On Monday morning we woke to the sound of the wind and rain lashing against the window of our hostel room. After breakfast, we checked out of the hostel and drove south along Upper Lough Erne. First we drove to Castle Coole on the outskirts of Enniskillen only to find it closed. We continued along the Lough past Crom Estate where we saw the marshes and islands that are home to many waterbirds. At the bottom of the Lough we turned north up the western side and into County Sligo in Eire. We stopped at Sligo town with its picturesque stone bridges across the River Garavogue. The river was full of ducks, swans and seagulls feasting on the waterweeds. We had a walk around town. Then we got back in our car and drove to Connemara peninsula in County Galway. The rain cleared and the sun made a brief appearance and we enjoyed the beautiful scenery in Connemara. We decided to stay at Clifden, Connemara's "capital" for the next couple of nights. After looking at a few options we checked into a room at The Arch B&B. Then we walked through town checking out our dining options. We had dinner at the lively J Conneely's Bar which had foot tapping live Irish traditional music.
We started Tuesday with a full Irish breakfast before heading out for the day. It was still cloudy and rainy. We decided to make the best of the day by taking the scenic drive around the craggy Connemara Peninsula. We started out with the Sky Road route which took us up through the hills overlooking Clifden Bay and its offshore islands, Inishturk and Turbot. Then we drove along the Cleggan loop before turning inland stopping to take a photo of the stunning Kylemore Abbey. We drove past the Twelve Bens and the Maumturk mountains and on to the tiny village of Recess for lunch. After lunch we drove down to the coast again and out to Lettermullan via bridges linking the islands to the coast. We saw beautiful horses, donkeys and sheep in little paddocks enclosed by dry stone walls and a couple of badgers run over on the road. For most of the day we were driving along single track country lanes surrounded by stone walls, fuchsia hedges, golden heather, and wild blackberry bushes. Whenever we stopped we picked some berries as they were generally flavoursome if more seedy than the commercial varieties. We turned back for Clifden via Carna and Roundstone with its famous little harbour. We saw fishermen harvesting seaweed and local men with terrible teeth. It kept raining and raining!
We headed for Galway on Wednesday morning. We drove through another showery day with spectacular views over mountains and loughs until we stopped briefly at the pretty village of Oughterard. Galway was back on the coast and seemed to be even bigger than Londonderry. Luckily the rain stopped and we found a room at a B&B just over Wolf Tone Bridge from the city centre. After dropping off our bags, we walked back into town. We walked around the famous Church of St Nicholas where Christopher Columbus was supposed to have worshipped and saw Lynch's window marking the gallows where a father hung his son who had killed a Spanish visitor. We wandered around the pedestrian walkways enjoying the happy crowds and Lynch's Castle town house (now a bank) with stone carvings of coats of arms, an ape holding a baby and gargoyles. We walked to Eyre Square and then to the Galway Cathedral via the Salmon Weir Bridge. We saw some young trout in the water and walked along Eglinton Canal towards the sea. We saw a lock where the water level dropped and a tiny leprechaun-sized bridge over a creek and then people feeding hungry swans. There was a beautiful small black duck as well. On the seafront the wind was blowing and many tiny terns were picking small fish out of the water. We took in the storms and sunlight over Galway Bay before we got caught in a small rain squall. Then we walked around town checking out our dining options and settled on Monroe's Tavern for dinner with a couple of pints of Hookers (the local brew) and a Jameson's Irish whiskey chaser.
