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The Cliffs of Moher

The most appropriate sign for the day, and it was a subdued one. All of this that you are about to see is stunningly gorgeous. And we’d ruin it with fences in the United States.

The Cliffs of Moher are on the edge of the Burren (meaning “Great Rock”) region in County Clare.

They top out at 702 feet above the Atlantic here at O’Brien’s Tower and receive almost one million visitors a year.

The cliffs take their name from an old fort called Moher that once stood on Hag’s Head, to the south. It was demolished in 1808 and the present tower near that site was a lookout tower during the Napoleonic wars. O’Brien’s Tower? It was built in 1835 to impress girls. Some things never change. Also, how hard to impress were 19th century women? Look at the view!

Thousands and thousands of birds live in the cliffs — that rock is a popular spot — and they are said to come from more than 20 species, like Atlantic Puffins, hawks, ravens and more.

This is the most popular tourist site in Ireland. Again, not hard to see why.

They were featured in the Potter films …

… and most importantly in The Princess Bride. The Cliffs of Insanity!

What happens when one person makes a nice face and one person makes the Facebook duck face:

Can anyone say Christmas card?

The sun was just about to set on us and The Yankee said the Cliffs were the place to be. She is so often right.

The Burren is a whole lot of limestone. They can just pull up slabs of it and stack it into a vertical fence. O’Brien had these particular ones built in the 19th century and they’ve been reinstalled today. They are holding out the growth for the pedestrian path. You look over those rocks and there are a few feet of wildflowers — more on those in a moment — and then it all just falls into the ocean.

They’ve traveled over most of the southern half of Ireland now and they still like each other. I think they might make it.

Because it is limestone, and because of the water, there are a lot of caves in the local cliffs. Perhaps that is one down there. This is a big area for cavers and climbers, though we didn’t see any today.

You don’t see them all here, but I did learn today that the Burren region — which ranges for about 250 kilometers — is exotically varied in its flora. You can see arctic, Mediterranean and alpine plants all close by one another here. They all have to meet up somewhere, one supposes.

I bet she got a good picture. If she didn’t, I did.

That’s the path on the top of the cliff, by the way. There’s nothing preventing you from falling to the ocean below. They say that a strong gust of wind can do the job if you are standing too close to the edge. I am only a tiny bit skeptical of that.

If you can stop looking at the rock and the birds below you can see the Aran islands off in the distance …

If you continued looking south you might notice an area of disturbed water. Legend has it that this is the location of Kilstiffen. The ancient city sank when its chieftain, in battle, lost a golden key that opened the castle. The story goes that the city will not be restored until the key is recovered from its unknown location. Local storytellers will say the city’s golden-roofed palaces and churches can sometimes be seen shining below the surface. Once in every seven years it rises above the waves. Those who catch a glimpse of this city will die before it appears again. Spooooky.

There’s a reef nearby that features submerged forests and bogs. There was an earthquake and tsunami at the turn of the 9th century, and that might help play into that legend.

Enjoying watching the sun fall into the ocean.

Just two weeks ago local officials opened their new 12-kilometer Cliffs of Moher Coastal Walk, which boasts some incredible scenery. It takes walkers from Hags Head outside Liscannor Village, over these beautiful cliffs and down into the village of Doolin, where we are staying tonight.

You read the signs telling you about the trail — “changes suddenly to a remote, challenging and demanding trail, with no barriers, handrails or seward fencing. Trail features include an exposed cliff-top path, steep ascents and descents, and narrow/steep flagstone steps. The trail may be rough and uneven in places with loose gravel and stone.” — and you realize the difference in American lawyers and Irish lawyers.

The little segment of it that we walked, here at the high point, featured this fun little staircase:

We had such a great time here. There are so many pictures, the ones above, more in the video below, and just a perfect evening with glorious weather.

I sent this little video home from the cliffs. You may enjoy it as well.

More playing around with video at the cliffs:

This one has many more pictures than you just scrolled through, stuff I shot between Dingle and Doolin on the day’s ride. The music is more of the local sound we heard in Dingle town.

Tomorrow we’re going to take a ferry to one of the Aran Islands, and then we’re going to see these same cliffs from sea level. Can’t wait.

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24
Jun 13

The Ring of Kerry, from Kenmare to Dingle

This was breakfast at Virginia’s Guesthouse this morning. Breakfast is the signature of the place.

Breakfast is what we do best at Virginia’s. Noreen is a dedicated “Foodie” and loves to cook. Therefore our varied breakfast menu is constantly changing from season to season, offering only the very best of produce and featuring lots of creative and personalised dishes, as well as the standard Full Irish Breakfast … Noreen’s signature dish is her award-winning “Blue Cheese, Pears & Bacon”.

