Sitting outside our hotel and enjoying the ocean view.
On Saturday we headed out to Rossaveal where you can park your car and catch a Ferry to the Aran Islands. We went to Inishmore, the largest of the Aran islands.
You had to get on the correct ferry to get to the island of your choice. Inisheer is the smallest of the islands, with a population of maybe 300 people. It is a very quiet little getaway as far as I can tell. It also has a nice beach from what I have read about it. Inishmaan is a little bigger than that, but it is apparently the least visited island, and I don't think there was actually a Ferry headed there when we were going out. It is the place where John Synge had his retreat. I would like to see his home there, which apparently is preserved as a tourist attraction. John Synge is the Irish playwright who wrote "The Playboy of the Western World" which caused riots in the Abbey Theater in Dublin. It is an interesting play, and yes, to me it seemed a little strange, but interesting nonetheless! Oh but I digress...
We went to Inishmore, and once we arrived, we hired Michael and Nellie to take us around the island. Michael graciously posed for a picture. He has lived there all his life. He told us the land they have has been in their family for 300 years. This includes the times when his ancestors were tenants rather than owners. Nellie is a draft pony and she was lovely! We rode past his house, waved to his wife, son and daughter, and enjoyed listening to all the information he had about the islands.
Once we had our pony trap ready to go, it was time to explore the island!
I was going to caption this, The Quiet Man, but that really doesn't apply to Steve...
Look at all of those stone fences! It is amazing the sheer number of fences. Some are for such small areas it is a wonder that anyone could survive with such a small plot of land. Many have openings that lead into other fields as well. They are hundreds of years old, just like the hedges you see around the country.
As you can see, it was a gorgeous day!
Below is a shot of the house on the island that is easiest to spot! Bright lime green, hmmm... Yes, Michael knows who lives there, after all, there are only 800 people and the house IS lime green! We could see it from the Ferry when we were still about 15 minutes away!
There are a lot of stone ruins on the island, including several ring forts, monasteries, and churches. Above is what remains of St. Ciaran's Monastery. Though Michael identified other ruins that we passed, I did not take notes and thus am unable to pass all the info along to you. My bad! One can look up the info online of course...
Honestly, the stone fences were simply amazing!
Lucky cows! A field with a view!
So this ruin is one I can't recall
There is another ruin I cannot identify...
There was a lovely beach with white sand. There were some people swimming, though it was a rather fresh day! (Fresh essentially means chilly or brisk here.)
From there we headed up to Dun Aonghasa. A stone fort probably built around 1100 BC. Michael and Nellie had to drop us off at the base where we could get something to eat and visit some shops, and then on to the visitor center and walking up to the stone fort. We were not on a time table other than needing to be sure to be back in time for our Ferry in the evening. This made it extremely enjoyable!
This is like the Burren with lots of wildflowers and other interesting flora. Off in the distance you can see the Ocean. If we had walked out that direction, we would have come upon The Wormhole. This is a large squared hole where the ocean fills in from underneath. It was used for the 2012 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. You can look it up online and see spectacular pictures of the hole and videos of the divers. Pretty amazing actually!
It is quite a hike to the stone fort, and you can see the land all around has lots of rocks. Thus, it would seem the stone fences are built almost out of necessity, as a way to clear the land of stones!
Finally we made it to the top of the Cliff! Dun Aonghasa is on a 300 foot cliff on the Atlantic Ocean. The stone fort makes a circle using the cliff as part of the circle. There are other walls that form a ring around the main wall. The best picture to show this is an aerial view that you can see if you look it up online.
Steve is a bit afraid of heights now, so I was apparently making him nervous. There have been cases of people getting blown over off the cliff. You can see by my hair that it is windy - but on this day, it wasn't windy all over, just off the edge. There is no railing so you really do have to be careful and view at your own risk. So NOT the US! Oh Ireland....so much more relaxed....and a bit scarier!
No, I would NOT want to fall...
It is a spectacular coast, and you can see how it would be a good place to build defensively. No one could scale the cliffs without the inhabitants knowing and being able to deal with the invasion and that left attackers having to come up the open field instead.
We laughed that this was an iron age toilet - but it's NOT!
All done...HA!
This row of jagged rocks was put in place back when it was being built. The stones are a defensive ring around the fort to ward off attackers. The style of fort and the several rings along with the defensive stones are referred to as Chevaux de Frise. Probably the height of activity here was around 800 BC.
Now for the descent...Sure-footed like a mountain goat!
Umm...maybe not...
On the way back down we saw blueberries growing among the rocks of the Burren-like field.
After we got back down, we located Michael and Nellie, who had picked up 2 travelers who had lost or possibly ditched their bus. They were 2 women from Switzerland, but one was living in Galway and attending the University there. They were good company. So the five of us headed out to see Teampall Bhreacain, also known as The Seven Churches. The original Church dates from the 8th Century.
The stand of a high cross.
What a view!
This fella brayed like crazy when Nellie pulled up. They are pals.
Steve apparently liked this house that we passed on our way back to Kilronan. This was probably when we had to get out and walk up the hill to spare Nellie on the steep grade.
So back in Kilronan we had a Guinness and then went into the shops to buy an Aran Wool sweater and then we had to catch the Ferry back to Rossaveal. We dozed on the boat and then hopped in the car and stopped at a pub to watch the All Ireland Hurling Final between Tipperary and Kilkenny. I was rooting for Kilkenny because they have a fabulous player named Richie Hogan! The game was a rematch because when they first played it, it ended in a tie. For GAA sports, that always means a rematch - no tie-breaker, at least for the first match-up. In the rematch, Kilkenny won!
The pub was Padraicin's Restaurant and Bar in Furbo. We stayed for dinner and the food was great and the people were awesome. Patrons were friendly, even if some of them were rooting for Tipperary! After dinner we walked along the beach. The pub looked so welcoming from the beach too - all lit up and just beckons you in for food, drink and good craic!
Hmm, fuzzy pictures. Maybe I had too many Galway Hookers! (It's a BEER!)
When we got back to the hotel we had drinks and dessert in the bar and chatted with some people from New York. The next day we took the scenic route back home, leaving early enough to get to a County Final Football match between Killoe and Longford Slashers. Steve's colleague and friend, John Conway, plays for Killoe. Unfortunately Killoe got beat, but we stayed to watch another game that ended in a tie so, you guessed it, it has to be replayed another day! All in all it was a fantastic weekend and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!
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