Irish Sea Passage

J

John_N

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Planning to cruise the Western Isles this year and am sailing from Devon to Oban at the end of May. I have discovered two useful sites for moorings and anchorages - bluemoment.com & w-isles.gov.uk - and have Martin Lawrence's pilots but will be using Macmillan Reeds for the passage up the Irish coast. Are there any similar sites to the above for this area?
My crew will include a visiting American friend who would love to have a brief taste (literally and culturally) of the Emerald Isle. Can anyone recommend any pubs for the brown stuff and good music in Wicklow, Arklow, Howth, Bangor, or Glenarm?
 
While in Bangor, keep going up Belfast Lough to Carrickfergus on the North side. The yanks can't seem to get enough of the castle there! As for the *black* stuff, I'm not sure you can go too far wrong anywhere...
 
Hi
A little detour only 5 miles is to Portaferry on the entrance to Strangford Loch. Nice marina there but the Fiddlers Green in the twon has to be one of the best pubs in the province, very often live spontanious music and great craick! Ardglass is good too, try to fing the Ardglass Vikings and you will have a memorable night!

A good tip is to use the IOM as a couple of stop off too its a great place to visit send a pm if i you want I can suggest a few favourite places between Hollyhead and Oban, how long have you got? I'd want about 6 weeks to really enjoy the trip.

Pb
 
The 2 pubs that we usually use in Wicklow are Healy's bar and the Bridge, both close together. Kids not allowed in Irish pubs after 7.00 pm?! Sailing club is OK but quite.
 
a two night stop in carrickfergus marina is the only time we have visited n. ireland. we found it intimidating to see the ulster flags on all the local boats and red/white/blue bunting around 'loyalist' pubs in the town. an experience i don't care to repeat.

(i'm sure i posted this before - has it been subjected to political editing??)
 
Thanks for all you replies so far but I still haven't got the information I really want. The Yank will be more interested in the smoky (no, not nowadays) musical atmosphere than impressive historical remains. Unfortunately it has to be a seven day dash to Scotland (including a few days to admire the bens) so no time to linger.
Apologies for my error in the colour of the nectar.
John
 
bluemoment I know about but w-isles.gov.uk didn't get me to a website, not even with google. If you found it useful I'm sure i'd find it of interest -- could you check it again and add any correction to the thread???
regards..spuddy
 
Go to Howth and just up the hill from the marina is the Abbey Tavern who do an "Irish night" most nights. You get a superb meal at 7pm upstairs in the restaurant and then move down to the barn at 8.30 where they have a folk band and irish dancers etc.

http://www.abbeytavern.com

Then the next day have a good lie-in (there'not much else to do in Howth) then get the train to Dublin. Go the the university in the afternoonfor a bit of culture and then adjourn to Temple Bar about teatime where if you ask around you will find an "Irish Musicians Pub Crawl" starting at about 7.30 in one of the pubs.

http://www.discoverdublin.ie/musicalpubcrawl.html

Both very enjoyable and your friend will be in good company since most of your cohorts will be US tourists.
 
Snowleopard -> I'm not sure when you last visited Carrickfergus, but by the sounds of it I would say 30 years ago! Are you sure you're not confusing the Ulster flags on the boats with the local yacht club flags? I'm really not sure how you came to this imtimidating conclusion.. unless it's the rain you fear /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
Re: Fiddlers Green

Hmm
Just give me a breeze and a big rolling sea. I often think of the words when off Ardnamurchan and longing for the shelter of the Sound of Sleat or Mull - big rolling sea indeed. Pah!
 
John

I'm thinking of doing the opposite run for this year - from west Scotland down to the Scilly Isles, so the replies have been very useful. Re Ireland, I don't want to go on about this again (see previous threads), but I really enjoy visiting Rathlin Island, v interesting place with great pub and enjoyable low-key social life with haun' knitted music etc. And the harbour is usually quiet.

If you like unusual pubs, try calling in at Sanda off the south end of Kintyre.
 
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