Ireland - Sept. 2016

Ireland was great, a lovely country with lovely people, and very green, a very lush green in most places. The scenery is often very dramatic, especially if one looks out over the ocean or over rocky islands out in a bay. Waves crash up on rocky shores or roll in on large expanses of sandy beaches. We saw some beautiful beaches, but the weather was never such that I was even tempted to swim. There are luscious green fields with fertile soil where cattle graze; the not-so-good rocky land is for sheep. We drove through a lot of barren countryside too, especially when we were traveling over mountain passes, with waving grasses, rocks, and often boggy areas with heather.  In many of these places peat is collected for drying and then burning in homes.

My Canadian friend, Glenda, a Chile teacher friend, and I spent almost a month in Ireland, followed by a few days in London. Generally we had good weather, it was partly cloudy, partly sunny, and sometimes light rain fell, but there was a deluge only one day when we mostly stayed in the warm dry car.

We enjoyed Dublin, went on an interesting free walking tour, learned a lot and got a feel for the city. We visited Trinity College, cathedrals, and wandered a great deal. Another day we went to Kilmainham Gaol, a very bleak and depressing prison opened in 1796 and where the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916 were imprisoned and executed by the British. The Easter Rising was launched to end British rule in Ireland, but the British Army suppressed the Rising and arrested the leaders.  Later, from 1919 to 1921 the War of Independence was fought, and the Irish gained their Independence in 1922. Since it was the 100^th anniversary of the Rising, we heard a lot about it while we were there.

 

From Dublin we drove to Northern Ireland along the northern coast where we visited Giant’s Causeway with fascinating interlocking basalt columns, the result of a rapid cooling of lava during a volcanic eruption. Most of the columns are hexagonal. There are similar basalt formations in Iceland that I had visited.

We had a great time, rented a car and drove over 1,500 miles (2,500 km), and saw much of the perimeter of the countries, both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. We didn’t have a set itinerary so we could be spontaneous and make a reservation a day or two in advance.  We had rented an Airbnb cottage for six days in Killarney, which was wonderful because we had a place to return to in the afternoon to drink tea and later wine, and then cook our own dinner; it was at the end of a narrow, bumpy road bordering Killarney National Park with tall pine trees and blue, pink, and bright red hydrangeas in the garden. It was rather isolated, but quiet, comfortable, and very relaxing. We watched turquoise sheep (a way to brand) from the window, and the last night a red fox made an appearance. In the distance were brown somewhat barren mountains.

We stayed four nights in a hostel in Doolin, close to the Cliffs of Moher. The owner, Mattie, was delightful, and a wealth of information. The house had originally been his grandmother’s; it had of course been expanded and remodeled. Mattie showed real slides one night and talked about the geology, history, plants and animals of the area. He had some lovely photos of wild flowers that grow on the Burren.

I did all of the driving with Glenda as an amazing navigator using only a map; she was also a verbal side seat driver constantly reminding me to stay on the left. The narrow country roads were a bit of a challenge as were the roundabouts, yielding to get into them, staying in my lane, and then exiting on the correct road. We learned that taking a short cut through a medieval town, such as Kinsale isn’t the smartest thing to do since back streets are extremely steep and narrow and one-way streets take you in circles.

We went on many shorter hikes, but also some longer, half-day hikes. Our first real hike on the Cliffs of Moher (702 ft/214 m high) was perhaps the most dramatic and the most challenging. We were told we could walk from the Cliffs to Doolin, the town where we were staying, and it would mostly be down hill. We walked along the tops of the cliffs often in mud, slipping and sliding following the narrow path.  It was very exciting on the high cliffs with the waves crashing on the rocks below.  A ferocious wind made it scary in places, but it was very beautiful.

A hike that we really enjoyed was the Gap of Dunloe near Killarney where we went up a mountain through the gap, and then down. It was a paved road, so the terrain was easy; the best part was the hour and half boat ride we took to get there. One weathered boat driver talked about how he truly enjoyed his work and had been doing it since the 60’s. It was chilly and we couldn’t imagine what it would be like in the wintertime when there is a frigid wind and rain. We started out at Ross Castle and first were taken in a wooden boat on the Lower Lake, then the Middle Lake, and then a river, which lead to the Upper Lake. The rugged mountains with grey rocks, low dark shrubbery and the usual heather were spectacular.

