Category: Ireland/Scotland, Fall 2022

Our original plan was to take the short route from Galway to Sligo, which is inland from the “Wild Atlantic Way”.  The Wild Atlantic Way is a series of roads along the coast with intersect or stay close to the water.  Our guide on Inishmore told us we had to drive to Sligo via the Connemara region, closer to the coast, and go through Westport.  It took us a bit longer, but it was good advice!  Our first stop was The Quiet Man Bridge.

This bridge is featured in the movie The Quiet Man, with John Wayne.  Here is the scene in question, if you are curious.  The bridge is shown in the first few seconds…the rest is a pretty lame sound stage scene, but then it was 1952.  The actual bridge can be seen again at the end.

Our next stop was Pines Island viewpoint.  I’ve got to say this little island looks so out of place with the rest of the surroundings.  Ireland has so many surprises around every corner, even without the Leprechauns!

We then drove past Derryclare Lough and Lough Inagh and were greeted with one of the best rainbows we’ve ever seen.  It followed us for several miles.

Assleagh Falls was on the other side of the Loughs…err…lakes!

The water in this region takes on this strange brown color due to it’s being filtered through the areas peat bogs.

We did drive through Westport, and it looked cute, but it was so crowded we only stopped for gas and moved on.  We checked into our B&B, (Castledale), and then took a drive to nearby Strandhill Beach.

A quick note about the below photo.  This is without a doubt the best photo I’ve taken in Ireland, and one of the best I’ve taken in years, if not ever (IMHO).  There is a walkway above this beach, and I saw the rocks below and the sky in the distance, and I knew this was a magical moment.  I’m a huge fan of Ansel Adams and Christopher Burkett (a very talented color photographer), and when they talk about seeing an “aha” moment, it never clicked with me, until now.

The next photo is equally impressive, but the first one is my favorite.  Let us know what you think.  There’s a good chance one of these will be hanging on our wall soon.

The next morning we had incredible weather, so we headed to the local favorite geological feature, Benbulben.

Adjacent to Benbulben is the Forest Walk, which is 5.5km of beautiful!

The sheep graze way up on the side of the mountain.  There is grass everywhere below, so why?  Crazy!

The forest gets quite dark in numerous places.  Doesn’t Kim look like Little Red Riding “No” Hood here, getting ready to walk towards Grandma’s House?

We both thought this looked a lot more like Hawaii than Ireland!  This place loves the camera!

I love the alignment of the trail with the fence line running towards Benbulben.

Another view of Benbulben as we near the end of the loop trail.

Not too far away is Gleniff Horseshoe, a loop drive into a box canyon.

We nearly had the place to ourselves.  We were on the road for at least 15 minutes and saw nobody.  Here is a panorama of the box canyon.

Our last stop of the day was Glencar Waterfall.  First was a spot along the lake that Glencar runs into.  I want to build my house right where I was standing!

Glencar Waterfall was created by glaciers running through the adjacent valley.  Impressive spot!

Kim showed off her selfie skills.  Much better than me!

One feature of our B&B experience at Castledale is they have a pool table.  Don’t play against Kim if you want to keep your money!

Next up, Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery and Queen Maeve’s Grave.

 

Our second day in Galway we saw blue skies out the window, and thought we’d get lucky on our planned visit to Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands off the coast of Galway.  The ferry dock is 40 minutes away in Rossaveel, and the ferry service offers a bus to the dock, but we hate riding in a bus, so we drove to the pier.  There is only one ferry in the morning, at 1030, so don’t miss it!  I think we made it by 5 minutes.

Once on the ferry I asked a crew member about tour guides on the island.  He said “don’t worry, they’ll all be begging for your business as soon as you get off the ferry”.  He did mention one guy in particular, Pat Hernon with Celtic Tours, and said he thought he was the best.  After getting off the ferry it took some time, but we found him, and ended up with a private tour as it is so quiet this time of year.

Pat is a “salt of the earth” Irishman, born and raised on Inishmore, and spent his earlier years skippering a fishing boat in the region.  If you ever find yourself lucky enough to visit Inishmore then I highly recommend you connect with him!

We started off our tour in the “busy” downtown area of Inishmore, where Pat showed us the smallest bank in Ireland.  They only work one day a week, for 4 hours, which sounds like an ideal job to me!

The bank doesn’t even have an ATM!  There is only one on the island, at the only store on the island, across the street from the bank.  It’s definitely a stark difference from Galway.

Pat pointed out one of the few remaining thatched roof cottages on Inishmore.  This one is currently an Airbnb.

He then took us to the highlight of the island, a walled fort called Dun Aonghasa.

It’s a short 15 minute walk to the fort.

The fort has 3 tiers of walls.  You get incredible cliff views just inside the second wall of the fort.  The cliffs are over 300 feet high.

The first construction on the fort is estimated to have started  in 1100 BC.  The final portions of the walls were constructed by Nancy Pelosi’s grand-father in 500 BC.  The interior here is the largest we’ve seen of any fort in Ireland.  Nice work Grandpa P!

Here is an aerial view to give a better sense of the layout.

This fort is originally believed to have been oval or D-shaped, but constant erosion has caused parts of the fort to fall into the sea, which is eerily reminiscent of Nancy’s dental work.

There is a really nice Olympic diving board located just outside the northern wall of the fort.

This shot is inside the fort looking out towards the 2nd tier of walls.

We found a helpful American to take our photo along the cliffs.

The views along the walk back are so beautiful.  There is a movie coming out on November 11, “The Banshees of Inisherin”, that was filmed on the island.  With views like this I can understand the desire to film here.

The starting point of the trail is that building in the center of the photo.

Right after leaving Dun Aonghasa, our guide pointed out this building, which was used in the 2010 film “Leap Year”.  The building was  in terrible shape before they worked their Hollywood magic on it, and then quickly fell back into terrible shape after they left.  Our guide said he helped escort Amy Adams for the film, and said she was a pleasure to work with.

The movie was just so-so, but we watched it before coming to Ireland.  You can still make out the name they used for the pub in the film.

It started pouring down rain after this spot, so we were happy we didn’t rent bikes or take a ride in a horse-drawn carriage like others had opted for upon departing the ferry.  Pat took us to the far western edge of the island, and we braved the rain for a few minutes to get a shot.

Not too far away was a spot called The Seven Churches.

There are only 2 churches here, right next to each other.  The church on the right (interior in the above photo) is from the 8th century, and the smaller one on the left is from the 15th century.

The site is called The Seven Churches due to one of the graves has “V11 Romani” etched on it, which equates to “The Seven Romans”.  I think something was lost in translation along the way, which would be easy to understand if you ever heard Irish being spoken.

We got back to “town” and the ferry dock about an hour before departure, and it was still dumping cats and dogs.  Pat was nice enough to wait for us while we had a drink in the local pub, and then drove us straight to the dock just before departure.  This sign was on the wall of the pub.

The seas were pretty stormy in the harbor area alone, and the ride back to the mainland was the roughest I’ve experienced since I was in the Navy.  Fun stuff!  Fortunately it was just a 45 minute ride.

I’m glad we made the trip to Inishmore, but if we ever come back again I’d like it to be in better weather.  There is one spot I’d still like to see, The Wormhole, but the weather made that walk undesirable.  It would also be nice to see the other two Aran Islands.

Next up, we head to Sligo.