Here’s a little two-for-one update.
We visited Cuan na hAisléime — which my very English fingers find difficult to type — and Keem Bay. Both are lovely, but I’ve only got a few photos of each. Not to worry, there’s also video, and that’ll turn up here eventually.
First, Cuan na hAisléime, a simple elevated car stop with lovely views of Ashleam Bay along the southern coast of Achill Island. You’re driving on some fun hairpins as you work down, and when you’re hear you get a nice view of the bright white, jagged cliffs that stand out from the rest of the geology we’ve seen recently.
Here there’s a sign that tells you all about how the locals heat their homes. They still do a lot of peat farming — though, despite the long tradition, I have to think that’s on the way out, considering either the volume needed, the carbon released, or both. It works like this, the turf cutter is a farmer, and he works his own turf bank. It takes about a week of work around this time of year to prepare and provide enough fuel to get through next winter.
You’d work in groups, using a special double-bladed shovel that cuts peat into squared off blocks, rectangles about two feet long. You’d throw those up onto the bank, and come back later and arrange them into stacks to dry. Then, by hand, bag, donkey or tractor, you haul them home. You want them dried out, to prepare for the winter. By then, your dried segments are half the size as when you started. They say the pros can work so quickly and efficiently they could get six pieces in the air at once.
That seems … improbable. And unnecessary.
We also visited Keem Bay, which is nearby.
And this is one of those charming little places you’ve never known about, but then feels certain and right at home when you find it. Of course this exists. Of course it is as beautiful, or moreso, than you’d imagine. Of course you have it all to yourself.
The strand is in the horseshoe of the bay, and near a village that is home to just over 500 people and a bunch of B-and-Bs. At one point, this little area was home to a basking shark fishery. And because of all those fishermen, the British government operated a lifeboat station from here on the beach. That was in operation for more than a century. There’s a lifeguard shack there now, and the sign says they’ll open in June.
More recently, the bay was used as a filming location for The Banshees of Inisherin, a terrific 2022 character study. There’s a small building, just off the left side of the frame here, that was used in the movie.
A picturesque beach, and, yes, there’s more video of this coming, too.
And just up from the beach, there’s this trail. Only the bold know.
I am not that bold and we had other places to see. Let’s go see them!