Turns out the blue cheese on this plate came from the cows we heard mooing at the Rock of Cashel yesterday. They were just telling us we had something to look forward to.

I’d mentioned the narrow roads. This is common. If you convert this, that’s 50 miles per hour. You’ve no idea …

Today was a big driving day. This is our basic route:

The peninsula has several deep glacial lakes. People tend to bypass these if they aren’t careful, but they are peaceful and can offer some great views:

Here’s a brief video from there:

Ah, the old head-on-a-wall joke …

When was the last time you were at a glacial lake?

Evidence! I have it! She started the making-faces game!

We took several of these photos. My eyes are closed in all of them. Uncanny.

She’s showing off her ring, awww.

And now for some potty humor. We stopped at the Parknasilla Resort. The original place here dates back to the 18th century, and once included the Derryquin Castle, which was burned in 1922 by the IRA. The rest of Parknasilla’s history is … complex … and references Noah.

Anyway, I don’t think I’ve ever said this before, but you have to check out the bathrooms:

What was that logo?

Check out the handle.

Enough of that. Just outside of Parknasilla everything feels magical:

But then everything does here, even an hour in the car. You get great treats along the way:

There are wide spots designed for you to pull over every so often. Take advantage of them. Linger.

Or you could be like the typical tourist and hop out, snap a picture and then immediately pile back into the car. Be sure to take your time.

If you don’t you’ll miss a lot of little delights.

Our next stop on the Ring of Kerry was Staigue Fort. You turn off a country road and drive up what amounts to the loneliest private driveway in the world. There are two houses in this valley, and if not for the occasional tourist it would be the sleepiest place you’ve ever imagined.

Rick Steeves’ guidebook calls this a desolate high valley, but I disagree. This place has a lot going for it. Check out these next several shots before I finally show you the fort.

Staigue Fort is believed to date between 300 and 400 AD. It was a defensive fortification, a cultural center and perhaps had some religious significance. The walls are 18 feet high in places and almost as thick at the bottom. It is about 90 feet in diameter. There is no mortar, just stacks of stones, and is thus considered an impressive historical effort of engineering.

If you were standing where I am when taking this picture, you’d be surrounded by hilly terrain on three sides. Over my left shoulder, and down a long chute of this valley, is the sea. No one snuck up on Staigue.

And now to show you how quickly the light changes here, and to give you a slightly different view of the fort, here’s a 360-degree effort I shot on Photosynth. See how parts of the shot are over or under exposed as you move around in it? Cloud, sun, cloud, darker cloud, sun. The sky is very dramatic here:

Later we discovered, almost by accident and visited purely on impulse, the local Skelligs Chocolate factory. They give you samples, and it is delicious:

The next stop is “the best view in County Kerry” just outside of Portmagee. Check out these views:

Of course there is a video. It is the sort of place you could loiter at for a long time, after all.

A few animals we passed on our walk up to that view. There were horses and sheep, too.

And then we visited Cahergall Stone Fort. Some of this is still original, though the upper parts are a historical reconstruction. The sign says “It is likely that somebody of importance lived here about 1,000 years ago.” All of this must be frustrating for historians and archeologists. Some of these forts go back 2,500 years after all. Here’s The Yankee climbing the steps on the inside wall:

Adam demonstrates the height of this fort:

We arrived at Dingle, checked into our bed and breakfast — Eileen Collins’ Kirrary House and ventured out for dinner at John Benny’s Pub, I had a hearty, delicious beef pie. These guys were playing, and you can hear one of their songs in the slideshow below.

We had ice cream at the famous Murphy’s. I was not previously aware that an ice cream shop could be famous, but USA Today called it one of the best in the world. It was good.

Tomorrow we’re riding bikes.

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23
Jun 13

The Rock of Cashel, from Kilkenny to Kenmare

You order the full Irish breakfast, you get the full Irish breakfast. Throw in some museli and then proclaim this the best bed and breakfast ever. And maybe it is. Irish sausage, also, is better than anything we have at home.

You see a lot of old stone buildings just sitting roadside here. Some of them are important, some are just old structures. Most of them don’t even have signs or notations on a map. They just are. That’s how old the place is, a few hundred years is nothing, and it could just be the place an old angry person lived for all you know.

Today we visited the Rock of Cashel. This was where the kings of Munster ruled for 600 years, from the 4th century to 1101, when it was given to the church. This is the view as you drive up:

Inside you see St. Patrick’s Cross, built in the 12th century in the Latin style. One side has a carving meant to depict the crucifixion, the other side has an abbot, possibly St. Patrick himself. The base of the cross is hollow and is believed to have been a storage and hiding place for valuables:

Here are a few of the artifacts they’ve discovered at the Rock, and dated back to the 12th century:

There is a cemetery at the Rock, still active. The local authorities tried to close it in the early 20th century, but the community decided to have a lottery and that allowed for a few more spaces for the residents and their children. Our tour guide said there are four or five people of that generation still living.

