Will be visiting Ireland between 30.10-06.11. My plan is like this:
30.10 - staying in Dublin 'cause arriving lateish.
31.10 - train to Waterford, overnight there
01.11 - train to Kilkenny, overnight there
02.11 - train to Carlow, overnight there
03.11 - train to Kildare and from there to Dublin where I’m gonna stay 'til departure
I’ve lived in Ireland (Kilkenny and Dublin), like 24 years ago, so I imagine a lot has changed. RB places to those towns are vague. So any recommendations? Must visit places?
And ofc if anyone wants to join and grab a beer let me know.
The Underdog has relocated to Capel street in Dublin, there’s a couple of decent craft bars along there including the Black Sheep. Fidelity is another great craft bar in Dublin, there’s quite a few options in the city these days. All of the Galway Bay bars have some good options.
The porterhouse is barely worth the visit anymore but if you’re in temple bar it’s somewhere I guess.
Kilkenny, not a whole lot there to be honest, there’s brewery corner which is owned by Carlow Brewing which has a small handful of options and Sullivans tap room.
Carlow has a Wetherspoons, so there’ll be a couple of hand pumps on, they are closing all the spoons outside of Dublin but I don’t know the timeline for that.
Can’t really help you with the other cities. But going back to Dublin, there’s plenty of options.
I don’t really check this forum, it was one of my Canadian pals who pointed it out to me. You can get me on twitter or Instagram (garthicus) if you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer!
Hopefully we can meet up for an hour or so between lunch and dinner on Sun 5th, approx 1530 - 1800 kind of time, if that works for you?
I think I know where we are having lunch so I’ll confirm this with her and see what venues are within a 15 or so minute walk from there … the wife won’t entertain being dragged too far away for a beer nerd venue!
So I’ll do a little update about the trip. How it was and what to find where. Cities which I visited are now up to date in RB too. I added around 10 places so you have what to look for.
31.10 - train to Waterford, overnight there
Small, but pretty town. Everything in short walk distance. Unfortunately it was pouring cats and dogs so my sightseeing was limited. There are 3 very solid places in Waterford: An Geata Arundel (JDW), Tully’s and Phil Grimes Pub. JWD might not be interesting for locals, but it usually provides ticks for others. Tully’s and Phil Grimes are must visit places. Plenty to do for a daytrip.
01.11 - train to Kilkenny, overnight there
Ohh it was such a joy to be back here! And it has grown itself a very good beer scene in past quarter of the century. Brennan’s Bottling Store & Off Licence and Wine Center were one of the best bottle store I went. 1st one has pub too with bit different selection so must visit both they are. Also if you are hunting Irish county ticks, both will provide. Sullivan’s Taproom and Brewery Corner are the taprooms in town. Latter being O’Hara’s. Syd Harkin’s Pub served best Guinness ever 23 years ago and quality hasn’t dropped not even a nanometer. Quite opposite. Plenty to do for a daytrip and maybe more.
02.11 - train to Carlow, overnight there
Tbh nothing really much to do here. Tullys Bar and The Tullow Gate (JDW) are semi-decent places to go hunt some ticks, O Briens Carlow Town provides something to drink in hotel room. Half a day max.
03.11 - train to Kildare
Only 1 good place, Hartes of Kildare. Other places have very little interesting if anything at all. I spent 2,5 hours here and was bored 1h of it.
Dublin is what Dublin is. Plenty of places just choose your favourites.
Been to all of these places (Kilkenny aside) but talking 20 + years ago before any craft beer scene
Must visit Kilkenny … I’ve driven through (late noughties) as one of my aunts married a farmer perhaps 7 or 8 miles fromn there so have spent a few nights on the farm (at Xmas) so never made it to the town
