American Julia Skinner had never been to West Cork before but she booked a trip to Ireland after dreaming about Skibbereen, and has now found the love of her life too.
WE’VE all had a dream that stuck with us when we woke up.
Sometimes days or even weeks later, you might find yourself still thinking about it.
But have you ever had a dream that not only stuck with you, but shaped your whole life for years to come?
In 2022, I had a dream that I visited, and eventually settled down in, a town called Skibbereen.
I could see myself walking around the town in my dream, meeting friends, and making my way back to my home somewhere on the outskirts of town, to a home with some land and a cozy house.
When I woke up, still half awake, I plugged ‘Skibbereen’ into the browser on my phone. I had been to Ireland several times but, despite briefly traveling through Cork county once before, had never been to this part of West Cork.
I spent most of the morning staring at the map, looking at the surrounding towns, bus routes, and flights, and by the afternoon I found myself booking a flight into Cork airport and paying for bus tickets out west.
I’d never booked a trip on a whim before, but for some reason I knew I needed to take this one.
I landed in Cork a few months later, and in due course made my way to Skibbereen, where I immediately found a few new favourite local businesses (Antiquity Books and The Woodsman’s Realm, to name just two) and within hours I had met folks who are my friends to this day.
I am an avid gardener and plant lover, and I was delighted to immediately discover some of my favourite plants back home in Atlanta (where I still live part-time) also grow in abundance here.
One morning, I felt the pull to wander along the river, and when I did, I saw a stand of goldenrod in full bloom – it felt like a homecoming of the best sort.
Goldenrod is a plant I’ve worked with for years to make medicine that helps keep me healthy year-round.
But most of all, I felt in my bones that I was home. The dream I had was now making sense, as I realised how comfortable and relaxed I felt, and how easily I moved through the world.
I decided that this was going to be my new home, whatever that might look like, and whenever that might happen.
My friends in Cork city and I bounced around ideas for how I might move to Ireland, and as I prepared to make my way back to the US, I had another surprise in store: Meeting Cian who, a year-and-a-half later, would become my husband.
We married in Denmark last year (less complicated than getting married in our birth countries), and now I’m navigating the process of making my dream come all the way true.
Currently in the less-dreamy stage of the process that involves navigating customs forms, visas, taxes, and pet relocation!
Today, we live in a home on the north side of Cork city.
I love how easily I can walk to things (I don’t have a car in Ireland yet), and meet all the friends I’ve already made in town.
Every day, I’m amazed how much life can transform in a short amount of time. And how lucky I am to have Cian at my side, as we continue on our shared adventure.
But I also haven’t given up my dream of heading further west, either.
One of these days, maybe even a decade from now, when we’re more settled in and I have gotten used to driving on the other side of the road (!), we’ll make our way westward.
I also discovered that my dream became about way more than just me. What started as my own desire to have an adventure has blossomed into a new home and a marriage.
But it’s also blossomed into a dream of a home in West Cork that serves more than just myself and my husband.
Drawing inspiration from folks like landscape rewilder Eoghan Daltun in Beara and my friend Sandor Katz, the long-term goal is to purchase and rewild land to live on and use part of the space for gatherings or artist residencies where I teach the skills that have built my career.
I’ll share fermentation and food preserving classes, writing workshops, and give people a place to connect with nature.
We’ll cook, spend time with friends, and make new ones in a place that, as I described to a friend recently, ‘writers and cooks can come home to themselves’.
And, it will be a place I can keep coming home to myself, too.
It’s a dream that may be far off, but I know all about following dreams.
And my life is so much richer for following a dream to Skibbereen.
