During the first 2 weeks of July, 2002, Peggie, Betsy, and Jo explored the countryside in Ireland.  Our itinerary included as many locations as we could determine, where our ancestors lived before emigrating to the US.  We did a few purely touristy things, too, including visiting London and taking the Belleek and Waterford factory tours.  

This album contains highlights from our trip.  Clicking on the camera icon will lead you to pictures to go with the narrative. The text links will take you to the 'official' websites of some of the places we visited.  

  July 2: Travel Day: We had a couple of hours to kill at San Francisco International Airport so Betsy took us to the United Airlines Red Carpet Club 

  July 3-4 London: In London, we stayed at the Hilton Hyde Park Hotel.  The Hotel is located directly across the street from Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace.  Hyde Park and Notting Hill are within easy walking distance.  On our arrival day, we took a walk in Kensington Park and got drenched by an afternoon shower (read 'torrential downpour').  Of course, we had left our umbrellas in the hotel (foolish Yankee's).  We also slept a great deal, getting adjusted to British time.

July 4th was spent being tourists in London.  We walked up to the Notting Hill underground station and took the subway to Tower Hill.  The rest of the day was spent on a walking tour along the Thames from the Tower of London to Buckingham Palace.

  July 5-6 Dublin:  We flew from London to Dublin on July 5th and stayed at the elegant Conrad Hotel near St Stephen's Green, a park in the center of Dublin.  Our first day was spent on a walking tour of central Dublin.  Grafton Street and the opposite side of St Stephen's Green from our hotel is a major shopping district and is closed to auto traffic.  Friday evening, it was crowded with shoppers, entertainers, political activists and women-with-babies seeking handouts. 

On Saturday, Betsy and I spent a couple of hours at the National Library of Ireland looking through microfilm records.  We learned a great deal about how the Griffith's Land Survey was recorded and how the information was maintained.  We will have to do the rest of our research by mail.

We did more walking and shopping on Saturday afternoon.  Once we had walked ourselves out we hopped on a bus tour around Dublin to take in the sights we had missed on foot.

  July 7-8 County Meath:  After picking up our rental car, we headed north to County Meath.  Along the way we stopped at Newgrange Passage Tombs.  

  July 8-11 County Sligo:  Our great-great-grandfather, Patrick McDonald, came from a townland named Cloonfeightrin.  Cloonfeightrin is really just a crossroads and the surrounding lands.  It listed on only the most detailed maps.  The townland is just within the boundaries of County Mayo, however, the Roman Catholic parish was headquartered in County Sligo.  Thus all of the family records are now stored in County Sligo.

  July 12-13 County Laois:  County Laois, once called Queen's County, is the ancestral home of the Hyland branch of our family.  We met Jo's 4th cousin Patricia, who graciously spent a day with us showing us around the area where Jo's grandmother Judith Johanna Hyland was born.

  July 14-16 Counties Cork and Waterford:  The southern leg of our trip was pure tourism.  We visited Blarney Castle, although none of us chose to kiss the fabled stone.  We also drove along the coast to see the town of Ardmore and stayed at another coastal town named Dunmore.  From Dunmore, we drove to Waterford and took a tour of the crystal factory.

The 16th was spent driving from County Cork back to Dublin for our plane back to London and then back to the US the next day.  

This page was last updated on 03/26/05 .