Here Comes the Sun

When the sun was shining on Thursday morning, we knew the time was right for our first walk from the book: the Cliffs of Moher. And believe it or not, the clouds stayed away! We parked at the visitors' centre for the Cliffs and walked about 5 km along the cliffs to the north. The path was often treacherous and, at one point, was completely washed out. At their highest point, the cliffs are about 200 m straight above the Atlantic ocean, and slowly descend to nearly sea level at the point where we turned around. The cliffs and jagged rock islands below create ominous vistas as we walked above them. I felt I had used up all my concentration already, so we walked back to the car along some inland roads. That evening we continued north to Cleggan in the Connemara region, known for its horses and peat bogs.

On Friday, we were determined to follow our success on the Cliffs of Moher with a more substantial hike up 3 of "The Twelve Bens" in Connemara. The low clouds soon put a stop to that and we opted for a guided nature walk in Connemara National Park (perhaps we could learn about the bogs). When the other 40 people met for the tour, however, we bailed out and asked one of the park staff for a suggestion. Confident that the clouds would lift enough for Mt. Diamond we set out in the light drizzle. After about 1 km, my left foot plunged calf deep into a bog-hole and I my otherwise waterproof-boot protected foot was soaked through! Not to worry, we continued on. At 300 m we had to decide whether to climb further or make the return trip on the other side of the hill. The clouds, which had been rising with us until then, came down to meet us and make our decision easier. As luck would have it, during our drive to our next destination, Drumshanbo, the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day.

On Saturday morning, although not raining, the sun was once again hidden behind a blanket of low clouds, thwarting our hopes of another climb. Instead we took the cultural approach, visiting sites from three very different eras. The first was a castle which was originally built by an Irish lord who was executed for betraying the English monarchy (Elizabeth I, if memory serves) and was then renovated and inhabited by an English lord. An A/V presentation here directed us to a prehistoric site a few miles away with numerous stone circles and passage tombs. You may remember the rather dissatisfying experience of searching for the stone circle in Glengarrif. This made up for it. These stone circles were clearly made by higher intelligence (stone age man) and there were some amazing examples of large and complete megalithic structures. The last stop for the day was the Belleek pottery just inside the Northern Ireland border. While the craftsmanship which goes into the making of this woven and slip-moulded porcelain is monumental, neither Laurie nor I was particularly impressed. To us, the styles were old-fashioned and the porcelain looked like something that you would buy at a flea market somewhere. We finished our Saturday in Letterkenny with the Mr. Bean movie.

Sunday morning was another day for a walk from the book, and this time the weather co-operated. We drove further north in Co. Donegal to the peninsula known as Inishowen and climbed the triumvirate of peaks Damph (~400m), Slieve Main (~500m) and Slieve Snaught (~600 m). Although the sky was a glorious blue, there was haze on the horizons, preventing a view of the islands off the NW coast of Scotland (Islay and Jura). We then took a short cut through Northern Island to arrive in Cavan in the middle of the country.