If you look off in the distance behind her you might just notice a chunk of rock missing from the mountain on the right. Local lore is that the devil was flying over Ireland, took a bite out of that mountain and dropped it here, forming the rock upon which the church sits.

This is the north transept, and, in the top left corner, the round tower. The north transept contains late medieval tombs and grave slabs.

Here’s The Yankee outside the north transept, with that round tower in the background:

A wider shot, looking from the west. There is scaffolding covering the east side as they slowly work to renovate the structure.

We heard cows mooing in the pastures down below us:

The weather changed from cold to windy to raining to sunny to warm all while we were at the Rock. Crazy weather.

See those holes in the walls? That’s how they built the building. They’d get to a certain level and then put a large piece of wood there and build around it. Then they’d cut the wood out and remove their middle aged scaffolding.

This is inside Cormac’s Chapel, a small Romanesque church that was was consecrated in 1134 and named for King Cormac. This is looking at the archway just in front of the altar:

The frescoes in Cormac’s Chapel, such as they are, are the oldest Romanesque wall paintings in Ireland. The earliest are dated to around the church’s building, so circa 1134, and have a simple masonry pattern. The later paintings, thought to date back to between 1160-70, are narrative scenes, including the Nativity. Scholars believe outside artists, perhaps from England or France, were brought in for the work. They were covered with whitewash during the 16th century Reformation and remained hidden until the 1980s. The lime used in the whitewash wiped out the rest.

That red patina comes from only one place in the world: Afghanistan. The church was spending some money to get the ingredients shipped all the way to Ireland.

This is standing under the altar’s archway and looking back into the church. It is a small facility, thought to have been used by Benedictine monks:

Looking into the altar itself, you can’t quite make out the apse vault. But you can see more of those heads carved into the arch. The thought is that they were used to ward off evil spirits from invading the altar.

The interior and exterior views of that transept:

I like to get artsy with doorways sometimes:

Two of the markers in the cemetery:

This is a view from the east side. I’ve cropped out all of the aluminium scaffolding, which is off the left margin. The Rock of Cashel is on a rocky plateau that rises 300 feet above the surrounding plain known as the Golden Vale of Tipperary.

Just off the plateau you can see the Hore Abbey, a Cistercian monastery. This dates back to the mid-13th century:

Changing it up a bit here. I took a lot of shots in the car as we drove around today. Here are two of them. After that, you’ll see a little video montage of the rest of more.

And this is Kenmare, where we checked into Virginia’s Guesthouse.

Downtown looks like this:

We had dinner at Foley’s Restaurant. The live music in the video above is from the performers we heard tonight. If you’re interested in our route today, it looked something like this:

A lot more tomorrow!

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22
Jun 13

Heading out to Kilkenny

We’re driving on the left again. And you would not believe these roads.

They are of good quality. And, thankfully, empty as we are taking some scenic, rural routes. But these are narrow, one-lane strips of asphalt and the speed limits reach 100 kilometers per hour. Imagine, maybe, the width of a really wide parking space at home. Drive 60 miles per hour on something like that with brush and stone fences on either side of you.

I think this smile was forced:

But we are on the road. And by we I mean our friend Adam, who I met several years ago while writing a feature story on a World War II relative of his.

And his brand new fiance, Jessica. They just got engaged yesterday. And now she has to put up with us on a road trip she knows nothing about. This was all sprung on her. She has patience and a good sense of humor. We’ll see how long we can test those.

Fun people, fine friends. We’re glad there here.

Here’s our route today:

We’re seeing sights like these. Scroll down through the next several images. We’ll get some more words in here eventually. These are just shots I took out of the window as we drove from Enniskerry to Kilkenny today. I’m told the views only get better.

We checked into our Bed & Breakfast in Kilkenny, which is a town of about 24,000 people when you count the outlying folks. The name derives from the Irish meaning “church of Cainnech.” And Cainnech is Saint Cainnech, of Aghaboe, a 6th century Gaelic abbot, priest and missionary also known as Kenneth or Kenny two or three other names, depending on where you were standing. He is considered one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.

Kilkenny was originally the name of the church and the surrounding area later took on the name. The story goes — and it is one of those tales of the time that has a lot of telling and re-telling, so it might not be the most completely accurate, but close nevertheless — that in 597, Cainnech led a Christian army here to wipe out the last of the Druids. This was one of the last parts of Ireland to be converted to Christianity.

A tour was full. A music tour had ceased operation. We were really just winging it tonight anyway.

