:06

It was the only place, otherwise, every place else was tap card and Good. Go. This was like, yep. Still outta season. So cash only.

brit 27:13

Yeah. Make sure you have some cash on you and get this wrap.

josh 27:18

Yeah.

brit 27:20

the restaurants were really nice. I again wish that more were open. Mm-hmm. I think though that Clifden was a homey kind of town. Yeah. it seemed like everybody kind of knows each other and I really appreciated that at this point in the trip, It seemed like a place that we could envision ourselves a little bit more

josh 27:45

mm-hmm.

brit 27:46

Than, Teelin, which is a really spread out, place.

josh 27:52

Very like sparsely populated. Yeah. You know, it's, it's not, you get on a street and walk down and there's a restaurant house

brit 28:02

mm-hmm.

josh 28:02

Bunch of different facilities. Grocery store. That's not what Teelin was, but that's what Clifden was.

brit 28:08

Mm-hmm.

josh 28:09

At least downtown Clifden. I'm sure it's bigger than just the area that we stayed in. But it was so nice there, there wasn't a ton of people. There were a bunch of restaurants just all closed.'cause it was off season. Grocery store that we went into, bunch of pubs. Everyone was friendly to us.

brit 28:31

Yeah.

josh 28:31

Like I said, the one thing we ran into was not like a ton of coffee places. So you were kind of like, eh.

brit 28:38

Yeah. I had a little rough go of it with the coffee situation. I mean, they do have coffee at the bed and breakfast as well. I'm just very picky about my coffee.

josh 28:49

You are.

brit 28:50

Yeah.

josh 28:50

I feel like each place you get a different version of yourself. from Wicklow to Donegal to now county, Galway, Clifden. Each place is a different version of me, I feel like.

brit 29:06

Yeah.

josh 29:07

And this was much more like small town living.

brit 29:11

Hmm.

josh 29:12

You could very easily see yourself living in this small town, having a job, getting groceries, doing laundry, talking to this person, going to the pub, going home is kind of what it felt like to me.

brit 29:25

Mm-hmm.

josh 29:26

Yeah.

brit 29:27

Yeah. It seemed like it was easier to envision us here mm-hmm. Than in the other places that we visited.

josh 29:35

Right.

brit 29:35

Just because it was an you know, an actual town mm-hmm. Where you could walk to places where you could see other people where Right. There is a grocery store there. Yeah.

josh 29:46

but it also wasn't too big.'cause there are some places that are too big. It was like, just like the perfect size little town.

brit 29:53

And there's all of this beauty surrounding it. Mm-hmm. I mean, you walk for 10 minutes and you're on Sky Road.

josh 30:00

Mm-hmm.

brit 30:01

And it's out of this world. Beautiful.

josh 30:04

Yeah.

brit 30:05

Like you're, is this even real, I mean, at points on Sky Road, I was just like, I can't believe this place is real. Yeah. did you get the feeling here?

josh 30:19

No, I don't think so. It, it wasn't something that. Really grabbed me. It's again, a place where if someone said like, Hey, you have to live here, would I be happy? Of course.

brit 30:31

Yeah.

josh 30:31

But it, it is not some place where I'm like, we gotta move here. It's, this is the place just not for me.

brit 30:38

Yeah.

josh 30:39

What about you?

brit 30:39

No, I didn't either. I think I got the feeling slightly more only because I could see it a little bit more.

josh 30:48

Yeah.

brit 30:49

it also felt like, if we wanted to go do something mm-hmm. We would have to go out to the bars, to the pubs. Mm-hmm. And while that is, you know, a thing that a lot of. People go and do. Mm-hmm. And there's no hate on that. that's just not something that I see for us all the time. I also think with restaurants being closed, it didn't give me a full picture.

josh 31:13

Yeah.

brit 31:13

But it gave me a picture of what it would look like outside of tourist season.

josh 31:16

which is such a huge benefit because that's half the year, over half the year potentially.

brit 31:23

Absolutely.

josh 31:24

As far as visiting here, just for someone coming to. Have a vacation.

brit 31:30

Yeah. I would highly recommend coming here. if you're a hiker doing the hike, it is beautiful. I also think the Abbey, walking along the water in some of those spots mm-hmm. walking around the town, visiting some pubs, drinking some Guinness, doing Sky Road. Yeah. I think all of these things are definite things that I would come back for. And I would recommend people go and do these things.'cause the beauty here is just, it's life changing. It really is. There were parts of this part of the trip where I felt like my life had changed.

josh 32:12

Mm-hmm.

brit 32:12

Just because I was able to see some of this beauty. Yeah. it, we've talked about it before, it's a part of some of our travels where you see something or you do something and it's so beautiful that you start to think how small you are mm-hmm. In the world and Yeah. how sometimes we catastrophize things in our lives that are really meaningless. Mm-hmm. not to say that things that bother you don't hold any weight, because they certainly do, but I think that sometimes it's important to get that reminder that. Things are bigger than you.

josh 32:52

Yeah.

brit 32:52

That the world and the universe is bigger than you.

josh 32:56

Mm-hmm.

brit 32:57

And I think that's what this part of the trip did for me.

josh 33:00

Yeah. I, I feel that. I really do. I saw this I quote the other day that really resonates with that. And I wrote it down. It's wander long enough and even questions start to feel like answers.