We drove out of Galway in heavy peak hour traffic on Thursday morning. As one of Europe's fastest growing cities it had serious traffic congestion. We drove through more beautiful country towards Clonmacnoise, Ireland's premier monastic site. We stopped at Shannonbridge for a tea break and the views of the bridge over the Shannon River. At Clonmacnoise we were entertained by an excellent guide with his history of the site on the intersection of the east west highway and north south Shannon River. The east west highway utilised a raised geological feature formed by the collapse of the walls of ice age underground tunnels of water. These formed raised lines of stone rubble which drained well and sat slightly higher than the surrounding bogs. St Ciaran founded the site in AD 548 but died of the yellow plague shortly thereafter. The monastery and settlement survived regular Irish and Viking attacks for 1,000 years until the final sacking by English troops in 1552. The building of a bridge over the Shannon at nearby Athlone and the resulting diversion of trade routes had caused the commercial decline of Clonmacnoise far earlier. The site was incredibly beautiful with views over the river and marshes and an ancient tower with a door built at 13 feet to afford additional protection from attackers and its top section destroyed by lightning. There were several high crosses with detailed stonework telling various Biblical and historical stories. There were several ruined buildings surrounded by gravestones and Celtic crosses. There was a great audiovisual presentation and a small museum dedicated to the site. We left to drive back to the coast to stay in an area known as the Burren. Unfortunately it started raining again as we drove to Kilfenora where we checked into a room at Mary Murphy's B&B. We headed down to Vaughan's Pub for the roast of the day before taking in some Irish set dancing at the barn next door. At 9.15 pm we went to the renovated barn next door to the pub where we ordered a Paddy's Irish whiskey and an Irish Mist whiskey liqueur. The musicians and locals (dancers) were just arriving. There was a fiddle, a flute, a push button accordion and a keyboard. The musicians took a while to set up and tune their instruments and once they were ready, the locals formed three groups of four couples and then started to dance. The most basic dances were The Caledonian and The Siege of Ennis. There was a cross section of age groups there with young ones dancing with oldies and the group of school kids from the hostel danced The Siege of Ennis. The music was really lively and we watched the dancing for an hour and a half before we decided to call it a night. We had to run back in the rain to our B&B.
On Friday we drove towards the Cliffs of Moher stopping at the small village of Ennistymon on the way. We walked up and down Ennistymon's main street admiring the facades of some of the old buildings and a beautifully painted pub. We followed a brown sign leading under a stone arch to the Cascades and came face-to-face with the foaming brown stepped waterfalls of the River Inagh. It had rained heavily over the last couple of days so the water was roaring and surging and we were surrounded by a fine mist of water droplets. We continued on to Cliffs of Moher and after paying our entry fee, we parked the car and walked up to the Cliff edge. We climbed over a stone barrier and then walked south along a sometimes muddy cliff side track towards a ruined tower on Hag's Head. We didn't quite reach the ruin because it turned out to be much further than it looked but on the way we enjoyed panoramic views of the sheer upright cliffs towering above the icy aquamarine-coloured sea. We saw sea birds nesting in the cliff walls, caves at sea level, the Aran Islands, and O'Brien's Tower on the north stretch of the Cliffs. Occasionally we would hear a crack as a piece of stone broke off the cliff and then crashed down onto the stony beaches far below. The views of the surrounding countryside were also magnificent with miles of patchwork green fields bordered by stone walls. After turning back, we walked to the north stretch of the Cliffs where we had a view of the ruined tower at Hag's Head. We spent 2½ hours walking along the cliffs and we felt lucky because it started to rain as we walked back to the car.
We continued along the coast to Doolin, where we stopped briefly at O'Connor's pub for a light lunch. After that we saw the port where the ferry left for the nearby Aran Islands. Then we drove north along some narrow country lanes passing green fields, crystal clear streams, ruined towers and castles with the bare limestone hills providing a dramatic backdrop. We stopped at the Burren Smokehouse where we ate some delicious oak-smoked Irish salmon. We drove past Ballyvaughan to Linnalla Ice Cream Parlour at New Quay, which was basically a dairy farm with delicious farm-produced ice cream. We drove along Flaggy Beach and stopped at Linnalla Harbour where we spotted a small shop selling fresh seafood. The main area of the shop had a couple of tanks containing live lobsters and spider crabs. Out the back they also had a tank containing Galway Bay oysters. The shopkeeper was only too happy to open the oysters for us so we bought half a dozen and ate them in the shop as she opened them. They were lovely and fresh if salty.
