Sunday
August 11: we set off from Killarney, north across County Kerry, and
took a ferry to County Clare – avoding the long drive around County
Limmerick. The three main items of the day were the Cliffs of Moher,
the Burren, and the medieval part of the city of Galway. The day
started off moderately rainy, but cleared up for us as the day
progressed.
I’ve
become fascinated with the Irish place names, which on all the
highway signage are posted in slanted mixed-case font above the
all-caps English names. So we passed Lios Tuathail (Listowel),
Tairbeart (Tarbert), Cill Rios (Killrush),
Lios
Ceannúir (Liscannor,
famous for its particular kind of stone), and Gaillimh (Galway). Much
of our route today was on the Sli an Atlantaigh Fháin
(Wild Atlantic Way).
We reached the ferry
just before it set off, the last vehicle on board. I always admire
people with skills I don’t have, so was impressed when the ferrymen
managed to get our bus onto the ferry, and raise the ramp into place,
by getting us to park at an angle across two lanes.
The first major stop
was Aillte an Mhotháir,
the Cliffs
of Moher, which my wife googled as having appeared in a couple of
movies, including The Princess Bride (the ‘Cliffs
of Insanity’). The cliffside is a protected habitat, and the
cliffs occasionally crumble into the Atlantic, so there’s more than
just avoiding falls for staying on the right side of the slate
barrier stones.
The
visitor’s centre was controversial; proposal after proposal was
rejected as ruining the landscape, until one at last proposed digging
it into the hillside.
I
had a quick lunch and went out to explore. From the low point near
the visitor’s centre the paths went up moderate slopes both north
and south. I went north first, which gave me views of the south
cliffs, which to me were the more spectacular.
I
made it to the top of the north cliff, and considered reversing back
to the south, but I met a couple of travelling companions who said
they had taken nearly an hour and a half to make it to the far end of
the south cliffs and back. So I just went far enough to get a picture
of the north cliffs.
We
then took the ‘scenic route’ to the city of Galway. This included
the very rocky region of the Burren (Barren), scraped nearly clean of
soil by glaciers in the last Ice Age. It is also a protected area.
We
passed a regatta of Galway hookers, a kind of fishing vessel with red
sails that inspired a song about red sails in the sunset.
We
also passed Dunguaire
Castle, which serves medieval banquets.
In
Galway we took a brief walking tour of the oldest part of the city. The
Collegiate Church of
St. Nicholas was built in 1320. As with many Christian churches
in Europe, it was apparently built on a pagan site, where a pair of
ley lines are said to intersect.
We
stayed overnight in Galway.
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