brit 33:12

Mm.

josh 33:13

And that really kinda like vibes with that. And I really enjoy what you said there because That's, it's so true. That's exactly what it was. It just kind of let everything else fall away.

brit 33:26

Yeah.

josh 33:27

You know, all the problems that are in the world right now. appreciate the world and the stillness for a moment. And I think that's what you can get in a lot of Ireland. And I think that's why a lot of people go to Ireland is to look for that stillness.

brit 33:42

Yeah.

josh 33:43

Mm-hmm.

brit 33:43

The stillness, the quietness, you just get to experience these views that just remind you that the world is so big mm-hmm. And much bigger than you.

josh 33:54

And even though Ireland is this small island, it's about the size of a lot of our states in the United States. So,

brit 34:03

but it's like one of the most beautiful places we've ever been to.

josh 34:07

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Clifden specifically. Mm-hmm. I think it's, it's definitely a place that I think we both can agree that if people are looking for a place to go county, Galway and Clifden is definitely a good stop. That you should probably go on your trip.

brit 34:22

Yeah. Mm-hmm. I agree.

josh 34:25

Anything else you're thinking about this portion of our trip from the castle to, you know, the hike, the beach, any places we ate the people?

brit 34:38

I really loved it here. So beautiful. Just totally worth it. Even if you just do a trip from, Dublin to Clifden and you rent a car for that, maybe go to our next stop too. Mm-hmm. Because our next stop was one of my favorites. I do think that renting a car is totally worth it in Ireland. Mm-hmm. Now. You do have a lot of small roads.

josh 35:12

Mm-hmm.

brit 35:13

And I think going into Clifden, there were also cliffs that we were driving on the edge of as well.

josh 35:20

Oh, definitely. At points. Yeah.

brit 35:21

Yeah. just be careful. Mm-hmm.

josh 35:23

Be

brit 35:23

careful out there.

josh 35:24

Mm-hmm.

brit 35:24

But I think it's worth it to rent a car.

josh 35:27

Yeah, for

brit 35:27

sure. And I think the way we did this trip too was so beautiful because we went from, the Wicklow Mountains By Dublin. we did a long trip all the way to Donegal, which is stunning, but it's very isolated. Mm-hmm. And then we did Lough Rynn Castle just for the one night, it kind of gave us that breather of we're not gonna do our hikes. we're just gonna rest here. eat food, we're gonna enjoy ourselves. It gave us that night. Mm-hmm. And then we went to Clifden and there's just this indescribable beauty. And after that rest night, I think it helped us appreciate it so much more. So I think we crafted this trip very nicely. and I think that if people wanted to, they could use our trip as a reference of what they should do. For sure.'cause I think it was perfect.

josh 36:27

Yeah.

brit 36:27

I really do.

josh 36:28

I think it was a really good blueprint. Of course, you're never gonna get everything right in a trip. Someone's gonna say, you know, you didn't go into Northern Ireland, you didn't see Giants Causeway Belfast. Of course we didn't go all the way to the Southern points of Ireland.

brit 36:45

Mm-hmm.

josh 36:45

Didn't get to see a lot of the East Coast. But this was a really good blueprint for people to maybe copy use parts of for their own trip.

brit 36:56

Yeah. And it was a nice starting point for Ireland. Like I think we should go back and see the places that we haven't seen in the future. Right. But I think this was a really good starting point for me'cause you've seen Ireland. but for me to see Ireland for the first time, yeah. I just really love the way we, we did it.

josh 37:20

Yeah.

brit 37:21

What about you? Do you have any final points or any thoughts?

josh 37:26

Clifden's great and I think there's lots to do. We even had a day where it was pretty much rainy the whole day, and we were just able to go on a drive and see the scenery from the car, which sometimes isn't always great, but here there's a lot of great roads to drive on.

brit 37:45

Mm-hmm.

josh 37:46

And just. Marvel at the beauty, like you've said, we've said so many times. It is just gorgeous out there. You have to see it. None of our pictures are gonna do it justice. None of our videos are gonna do it justice because we didn't videotape and record 24 7. There are plenty of times, so we passed some and we're like, oh, we should have gotten a picture of that.

brit 38:04

Yeah,

josh 38:04

because it is something that you have to see.

brit 38:09

Yeah. We're still new to this.

josh 38:10

Yeah.

brit 38:11

We're still babies,

josh 38:13

in the town of Clifden it, it could just be a nice time to go stay there, go to some pubs, go to some restaurants, go do a few hikes. It seems like a great town to go do that.

brit 38:26

Yeah.

josh 38:26

So

brit 38:27

I agree.

josh 38:27

Really enjoyed it. But I'm really excited for our next episode as well.

brit 38:32

I am too. I loved it here.

josh 38:34

Mm-hmm.

brit 38:34

our next episode is about dingle, which is also gorgeous, and we will talk about all of the pubs, all of the local spots that we went to. Mm-hmm. Along with a hike where we got ran off by a sheep. So stay tuned for that. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube@WSMHtravels

josh 39:06

You can listen to our podcast on Apple, Spotify and YouTube. YouTube is where we have our video record version, including pictures and videos from our trip. Please continue to leave your comments and send us messages on what you liked from our trips and suggestions for future trips. We really appreciate it.

brit 39:26

Thank you so much for listening. Until next time.