We drove to Lisdoonvarna after that. The annual matchmaking festival was on and as we walked around town looking for somewhere to eat, we spotted a couple of likely lasses and hordes of likely lads who were aged from 18 to 65. We had our dinner with a glass of red wine at the Roadside Tavern. The Roadside Tavern had Wifi so we spent some time catching up with our emails before driving back to Kilfenora.
We were happy to see that the sun was shining and the sky was blue when we woke up on Saturday. We had our breakfast and then checked out of the B&B. First we walked around the corner to the ruined 12th century cathedral. Unfortunately the cathedral was locked but by peering through some doorways and windows we managed to see the stone head of a bishop above a window arch and the heads of three clerics in a capital above the east window. Right next to the cathedral was the 800 year old carved Doorty Cross. Then we walked to a field 100 metres away to see a 12th century high cross. From there we drove to the Poulnabrone Dolmen – one of Ireland's most photographed ancient monuments. It started raining heavily again when we arrived but we sat in the car and the rain cleared after five minutes or so. The dolmen consisted of a large five tonne capstone perched on stone uprights and was located in the middle of an uneven limestone pavement. After that we got in our car and drove to the tiny village of Carron. We paid a visit to the Burren Perfumery & Floral Centre. The centre uses the wildflowers of the Burren to produce its scents and product and we spent some time browsing in the shop and we watched their excellent audiovisual presentation on the flora of the Burren. To our surprise it wasn't an infomercial – it was more like a documentary and we really enjoyed it.
Next we decided to head towards County Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula. We got a little lost driving through the narrow country lanes but we really enjoyed our last look at the limestone and shale shelves and the stone ruins and ring forts of the Burren. In between rain showers, the sun came out and all the dark grey and blue grey green paddocks were immediately transformed into vivid shining warm yellow green paddocks. It was really beautiful.
We drove on a dual carriageway motorway to Limerick where we stopped and bought a salad from Tesco for lunch. When we got back on the motorway to drive to Tralee, we had to pay a toll! At Tralee we stopped briefly to get a map from the Tourist Information Office and we walked around the nearby park which had a beautiful flower garden full of roses in full bloom.
From Tralee, we drove past the Blennerville Windmill and then took the scenic route over the Connor Pass to the Dingle Peninsula. At 456 metres, the Connor Pass is the highest in Ireland and we had spectacular views of Dingle Bay and Mount Brandon. The road twisted and turned around the mountain and it was very narrow and very steep - with large signs telling buses, trucks and caravans to turn back! From the summit we looked across a valley scattered with rocks and the remains of stone walls and huts with Lough An Duin and a couple of other smaller loughs at the base. At Dingle we checked into the Hideout Hostel and walked around town and then down to the harbour.
We started off our Sunday with the Slea Head drive. This took us along a coastal road which hugged the tip of the peninsula. Although it was a cloudy day, the views were still jaw-dropping and our drive was punctuated with camera stops as photo opportunities presented themselves at every turn. The landscape was strewn with rocks and the remains of rock forts and beehive huts. At Slea Head the very tip of the peninsula, we had a view of the deserted Blasket Islands and we drove onto a tiny pristine beach which was also deserted! We paid a visit to the Gallarus Oratory, a 7th or 8th century dry-stone early church shaped like an upturned boat. It was beautifully constructed with downwards sloping stones to keep the water out – and after some 1200 years it was still waterproof. We turned inland and back to Dingle after that, driving along the Mount Brandon range in the rain. We took the main road down to Cork but turned off after a while towards Kilgorlin where we stopped for lunch at Jack's Bakery. We ate our fresh sandwiches, cupcake, and apple tart, and then we took a walk around the town and the bridge over the Laune River to see a sculpture of a goat – King Puck. We drove on towards Bantry through the Killarney National Park with thick forest, mountains, Lough Leane (the lake of learning), Muckross Lake, Upper Lake and ruins. We drove up into the mountains along a narrow winding road and then we passed through four tunnels in quick succession before the descent back to the coast. When we reached Bantry we took a room at the newly renovated Harbour View B&B.
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