We ate here this evening, a family-owned joint since 1904. There was a sign of live music, but no actual live music. What to do?

“Get drunk with us,” said the bartender, overhearing our conversation. That wasn’t really on the agenda.

We did eat there. Here was the Irish stew I ordered for dinner. And while there isn’t normally a lot of food on this site — because food photographs just aren’t as interesting as the photographer thinks — I just wanted to tell you how delicious Irish stew is:

Do these look like the faces of two people who just got engaged?

There. That’s better. Our friends are funny, and they’re always blaming one another, in jest, for whatever the most immediate transgression happens to be. It is amusing to sort out the real story. Usually I pick the person who says the least.

We went down the street a way to Kyteler’s Inn, to hear some music. This was the house of Dame Alice Kyteler, a member of a prominent local banking family. She was charged with witchcraft, heresy and suspected in poisoning a few of her husbands in 1323. She’s believed to be the subject of the earliest witchcraft accusations in Ireland. She skipped town, fleeing presumably to England, where she disappeared from history. One of her servants was not so lucky; she was flogged and burned at the stake in 1324.

Happier days today, though. I saw this sign and note it here only to point out that I’m going to look them up, tell them I’m back and demand my cut of the empire. Never mind that I’m not Irish.

We met some nice guys tonight. They were from the outlying areas and had come to town for a bachelor party. Here’s the most normal of the bunch.

This guy has a counterpart in every bar and pub in the world, I’d bet. In your personal space, flirting with the ladies, starting out funny stories that somehow lose their oomph midway through.

But he introduced us to all these guys, including this one, who seemed a bit out of place.

And this guy. He was the priest. He was also coordinating the night’s entertainment. That’s what we were told. We learned he wasn’t a priest, but the story is better that way. It allowed one of the other guys to say “Welcome to Ireland.”

And right about then a guy in a bikini showed up. Presumably the night’s entertainment. Thankfully the music was starting so …

I did not know there were Carnegie Libraries in other parts of the world. Also, I took this photograph at 9:30 at night. We still had an hour of daylight left.

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21
Jun 13

Welcome to Ireland

Our plane left Heathrow late, after a long run. We ran. Because, you see, the flight attendant announced “Gate 8 E.” We went to this gate. Fifteen minutes before the flight was to leave there were no airline employees, no passengers and no planes.

We were on the only terminal in the free world without departure screens, too. So I walked down aways and found horrifying information. Our flight was actually departing from Gate 80.

English.

So we ran. And then we got on board. I thoroughly made a big show of the entire ordeal. And the plan was late.

But we arrived on time in a funny-how-that-happens way. We landed in Dublin, in what felt like the oldest terminal in the free world. It had screens with departure and arrival times.

We made it through customs, The Yankee going first as always. She answered the questions and I was next. I said to the border agent “Same things she said,” which amused everyone except the weary man working in his weary both.

We got our stamps, though, and then picked up our rental car, a process just as thoroughly devoid of joy and efficiency in every country, it seems. We set out, once again questioning the ability of the GPS to get her there.

It was about here, I think, that we finally changed the GPS voice. We’ve been using an Aussie. We looked for an Irish brogue, but had to settle on an English woman. So the GPS, given to this new personality, must be renamed. I’m sure we’ll figure that out soon enough.

We drive around Dublin on the interstate, which feels new, through countryside that is beautifully rural and undeveloped despite being so very near the city proper. It felt like we drove around the entire city. Mostly because we almost did.

We arrived at our hotel and got checked in. Hey look, this hotel has a television in the bathroom:

Who needs that? Who cares? I have a television in my bathroom.

We went to visit our friends, Adam and Jessica, who are joining us on the trip. Only Jessica didn’t know it. Just a few hours before they’d gotten engaged at a picnic in the gardens of Enniskerry, now they have to have us tag along. She was excited to see us though, so that, happily, went over well.

After a while we looked up, saw the sun and realized it was 9 p.m. And we still had to find dinner. Everything in Enniskerry is closed already. There is a pub in our hotel. Their kitchen had just shut down. But the waiter brought us a room service menu, and four sleepy, hungry people were saved.

Two guys were getting ready to play music a few booths away. We’ve been in Ireland three hours and there’s already a pub, a burger and Irish music.

After a few songs one of the patrons asks “Is it too early for Whiskey in the Jar?” It is never too early for Whiskey in the Jar.

They were fine performers, despite my too-dark photograph and hasty iPhone recording. It was a delicious burger. Our friends, who just flew over from the States today, are happy and exhausted. Tomorrow we set out to drive the bulk of the entire countryside.

For now I’m going to go watch weird Germany game shows. On the television in my bathroom.