While the British & Irish Lions were tackling the Wallabies in Australia, a different pride of Lions was making history of their own, not on the rugby field, but across the LEGO battlegrounds of the British Isles.
That pride? The Redmond’s Forge LEGO Lions: Darren, Luke (7), and Rose (4).
Over 24 hours, our family of brick-hunters completed a LEGO haul that spanned all four nations of the British Isles. This wasn’t just a trip. This was a full-scale LEGO Lions Tour, with overnight sailings, auction wins, and a boot full of plastic gold.
🕑 Leg 1: Dublin to Holyhead – A 2:15am Kickoff
As most of Ireland slept soundly, we were wide awake and boarding the Stena Line ferry from Dublin Port at 2:15am. Our destination? Holyhead, Wales. With LEGO in our blood and rugby in the background, we were on a mission worthy of the Lions name.
By 7:00am, we touched down in Wales, a cold breeze and salty air welcoming us to the start of our LEGO odyssey.
🚗 Leg 2: Holyhead to Runcorn – Robson Kay Recovery
From the ferry port, we motored eastward across Wales and onto Runcorn, England, just in time for a 9:00am collection of LEGO lots won at the Robson Kay / Brick Live auction.
These weren’t just any lots. These were pieces of LEGO history, some from the now-defunct Brick Live exhibitions, others one-of-a-kind show builds and treasure boxes of loose bricks. To Luke’s joy and Rose’s amazement, the car was starting to fill with colour. Darren, at the wheel, just kept humming the Mission: Impossible theme.
🧭 Leg 3: Runcorn to Stockton-on-Tees – Vectis Victories
Without missing a beat, we were back on the road heading northeast, bound for Stockton-on-Tees. After 2 hours on the M62 and A1(M), we arrived just before 2:00pm, ready to collect our 27-lot victory from the Vectis auction house.
This was our biggest win yet, dwarfing our previous haul of four lots, and we were finally picking up the spoils:
- Classic Creator and Designer sets
- Retired Technic gems
- Licensed themes from LEGO Star Wars and LEGO City
- Instruction books, boxed rarities, and loose bricks aplenty
We had officially conquered three of the four Home Nations. The car boot was now groaning under the weight of LEGO… and the grins were permanent.
🛳️ Leg 4: England to Scotland – The Final Push to Cairnryan
No rest for the brick-hungry. Our journey wasn’t over yet. With England, Wales, and Ireland ticked off, we had two countries left to make the full British & Irish Lions loop: Scotland & Northern Ireland.
We made our way north to Cairnryan, just outside Stranraer, arriving by 10:30pm, barely catching our second ferry of the day, this time a 23:30 sailing with Stena Line, back across the Irish Sea.
The ferry from Cairnryan to Larne, Northern Ireland, arrived at 1:45am. At this point, even the LEGO mini-figures in our bags were yawning.
🌄 Leg 5: Home to Redmond’s Forge – The Final Drive
The final stretch saw us driving through the silent roads of Northern Ireland, crossing the border into the Republic and making our way home to Redmond’s Forge as the sun teased the horizon at 4:30am – 27 hours after our journey began.
We had done it.
🧱 The Final Score
- Wales: Landed and launched our Lions tour
- England: Picked up two major LEGO auction hauls
- Scotland: The scenic sendoff with a midnight ferry
- Northern Ireland: A moonlit landing in Larne, the quiet gateway back to familiar roads
- Ireland: On home turf, the start and end of this odyssey
The British & Irish Lions may have crushed the Wallabies, but we also crushed the LEGO auctions. With dozens of sets, hundreds of instructions, and thousands upon thousands of bricks, this tour will go down in Redmond’s Forge folklore. So much so we had to do it twice in 3 days, as there were 29 LEGO Ready to Ship boxes and the large sculptures that we needed to fit in.
