Back to Dublin

Today we woke up and enjoyed our last big Irish breakfast, so we made the most of it. Jim tried the porridge with Bailey's, and said it was a remarkable improvement. After breakfast we left Galway, headed back east towards Dublin.

Our first stop was at the Hill of Tara, a site with many ancient monuments. One of them near the summit is a double-ditched earthen ring fort called Forradh, or the Royal Seat.

In the middle of the Forradh is a standing stone, which is believed to be the Lia Fáil (Stone of Destiny) at which the High Kings were crowned.

There's also a Neolithic passage tomb, known as the Mound of the Hostages.

After we finished visiting this site, we drove over to Newgrange. Newgrange is a passage tomb like the Mound of the Hostages, but it's much larger and more complex.

We'd hoped to tour the site, but visitors are restricted to guided tours and by the time we arrived a little after 1 PM, there was already a 3-hour wait for a tour. We didn't have that much time, so we viewed the good exhibits at the visitor center and headed on.

We arrived in Dublin just about the same time as everyone in Ireland headed for Croke Stadium for the Gaelic football quarterfinals, so traffic was crazy. We did eventually make it to our B&B, and then headed downtown (avoiding the traffic this time) for a quick visit to the National Museum of Ireland.

After dinner, we took a walk around and saw a few more sites that we missed last week. Here's a picture of the Customs House.

A sad one of the Irish Famine monument...

And finally, a cool bridge.

Tomorrow we head back home, so this is the official end of the Ireland blog. We hope you enjoyed sharing the adventure with us. We'll see you soon.

Aran Island

We were up early this morning to catch our flight over to Inis Mór, one of the Aran Islands. It was raining all the way to the airport, and forecast to continue. We arrived at the airport (using the term pretty loosely) and checked in.

Here's the inside.

A few minutes before our 8:30 AM flight, they took us out to the plane, an 8-passenger Britten-Norman Islander.

By this time, the rain had stopped, so we loaded up for the ten-minute flight. In this mid-flight picture, you can see that the sky is starting to clear to the southwest.

We landed at the Inishmore Aerodrome, shown below.

A bus was waiting outside to take us the two miles to Kilronan, where we rented a pair of bikes for the day. At this point, the sky was clear and the sun was out... nice!

Most people take the ferry over to the island, but the first one doesn't arrive until 10:40 or so. Since we had a two-hour head start, we headed right to the most popular attraction, Dún Aonghasa, a prehistoric fort originally constructed about 1100 BC.

It's built on the edge of a 300-ft high cliff that drops straight into the Atlantic.

From there, we rode over to the Seven Churches. Despite the name, there are actually only two churches, Teampall Bhreacain, begun in the 8th century, and Teampall an Phoill from the 15th century.

The tour buses from the ferry passengers were out in full force by this time, so we stopped in here for a delicious lunch, including homemade rhubarb cobbler for dessert!

After lunch, we headed to the wormhole. We don't really have any idea why it's called that, but it's a naturally-formed rectangular pool in a ledge on the edge of the island. It's fed by a cave underneath the pool, so the water ebbs and flows with the waves from the ocean.

Our next stop was the seal beach, where we were able to see a few seals popping their heads out of the water.

It was almost time to catch the bus back to the airport, so we returned our bikes and stopped in to a few of the stores while we waited for the bus. Once back in the airport, we were on the plane in about three minutes... we remarked that this is the way air travel should be! Once airborne, we were able to see the other Aran islands (Inis Oirr is the one visible on the right side of the picture) and the Cliffs of Moher in the distance.

After our return to the mainland, we returned to Galway to explore a bit more and have dinner.

Tomorrow we head back to Dublin, with a few stops along the way... see you then.

County Clare

We left Limerick this morning and headed north into County Clare. It's a rural area with lots of green, and little towns like Lisdoonvarna and Ballyvaughan. The GPS has been a real blessing in several ways, one of which is that it gives us the ability to get off the highways and take a lot of the country back roads. We get to see a part of Ireland many people never see... today, we drove through an area with cattle and donkeys and followed a farmer in his pickup truck with the dog hanging out the window for about 5-6 km.

