A Vegan in Ireland

I was very fortunate to spend a whirlwind four days in beautiful Ireland! I flew into Dublin and spent the day there and then met up with my close friend who was renting a gorgeous townhouse opposite Bangor Bay in Bangor, Northern Ireland. Here is a brief account of my trip and most importantly, my vegan culinary experiences! Happy Cow was my best friend locating vegan options close to wherever I was :)

If you can't find anything you can ALWAYS find a pub! They almost always have chips & salad if nothing else!

Dublin, Ireland

Wednesday morning, I left my luggage in the lockup at the airport which was fairly cheap and got the Dublin Express into downtown Dublin. I got into the downtown area at 8am on the Temple Bar side so not everything was open yet and everyone was bustling to work! I was waiting for The Book of Kells Experience at Trinity College to open so I grabbed a coffee and just walked around.

I walked around gorgeous St Stephen's Green and then got hungry so I hit up the Happy Cow app and found a place called "It's a Trap" in short walking distance - a small vegan bakery that had some great breakfast items on the menu but unfortunately the only gluten free option was a chia pudding with mango which hit the spot nicely and was easy to eat on the go!

I headed back up to Trinity College to get my tickets for the Book of Kells - which apparently you should do in advance because the first session was already sold out. Luckily the lovely guard took pity on me and let me go into the early session even though my ticket was for 30minutes later. The Trinity College Library from 1592 was part of the tour and being a bibliophile it was definitely a highlight for me - just smelling those musty old books was like crack to me LOL! The Book of Kells Experience is a newer feature that is housed in a separate building but was very cool, letting you have a more interactive experience of the Book of Kells and the Library.

Still having a few hours before I was meeting my friend, I started wandering again and headed back through St Stephen's Green in search of St Patrick's Cathedral (I should mention it happened to be Ash Wednesday so it was cool to see every one walking around with the ash cross on their heads - some churches even leave the ashes outside so you didn't even need to attend mass which I thought was interesting.

After finding St Patrick's I thought I'd go see the Guinness Factory but it was kind of far for a walk and I needed to start heading back - also my phone was starting to die and guess where I left my charger? Yep, in my luggage lol! I found a Newsagent to buy a charger and stumbled upon Castle Street which sounded nice and took me to Dublin Castle which is really just an original tower these days but opposite was a local art gallery where the lovely lad who was working there charged my phone for me while I looked around. He was also a tour guide for the castle so was very knowledgeable!

After my phone had sufficient juice I headed off to look for some food. Even though it wasn't the first thing on the Happy Cow appt o come up, the guide at the gallery had recommended Cornucopia so I set my map to find it. I'm so glad I did! Of course it was super cute and 100% vegan and had gluten free options. I had the curry and it was delightful! Plus it was on Wicklow Street which seemed to be a very trendy area for shops and only a few minutes walk from Trinity College where I was meeting my friend.

After meeting my friend and doing the Book of Kells tour again (slight communication breakdown but they guard was lovely about letting me back in) we walked to the Temple Bar area to find a cute Irish pub to get a bite to eat before heading to Northern Ireland. We found a delightful Oliver St. John Gogartys Pub which had the best Irish Pub ambiance and a live band playing Irish folk songs. I wasn't super hungry and not really sure what they had but I got the chip and a Kilkenny (which I know isn't GF but I really wanted one since they don't have it in the States and it doesn't hurt you when you're on holiday - I'm pretty sure).

Bangor/Whitehead, Northern Ireland UK

We headed north to Bangor which is where we were staying for the trip. In a gorgeous townhouse opposite Bangor Bay which was walking distance to pretty much everything (including the train station if you wanted to get to Belfast without a car).

