This was our last stop before heading back to Dublin. And so, of course, I’m going to turn this into two posts. And, of course, I’ll stretch this trip out into the days or weeks ahead with extra material. When you allow a place as beautiful as this into your thoughts, your thoughts never leave the place. People probably say that more eloquently. You go home and always return to your dreams. You always come back to the place you never leave.

Or something.

We’ve come to Malin Head for our last stop. It was a great choice.

The waters here are treacherous. It’s a graveyard for shipping, U-boats prowled these waters, there are mermaids — at least legends about them — and giant, beautiful, basking sharks. It was here that people lit bonfires as one last farewell to people sailing for North America. And here the Titanic exchanged signals with the wireless station during sea trials in 1912. Both of them wonders of their time. (Marconi sent the first ever wireless communication over the open sea just 15 years earlier.)

Imagine sailing by here, seeing this.

Photos, of course, can’t do something such as this justice. Here’s a two-minute video that also doesn’t do it justice.

Beauty comes in a lot of forms, of course, and there’s no sense in arguing subjectivity, but if I could build a back porch anywhere I wanted, this is on the short list for a place to put two comfortable chairs.

We stood there for more than hour, and then we dragged ourselves away.

I spent my time there trying to catch the best crashing waves, watching her watch the waves, and inching a little bit closer, to see more of the dramatic action.

My lovely bride planned another great trip, and it’s a shame it has to come to an end.

The places you love you never leave; they never leave you.