On our second to last day in Ireland we were in Glendalough. We wandered about the religious ruins from the 10^th to the 13^th century and then hiked in the Wicklow Mountains. We went up one side of a very rocky mountain that once had a lead mine, then across a ridge to the next mountain where we came down on boardwalks all the time with a spectacular view of the two lakes below us. There were feral goats, sheep and sika deer on the hillsides.

We also biked on a trail from Achill Island to Newport (near Westport), a total of about 20 miles (32 km). It started out bright and sunny with a large lake in the distance on one side, and later the ocean on the other side.  There were plenty of wild flowers and blackberries on the trail. As we climbed higher sheep were everywhere. It was a very pleasant ride until the rain came, at which point it became rather miserable.

From Doolin we took a ferry to the smallest Aran Island, Inisheer, where stone fences were everywhere. It was obvious that as they cleared the land, the stones were used to build stone fences. Looking down at the town from a castle on a hill one could see the fences winding in and out; we were unsure how property lines were decided. In other places stone fences or hedges formed straight lines with neat squares or rectangular paddocks, not so here.

We enjoyed going to pubs in the evenings and drank Guinness and sometimes Smithwick Ale. We ate a lot of delicious local salmon and brown soda bread with Irish butter. The traditional music we heard in the pubs at night was great fun; unfortunately it seldom started much before 10:00 pm. There were usually two to three musicians playing one or two of the following instruments, a fiddle, a wooden flute, a tin whistle, a bag pipe (uillean pipes, quite different from the Scottish bagpipes), a concertina (a small accordion), a guitar, mandolin, or banjo. One evening in a hostel a young American woman with a very sweet voice sang Irish ballads accompanied by an Irish guy.

At the beginning of our trip, we decided to drive to meet my friends, Paula and Chuck and Margaret and Michael who had been traveling primarily in Donegal in the northwest. They were staying in the small town of Glenties, where we met up with them for a musical weekend. The first night we watched a room full of dancers doing ceili or set dancing where four couples arranged in a square executed different formations and maneuvers, somewhat like square dancing with a caller, but definitely more active. Many of the couples were senior citizens and obviously having a great time. Some of the couples were very energetic, hopping as they made their moves.

The next day we heard there would be music in a pub out in the country. It took us three attempts to get there, but we finally found it. The music was amazing, very talented musicians playing different instruments; it was an incredible jam session where one person would start playing and others would join in.  A well-known white-haired fiddler had never gone home from the previous night, a young woman played the fiddle while her husband minded their young baby, and three talented sisters played different instruments. There were as many musicians as spectators, perhaps more. Sometimes a dancer with a partner step-danced on a small dancing pad. Meanwhile on TV the championship hurling game was being broadcast.

We visited several archaeological sites; probably the most interesting was Bru Na Boinne from 3200 BC. We visited the passage tomb at Newgrange, the finest passage tomb in Ireland, a huge mound 262 ft /80 m in diameter and 42.5 ft /13 m high with grass on top, white stones on the sides and 97 huge boulders around the tomb at the base, some with carved inscriptions. A large engraved stone guards the entrance. The chamber with three large basin stones that held cremated bones is reached by a narrow passage. Above the entrance is a slit or roof box where light can enter.  At winter solstice the sun shines through the roof box and illuminates the chamber and the three basin stones for 17 minutes for six mornings. (One can enter a lottery to be present at solstice time.) We visited a similar site, Carrowmore, a Stone Age cemetery with stone circles, dolmens, and passage tombs from 3800 BC, older than Newgrange.

In the Burren, an area with striated limestone near Doolin, we visited the impressive Poulnabrone Dolmen, Neolithic/Bronze Age tomb also known as the Portal Tomb. The remains of people and other artifacts were found there, buried between 3800 and 3200 BC. The Dolman is big, a large slab on top of four six-foot high slabs of rock. Spring is the time to visit the Burren because of all the wild flowers that spring up in the cracks of the limestone.

We enjoyed Ireland and the Irish; the people are very proud of their country and want you to like it.  It is certainly very green and very beautiful. We found everyone friendly and helpful, and we felt well taken care of wherever we went.