Thursday morning we didn't need to go far to find gluten free vegan options! The Guillemot Cafe & Deli were just around the corner from our townhouse and had a wonderful outlook of the marina. Now being coerced into "the wheat is different here" but my friend who also struggles with gluten intolerance I ordered the Eve's Vegan Breakfast that had some potato and soda bread and some local vegan sausages but they had a small "Plant Based" menu section as well. Although I only ate one sausage and one piece of soda bread, I felt fine for the day and had no allergy issues :)

After breakfast we had a lovely walk around the town and over to the marina.

That evening we went to the The Old Inn for dinner after being told about it from a local. The inn in Crawfordsburn was built in 1614 and has some of the original structure, beams and fireplace in the pub. They had a vegan curry on the menu that was really good. The hotel looked absolutely stunning but I had seen reviews about how the curry was the only vegan option. Great for one night in the pub listening to the very talented Paul Mahon but probably annoying if you're staying in the hotel, especially if you have children.

We headed over to Whitehead to see Blackhead Lighthouse which unfortunately was blocked off at the cliff base due to track maintenance but it was a lovely walk out there along the water. We stopped in at the Whitecliff Inn which had a delicious vegan root vegetable risotto and they served Rekorderlig Cider which I haven't had in a long time! So good, especially the strawberry one on tap!

Donaghadee/Game of Thrones Studio Tour, Banbridge

On Friday we started out the day by heading over to Donaghadee, to see "The Moat" or Motte, which was a gunpowder store built by the Anglo-Normans in the 12th century  and had a castle tower added c.1821 had a gorgeous view of the whole town. We had seen a few things on Happy Cow but none of them seemed to have BOTH gluten free and vegan. Until we found Bridewell Coffee housed in  The Bridewell, an old goal turned post office turned coffee house. Just up the road was Grace Neill's, the oldest pub in Ireland est. 1611. Bridewell coffee had amazing service and the owner was coeliac so she was great with the gluten free options. I had the Vegan Hash Stack which was wonderful!

Since the weather had turned we decided it was a great day to do an inside activity so we bought tickets to the Game of Thrones Studio Tour where they filmed 40% of the show and still housed a lot of the sets, costumes, props, armory and encased it in this fabulous interactive tour. If you're fan and you're in the area you must go!! Plus the Mess Hall restaurant in the middle of the tour had a fabulous chef who made a vegan gluten free burger all in house. Their frying oil was also 100% gluten free. Amazing!! 

We headed back to Bangor in the afternoon and walked up to Little Wing Pizzeria which I had discovered on a walk the day prior. They not only had a GF vegan crust but a whole vegan section of their menu! Really cute old style pizza place that was popping on a Friday night and had a vegan beer (low gluten but again I was risking it).

Ulster Folk Museum, Holywood/Causeway Coastal Route

Saturday was my last day to do anything and luckily we had blue skies! We walked out to get coffee from Parklife Cafe which was the only place open that early that was listed in Happy Cow and it was small dog lover cafe. Unfortunately although they had vegan options they didn't have GF options so I just had coffee. Luckily I always have a protein bar on me when I travel for this exact reason!

My friend had prebooked tickets to the Ulster Folk Museum because it was International Women's Day and they had some special goings-on's which was so fun! If you're into vintage/old school villages and people dressed up and in character then this is your place (I've been told it's like that in Colonial Williamsburg but I've never been). It's an entire small town reconstructed brick by brick, stone by stone in some original cases to this picturesque country town setting. The Ballycultra Tearoom had a vegan pea soup with GF vegan bread!

Then we headed to the Giants Causeway. By the time we left it was a two hour drive back to Bangor and we got some takeout "chips" and gluten free onion rings and deep fried mushrooms from Millars Traditional Fish & Chips in Bangor and took it home.

On the way to the Giant's Causeway we took the stunning Causeway Coastal Route, past a couple of GoT filming locations and generally taking in the gorgeous Irish countryside/coastline.

I definitely was glad I had brought some vegan GF protein bars, especially in terms of the travel on airlines and airports that really don't have many vegan GF options. Even your "special meal" on the airlines doesn't give you the option of being both GF and vegan so it's better to be prepared!