Packing for Ireland

I'm so excited to be traveling to Ireland once again with my friends from New Departures. We leave Thursday, September 22, and return October 2. We've got a smashing custom-built itinerary this year, visiting many of the places that feature in my books. And the group this time around looks to be just as interesting and as much fun as the last.

One of our travelers, Pat Wellingham-Jones, is a fellow writer, and did an interview with Betty Dobson, who writes a blog called InkSpotting. You can read the interview here.

This trip will include some familiar places (the National Museum, and the Book of Kells, Newgrange/Brú na Bóinne complex, Ceide Fields, the Burren) and a few new stops as well: the Corlea Bog Trackway Centre (home to a 2,000-year-old wooden road), a day trip to Slieve League and the villages of Port and Ardara in Donegal, the ancient monastic sites of Clonfert Cathedral, Clonmacnoise, and the Rock of Cashel, and the Lough Boora boglands, Saint Kieran's Bush and Leap Castle (the most haunted place in Ireland), among others. We'll also visit a distillery museum, and sit in on a few traditional music sessions as well.

Full itinerary at the New Departures website.

I know that many people were interested, but unable to go this year, so I'm hoping that this will be an annual trip. I can see changing things up or adding different sites as the Nora Gavin/Cormac Maguire series develops!

I'll be posting snaps from the trip here...