Craigengillan, Irvine and back to the Isle of Arran!

On our third day in Irvine our lovely hosts Liz and Jim drove us to a place called Dalmellington. In Dalmellington there is the Craigengillan estate which Harrison's family lived in for 400 years!! Unfortunately the house was unopen to the public. However we did get to wander around the beautiful gardens. The gardens were still perfectly manicured and were absolutely gorgeous! We found a bunch of graves in the back of the garden that dated to the early 1900s, but we think they were pet graves. We had lunch sitting on a bridge and then wandered down the very, very long driveway/road into town. It was really cool to see the place where Harrsion's family comes from! 

The next day we went in search of the Maritime Museum. We got the chance to explore more of Irvine, and wander down to the harborside which was really pretty. Unfortunately you had to pay to get into the museum, and we didn't really need to see it that much, so we didn't end up going in. However we did have lunch at a lovely little cafe right on the water. It was really beautiful, and nice to treat ourselves to a cafe lunch. 

On our last day in Irvine we returned to the Isle of Arran. We were so incredibly lucky with the weather, we had the most beautiful day! It was sunny and warm, just stunning. We spent the day horse riding! 

We went on a one hour horse ride through fields and next to creeks. 

It was so beautiful, I absolutely loved it and wished we had gone on the longer ride!

 

Once making our way back into the town we sat down to a packed lunch (thanks Liz!) next to the beautiful blue water. It was a perfect day. Once we were done with Arran (rather we knew we had to leave to make a bus 😕) we hopped on the ferry and made our way back to Irvine. From there it was back to Edinburgh for the night before flying into Dublin the next morning. Everything went well until Glasgow where we had to catch another bus to Edinburgh. However this bus was over an hour late (National Express)! It was really annoying. We only ended up in Edinburgh at around 10:40pm. 

This morning we were up bright and early to catch a plane to Dublin. Needless to say, it was a stressful morning. The airline we were flying with was really cheap (Ryanair) and it definitely showed. We waited a really long time to check in, and then our flight was delayed. Also, I would highly suggest avoiding flying out of Edinburgh if you can avoid it. It is totally chaotic. Security takes ages and is just really rushed and doesn't seem to have a very good system. But regardless of all this it was not a bad flight, and we made it to Dublin safe and sound! We are currently staying at Abigail's Hostel in Dublin, and so far so good! We have nice roomies and the hostel itself is really nice. It's got a good kitchen and everything is clean. Main downside is our room is above a club, the music is very loud. But we will see how it goes. Tomorrow we are off on a free walking tour (same company as Edinburgh, Sandemans, they are really good and do free walking tours in lots of countries). Then on Wednesday, which I am super excited for, we are going to the Jamesons Distillery! So I will write about our adventures in Dublin as they come. 😊