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

Limerick and the Cliffs of Moher

One of the things I love most about Ireland is being able to come across places, many of them in the middle of nowhere, where the evidence of the past is all around you. Places like the passage tombs at Newgrange and the ruins of abandoned castles and abbeys all speak about the lives of those who lived hundreds and sometimes thousands of years before us.

In September we spent a weekend in Limerick and just outside of Limerick city we came across another of these places. This time it was the archaeological sites around Lough Gur. There are a large number of sites around the lake which show the importance of this lake from prehistoric to medieval times. The sites range from stone circles, to kilns, to castles, to early houses and tombs and provide the visible remains of over six millenia of human settlement.

We stopped first at the Grange Stone Circle, which is believed to have been built around 2000BC. It is made up of 113 upright stones and is the largest prehistoric circle like this in Ireland. Excavations have shown that is was built to face the rising sun at certain times of the year (like the passage tomb at Newgrange) and that it was used for sacred and ritual purposes.

 

 

A little further on we came to a wedge tomb, which is now just sitting all by itself, tucked in just off the road. You can walk right up to it and could even climb in (we didn't, and I'm sure this is not recommended!). The tomb dates to about the same period as the stone circle and when it was excavated held the bones of 8 adults and 4 children, plus a variety of pottery from the time.

 

It was a beautiful day and we stopped for a picnic around the lake and enjoyed the spectacular scenery. We did a short walk around part of the lake and saw the remains of a kiln, very early huts and some other standing stones.

 

 

 

Later that afternoon, we arrived in Limerick and enjoyed a walk around the city centre and by the river, down towards the castle. We didn't visit the castle here, but it looked very impressive. James, however, did find time to visit the Munster rugby store!

 

The next day, we drove into County Clare to visit the much-talked about Cliffs of Moher. The photo below is how the cliffs would look on a beautiful, calm, sunny day. The day we went, however, was the exact opposite to this. The cliffs were still beautiful but we were very grateful for the strong retaining walls on the lookout points or else we would have ended up blown over the top of them!

 Even our walk just to reach the Visitor's Centre was challenging as we were buffeted by winds of over 100km/h and icy, cold rain. It was impossible to walk forward in a straight line but finally we made it (not without tears!) to the calm of the visitor's centre. Inside, it was lovely and calm and warm and there were some great exhibitions and films on the history of the cliffs and the wildlife that live in the air and sea around them. The winds were still so strong outside, however, that James and I decided to go out to see the cliffs one at a time, while the girls stayed in the safety of the indoors.

So outside...the cliffs were spectacular - they are entirely vertical and rise to 203m high - but it was so windy and difficult even to hold the camera straight. I don't think I have ever felt wind like it. Nonetheless, the view along the lookout walk was well worth it, and from time to time, even a little sun poked through. The wind even calmed down enough at one point for the girls to make it to the first lookout point so that they actually could see the cliffs in real life, not just from the window in the coffee shop.

 

The girls did enjoy these very Irish chips while they were waiting inside, though!

After our exciting morning at the Cliffs of Moher we made our way back to Dublin through the area known as the Burren. We had long been wanting to see this region as we had heard a lot about how the landscape is so different from the lush, green fields that Ireland is usually so well known for. The Burren, however, is a very harsh landscape, that sometimes looks like a moonscape.It is made from limestone that was formed when this part of Ireland was covered by an ancient sea about 350 million years ago. It certainly was a very different landscape, but in its own way, just as beautiful.