Happy 5th Wedding Remembrance Day!
(We took this picture before the trip)
Okay, back to Ireland.
We had a bit of a drive this morning from Galway to Dingle.
Driving stick shift on the left was a bit of a challenge.
Despite it being a bit overcast we had some lovely scenery.
Somewhere between Galway and Carran.
We're taking a detour to look at Poulnabrone (Poll na Brón) dolmen. This is the road out to it.
You can see where people kept poking the "you are here" spot on the map.
Poulnabrone portal is one of the oldest memorials to human history.
Some basic info on what the dolmen is.
We parked in a designated parking field and walked the short trail up to the dolmen.
The ground here is interesting, kind of like out on the Aran Islands.
A little bit about the flowers here.
And of course, I took pictures of the flowers. This is Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria).
And now, the panel 3 and info about Poulnabrone.
Poulnabrone means "hole of the quern stones" although Google says it means "hole of sorrows."
It's on a little cairn and is roped off so people don't destroy it.
The top stone is about 12 feet in length and the supporting stones are about 6 feet tall.
There's about 9 feet of tomb below.
Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea).
Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia). A little bell flower.
A purple puff, Devils-bit Scabius(Succisa pratensis).
The unusual ground with many Burren ferns.
A pink puff, Knapweed (Centaurea nigra).
This would be fun to climb if I was an inch tall.
There were some reasonably sized grikes in the ground.
Grikes and Dan.
The tomb and the weird ground and then farmlands in the distance.
This was a wall going into private farm land.
This stone on the ground was probably a second capstone that fell at some point.
Meadowsweet and Knapweed.
Camomile! (Chamaemelum nobile)
Silly cows, so close to cool history and they don't even know it.
The tomb was interesting. It made me think of Obelix and his menhirs.
Back in the car and this time we're detouring to the Cliffs of Moher.
The long and winding road....
The Cliffs of Moher are off to the right, this view is off to the left.
A crow greeted us.
As you can see on the right, the Cliffs were very busy today.
Here are the stats for the day; the tides are there for you Jim.
The Cliffs rise 214 meters (702 feet) at the highest point and range for 8 kilometers (5 miles).
Flowers, and the Cliffs, and the little villages down below on the other side.
The Cliffs of Moher (Aillte an Mhothair) take their name from a ruined promontory fort, Mothar.
The fort was demolished during the Napoleonic wars.
The Cliffs have also been designated a Special Protected Area (SPA) for being home to Ireland's largest seabird nesting colony. About 20 species of birds nest here.
These are the Aran Islands. We were there yesterday.
And here we are today!
On this side you can see O'Brien's Tower. The tower was built in 1835 by local landlord and MP Sir Cornellius O'Brien to entertain Victorian tourists.
And there was a little memorial stone. There are walls along a portion of the touristy area but once outside of that the Cliffs are access at your own risk. The tops apparently like to crumble unexpectedly and you are discouraged from getting to close to the edge.
Despite being busy, because of the walls at the visitor center, you felt like you were the only one looking at the Cliffs. You can see the trail that runs along the top of the Cliffs. That's where people fall off from sudden Cliff collapse.
Below O'Brien's Tower is the Sea Stack or Big Rook (an Branán mór).
Apparently wild goats roam the Cliffs.
More stone walls and beautiful countryside.
A crazy camper van.
We got back into the car to get to the Dingle Peninsula and our hotel before it got too dark.
Our hotel room had an amazing view. We unpacked and hung out for a bit but had reservations for dinner in the town over the mountain in Dingle, so we couldn't relax for too long.
We stayed at The Shores Country House.
We stopped somewhere up the mountain to take in this view.
It's so stupidly beautiful.
If you'd like a little info about the Geology of West Kerry, here it is.
A small roadside waterfall.
Purple heather everywhere and ponds and fog.
The fog was settling in pretty quickly. Also this mountain road is one lane for large sections.
Sometimes cars were oncoming.
Sometimes in areas that looked like two cars couldn't fit.
But it was okay, we have been dealing with Neapolitans cramming 4 cars into one lane roads.
We stopped a second time at what was supposed to be a very scenic overlook.
Instead we got fog.
And sheep.
Coming down the other side of the mountain, we dropped below the fog.
And had more stupidly beautiful views.
The road to Dingle.
It's a cute, colorful, seaside town.
We had a little time before dinner, so we walked around town to see what we could see.
We found a hardware store that turns into a bar after hours.
This is Saint Mary's Church.
Inside view.
There was a little cemetery and garden out behind the church.
The garden had a labyrinth.
And a path through a little grove of trees.
Mushroom! (beacán)
And a secret garden like gate between garden sections.
It really had some lovely grounds.
A Torch Lily (Kniphofia uvaria) with a little snail friend.
There was also a church cat stalking birds.
A pi/pie store!
Michael you have an ice cream shop here.
With clever t-shirts. (Póg mo thóin means kiss my @$$)
Another crazy camper van.
This knick knack store had a huge carve head/hair outside of it.
Michael, you also have a pub/bread & breakfast here.
We had a lovely dinner to celebrate our anniversary and then drove back over to our hotel.
This concludes our adventures for today.
