In the summer of 2000, we got to take a holiday in Ireland.

We started out by driving to Holyhead on the West coast of Wales, and taking the ferry across to Dun Loaghaire in the Republic of Ireland.

From there we drove aross the country to Westport in County Mayo and stayed there for a week. It was really beautiful and we spent lots of time on the beaches and in the fantastic countryside.

On only the second day we were there we climbed Croagh Patrick, the highest mountain in Ireland at 5500feet.

It was way higher than anything we've climbed before, and towards the peak was actually scarily steep.
In the picture you can see Jack pointing to the peak, about 2 hours before we actually got there!

The little white chapel you can see here is on the island, and has some amazing ancient ceiling and wall paintings.

From Mayo, we drove north and East and stayed overnight in Enniskillen, and then went to see the amazing caves nearby. From there we went on up to Belfast to stay with our friends who live in Ballyclare.

We had a fantastic time with them, and went up to see the Giant's Causeway, which is the incredible rock formation you can see us standing on in the picture on the left.

It's a mass of mainly hexagonal lava columns all fitted together but of different heights.We were told that it was formed by lava cooling down faster than usual in the sea.

Anyway, after a few terrific days with our friends we drove back to Dublin and took the ferry home.