Scott's Wee Danders

Welcome back folks! In the last blog post, we spent the week in downtown San Francisco exploring the likes of the Golden Gate Bridge, Oracle Park and Alcatraz Island. However, in this blog post, we will be leaving the jungle of San Francisco and instead, we'll venture out of the city and spend our time visiting several different national parks, taking in the natural beauty California has to offer. The main stops on our journey this week include Muir Woods, Yosemite, a quick pitstop in Bodie and finally ending our adventure at Lake Tahoe. Muir Woods The first stop on our adventure this week was Muir Woods, home of the incredibly impressive coastal redwood trees. The coastal redwoods are a species of tree that are native to California and cannot be found anywhere else. Coastal redwoods are also sometimes confused with giant sequoias, another species of tree that is very similar to redwoods due to the fact that they share a distinctive colour, they both grow to enormous heights and ar...

Welcome back folks, and a belated Happy Halloween! For this blog post, I have decided to mix things up a bit and try something new. For my (late) Halloween Holiday Throwback, I've decided to add a spooky twist! For this adventure, I'll be splitting it into 2 separate blog posts with each blog post covering one of the two weeks I spent away. These blogs will be a holiday throwback to my trip to California which has been my favourite holiday I've been on and I cannot wait to go back. In order to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity, we made sure to pack as much sightseeing and different activities into our busy schedule. These included visiting San Francisco, Yosemite, the Golden Gate Bridge, Lake Tahoe, Alcatraz Island, Muir Woods and a trip to Oracle Park, home to the San Francisco Giants. San Francisco For the first week of our trip, we stayed in a lovely apartment in San Francisco that was reportedly worth over $1 million! Despite staying in an apartment that I ca...

Hi folks! Welcome back to my blog, hope you're all keeping well! This week I made the journey down to Glendalough National Park in County Wicklow and had a fantastic time. I travelled down on Saturday and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Glendalough is a glacial valley that sits nestled away in the Wicklow Mountains National Park with incredible views. The valley is home to an Early Medieval Monastic settlement that was founded in the 6th century by St Kevin. Stone Church Walks & Hikes Glendalough National Park has a number of different walks and hikes that cater for all levels of ability. Whether it is the easy Green Road walk and the Miners' Road walk or the difficult ramble along the Derrybawn Woodland trail, Glendalough attracts a wide variety of walkers. This ranges from those who go to walk their dogs to those who wish to be a little more adventurous. Many of the walks go alongside the Lower Lake as well as some of the more rigorous trails showing glimpses of the ...

Welcome back folks! Over the weekend I made the trip down to Loughcrew to visit the Loughcrew Cairns. These cairns are ancient tombs that were built all the way back in 3200BC - 2900BC and are estimated to be over 5000 years old! They were built during the Neolithic Period (4000BC - 2500BC) and contain a number of different and incredibly rare pieces of artwork that date back to this time period.  Loughcrew Cairns View The Cairns The cairns themselves, 32 in total, are spread across 4 different hills (Carnbane West, Carrickbrack, Carnbane East & Patrickstown) with all of them having unique designs, artwork and features. They were used as sacred burial grounds and are used to celebrate ancestors, gods and nature by those local to the area. Loughcrew Cairns - loughcrewmegalithiccentre.com Cairn T The largest cairn, Cairn T, is the most popular cairn to visit due to it being one of the largest as well as having a number of different pieces of artwork, carvings and other notable fe...

Hi folks, this is the first post for my blog and I've decided to start it off by writing about my summer holiday to Spain. Despite it only being the start of October while I'm writing this, summer has well and truly ended and autumn is very much in full swing. No more clear skies and sunshine (not that we get much in Northern Ireland anyway) instead it's grey clouds and rain. My holiday to Spain was a much-needed trip away, my first year of university had just finished and I couldn't wait to go abroad. The warm weather and sunshine allowed me to sit and relax by the pool and truly enjoy myself, not to mention that while I was there, the Euros were taking place and Spain managed to win it. It was an incredible experience just sitting on the balcony of our apartment and listing to the people around us erupt into pandemonium when they won.  Barcelona Despite all the lounging by the pool I may have done, I did actually get a chance to explore the city of Barcelona and exper...

Hi there! My name is Scott McCrory, I am 21 years old and currently, I am a 2nd year student at the University of Ulster in Belfast studying Business Studies. As part of one of my modules, I have been tasked with starting a blog and using social media to advertise it. Alongside the blog itself, I have created an Instagram account in order to grow & expand my online presence.  In my blog, I will write about the different places I have travelled to and visited throughout the year which may include holidays I have taken, adventures to different National Trust sites or even just the dander to university.  Since lockdown and the pandemic, I have noticed that I haven't been as active as I beforehand. I stopped exercising, I stopped playing sport and I now feel that I am not as fit or as healthy as I once was. That's why I have decided to create this blog, not only does it encourage me to get out and about, it also encourages me to explore new places and overall just improves my ...