We arrived at Dublin Airport to some fairly typical Irish summer weather, i.e. cloudy with off-and-on showers and temperatures of about 18 (about 65 back in the States). After picking our out little Nissan Micra (shown to the right, the smaller the car the better on Irish roads) we were off toward our cottage in Shillelagh, Co. Wicklow.

I thought finding R-115, winding through the Wicklow National Park was going to be easy. So much for that, as we wandered around in circles in south Dublin for quite a while before finally running into it.

R-115 has an interesting story behind it. It's sometimes called "The Military Road," because it was built by the British military in the early 19th century -- not to get from point A to point B, but to help them run down Irish rebels who used this wild area to hide.

Only minutes south of Dublin, the Wicklow National Park is as beautiful and unspoiled as many of the regions of western Ireland, as the photo of us below, in front of Lough Bray Upper, can attest.

A little further south is the spectacular Glenmacnass Waterfall.

Around mid-afternoon we arrived at our cottage (below) at Minmore Mews, in Shillelagh. There are several units here. Ours was here in front and was the former coach house. The first night of jet lag in Ireland is always the worst, and we were soon snoozing the night away. More to come on some of our other adventures.