By late morning we arrived at the Cliffs of Moher on the Atlantic.

The cliffs run for about five miles along the coast.

At their highest point, they're just over 700 feet above the water below.

As you can see, the views were amazing. The day was quite clear, and off in the distance we could see the Aran Islands, where we'll be visiting tomorrow.

After we finished up on the coast, we headed back inland to the Poulnabrone Portal Tomb. This was an interesting portal tomb constructed between 4200 BC and 2900 BC.

The capstone is 12 ft long and 7 ft wide, and the two portal stones supporting the capstone are 6 ft tall. In this area just south of Galway Bay, much of the bedrock limestone is visible and provides a very different landscape than other parts of Ireland.

You can see that in this picture too. The hill on the left side of the road appears white from the limestone outcroppings.

The result of this limestone and some ancient erosion is another cool cave though, and we stopped in there next. This is Aillwee Cave, which goes back more than a kilometer into the mountain. The tour only goes about half way back, but we were able to see evidence of the underground river that created the cave (at the top of the photo).

There was also a pretty substantial waterfall inside the cave, though it didn't show up well in our photo.

After the cave tour, we headed around the bay to Galway. It's the fourth largest city in Ireland (behind Limerick), so we hit a bit of traffic coming into town. After checking in at the bed & breakfast, we headed into town for some dinner and enjoyed a nice walk along "the Prom" (promenade).

Looking across the bay to the south, you can see back over to Ballyvaughan and the limestone mountains.

Limerick

We enjoyed our time in Killarney, but this morning we left to go north. We stopped first in a pretty little town called Adare. The Trinitarian Priory is one of the first features of the town you notice. It was built for the Trinitarian order of monks in 1230 and believed to be the only monastery for that order in Ireland. The Priory was restored in 1811 and is now used as the local Roman Catholic Church.

Just across the street are some little cottages with thatched roofs.

A little further through town there is the Augustinian Priory, founded in 1316. It now houses the local parish of the Church of Ireland.

Finally, on the way out of the town center, there is a cool multi-arched bridge that was constructed between 1390 and 1410.

After our visit to Adare, we headed east to Lough Gur. Archaeological digs have confirmed settlements here dating back 6000 years, and the site includes the Grange Stone Circle, built around 2200 BC. It's referred to by some as the Stonehenge of Ireland, but in reality it better resembles the stone circles at Avebury.

Here we are with the largest stone, called Rannach Crom Dubh, which weighs more than 40 tons.

After our visit to Lough Gur, we headed up to Limerick for the night. This is Ireland's third largest city, on the Shannon River. We strolled down O'Connell Street, where many of the stores are located and stopped in to a pub for dinner. Afterwards, we found King John's Castle completed in 1210.

Here's the view up the river and out of town.

And finally, St. Mary's Cathedral, built in 1168, the oldest building in Limerick which is in daily use.

See you tomorrow!

Killarney

This morning we started off (literally) at the top of the mountain... at Molls Gap. The elevation here is only about 2700 ft, but since Killarney is 160 ft above sea level you can see almost all of that elevation from the top. Upper Lake is visible in the picture.

This picture is taken looking back up the mountain from the other end of Upper Lake.

As you drive down the mountain the foliage changes to look very similar to what we'd see at home.

Tammy wanted to see the Torc Waterfall.

About mid-morning it began to look like rain, so we decided it was a good time to visit the Muckross House. It reminded us of the Biltmore House, though it was built much earlier, between 1839 and 1843.

They don't allow pictures inside the house, but here's one from the garden.

We stopped for a bite to eat in Killarney, then headed over to the Dingle Peninsula. This is the next one north of the Iveragh Peninsula that we drove yesterday on the Ring of Kerry. In this picture you can see back across Kells Bay to Glenbeigh.

In this picture you can see the road winding along the hillside.

And this is a view out into the North Atlantic from the western end of the peninsula near Dunquin.

After dinner in town, we drove back out to the edge of the National Park to see the deer grazing in a field at dusk.. it was a nice way to end the day. Tomorrow, we head north.