Sligo and Donegal

The end of September brought with it more visitors: firstly it was lovely to see Auntie Janice and cousin Emily from Canberra, shortly followed by Jeannie, James' mum. It was also around this time that we caught our last glimpse of one of our fox family, enjoying some late afternoon sun. Perhaps it has become too cold for them now, or their family group has split up, because we have not seen them for quite some time.

On the first weekend in October we did a trip with Jeannie to the far west of Ireland, over to counties Sligo and Donegal. Our first stop was the Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery in County Sligo. This is another one of those places that I was talking about in my last blog post: very isolated (and quite hard to find) but just full of a sense of history. This is a cemetery that dates from the late Stone Age (3000-2000BC) and it has a number of stone cairns and tombs dotted around the landscape.

Once we left the car we had to walk about a kilometre uphill to find the tombs (clear signage is obviously not considered important here!). It was a rather lonely yet atmospheric walk, our only company being the many sheep also wandering the hills and the path. Ella was a bit scared of them as they were so close. I was trying to reassure her that they were friendly when 2 of them had a big fight right in front of us and one of them then headbutted the other over the side of the hill! This did not make her feel any better! As the path began to run out we were left to clamber up to the very top of the hill, not really knowing where we were going. Finally though we came to the top and there were 3 passage tombs up there, one which also has a lightbox, like the tomb at Newgrange. This one is aligned with the mid-summer sunset to illuminate the passage inside. It was wet and cold but worth the climb to the top to see them. Once at the top, Pia and Ella, who were not originally convinced that the long walk to see these tombs was worth the effort, were obviously inspired by the uplifting and spiritual location and now required a lot of coaxing to get them to come down. They loved climbing atop the tombs, discovering the many animal burrows (rabbits, foxes??) and looking at the heather and other interesting plants.

The beautiful views from the top (and I don't just mean James!)

And the tombs........

Tomb with roofbox aligned to the mid-summer sunset

Next stop was Strandhill, the setting for the novel, The Secret Scripture, by Irish author Sebastian Barry. This is a beautiful beach, well known for its good surfing, but not swimming!

It was actually an amazing sight at the time we were there as the sky to the right was beautiful, clear and sunny, yet to the left it was so dark, grey and threatening.

looking right

looking left

It was here also that we caught our first view of the mountain Benbulben, for which the area is so well known. Its top is so flat that it is often said that it looks like a table with a pleated tablecloth on top.

We stayed the night in a lovely little B&B called Down Yonder in Rosses Point, which is just outside of the town of Sligo. This statue, on the harbour there, commemorates all the Irish who have watched and waited for their loved ones to return from sea.

                

We were now in Yeats' Country. It was from this area that the famous Irish poet William Butler Yeats drew much of his inspiration and he asked to be buried here. We visited his grave site and he does have a lovely spot overlooking Benbulben.

We then continued to drive around the headland towards Streedagh and Grange, trying to follow the little roads marked on the map, but ending up not exactly sure where we were. What we did find, however, was a lovely little deserted beach where some members of the Spanish Armada ended up landing, and the ruins of a deserted building (a church?)

As we drove around Mullaghmore, the house of Lord Mountbatten was always an impressive sight in the distance. Lord Mountbatten was a second cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II and he was assassinated by the IRA who blew up his fishing boat, killing him and 3 other people, in 1979.

Lord Mountbatten's residence

Some of the beautiful scenery around Mullaghmore

We then made our way into County Donegal. First stop were the cliffs at Slieve League - these cliffs are actually higher than their more famous cousins, the Cliffs of Moher, and are thought to be the highest cliffs in Europe. They really were a spectacular sight, with cloud seeming to rest just on their peak at some points. As you can see it was quite cold and windy at these cliffs too!

The rock formations down below are known as the school desk and chair

We stayed the night in the little fishing village of Killeybegs. James had stayed here several years ago and was pleased to be able to return. The following morning we drove to the little town of Glencolumbcille (or Gleann Cholm Cille in Irish, we were now in a Gaeltacht area) where we began the beautiful Glen Gesh mountain pass drive. We would have loved to explore more of Donegal and its spectacular scenery but unfortunately the need to return to work and school intervened and so we had to begin our return home, passing through the UK (well, Northern Ireland) as we made our way back to Dublin.

Glencolumbcille

The Glen Gesh mountain pass