Ireland: My Heart Belongs to Gougane Barra

Your feet will bring you where your heart is.

Irish Proverb

Backstory: 

I have always loved Ireland, always.

About 12 years ago, maybe even longer, I came across a picture of a small church, on a lake, surrounded by mountains. It called to me. I had no idea where it was located, didn’t even know it was Ireland, but I knew I had to go there some day. 

Flash forward 6 years. A co-worker of mine is Irish and visits Ireland frequently. One day I told her “I dream of visiting Ireland. Please tell me about the places I should go.” She invited me to lunch and brought her photo album of her Ireland trips. I was flipping through the photo album and

 there it was.

The church, on the lake, surrounded by mountains, that called to me. It was called Gougane Barra AND was located in Ireland. My heart leapt with joy! 

3 years later, we find ourselves unexpectedly traveling to Ireland. 

My three requests: 

We must go to Gougane Barra

I need to hear someone (anyone) sing Galway girl live in a bar

I refuse to leave until a farmer stops us to let their animals cross the road! 

My husband happily agreed to all three. We booked a hotel in Dublin as our base and rented a car to travel around since we didn’t have much planing time. Gougane Barra is about 4 hours from Dublin (give or take 30 mins). We packed a backpack for overnight and stopped at some sites along the way. We arrived in Gougane Barra around 5pm. I booked a room at the local inn on our way down there, unsure of what to expect, but so excited I could scream. 

We rounded the bend and there it was! The little church, on the lake, surrounded by mountains. It was even more beautiful in person! Of course it was raining and continued to rain our entire trip, (I mean, it is Ireland) but it didn’t matter. 

Finally we grabbed our luggage and headed into the hotel. The hotel is a quaint hotel that is family run and is my favorite place ever. We checked in and chatted with the front desk for a bit and found out dinner was being served. We put our luggage in our room and got changed for dinner. We had a lovely table with a view. The food was one of the best meals we’ve had in Ireland. The chef’s daughter was our server. I ordered the steak and let her know that I was pregnant, so please make sure it’s cooked well done. She made sure her mom knew.  She was so sweet and kind the entire evening. We really enjoyed chatting with her. 

The next morning I set my alarm to get up for the sunrise. (Note: I’m not a morning person, in fact I’m quite evil in the morning.) I woke up happy and excited! It was dark and raining but I woke my husband up, quickly got dressed (so grateful for my raincoat) and headed outside with our camera. It was beautiful! But then my alien needed to be fed so we headed back in for breakfast. Breakfast was delicious as well!

After breakfast we stood in the lobby watching the rain, talking with the chef and her family (The owner of the Inn). Her daughter had just received her tests results for some important test and she had passed so it was a happy morning. The chef (Katy, I believe) recommended some restaurants for us to try in Dublin and we happily took them! (We were able to try a couple of them. The tapas recommendation was our favorite.) 

We spent the rest of the morning walking around outside in the rain. (We purchased some super cute umbrellas from the gift shop.) Then we headed out early since there was a wedding at the hotel that afternoon and we didn’t want to be in the way. 

I can’t wait to go back and spend a couple of days there. We weren’t able to hike and I’d love to do that! If you are traveling to Ireland, make time for this trip. Stay a day or two and just revel in the beauty of the location as well as the kindness of the hotel staff (family). You won’t regret it. 

Side note: The owner of the hotel is an exceptional photographer. Check out his pictures of this beautiful landscape here: 

https://m.facebook.com/gouganebarra/

And here is the Hotel: 

http://m.gouganebarrahotel.com/

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