Day 9 Doolin

The day that dreams are made of! We woke up, after a great night's sleep, to a full Irish breakfast served by the most lovely couple! We were on our way to our next B&B before 10:00. We had, or rather Margaret had, contacted the Riverside Cottage B&B but they were only able to accommodate us for one night. However, Ann had offered to find us a spot for the other night, and she did at Pairc Lodge. This morning the couple at Pairc Lodge sent us on our way to Ann assuring us she would be happy to see us at such an early hour. Ann was absolutely lovely. She made sure we had enjoyed our night at Pairc, gave us a tour of her family home, built in 1883, where her mother had been born. We met her sister and her 3 month old baby, and got a full rundown of everything we would need to know about the cottage and the area, "so we could go off and enjoy ourselves and not bother with details". She made a lunch recommendation, approved our plan for the day, made sure we had a key even though our room wasn't ready, secured an evening pub plan and ran over the options for breakfast in the morning so we would know what to look forward to!! She even set us up for tomorrow! When we told her our plan to visit Burren National Park tomorrow on our way out of Doolin, she immediately sanctioned the plan, produced a map and provided a plan for the day that would cover the 'must see' highlights! 

Leaving Riverside Cottage key in hand and confident in our choice of a place to stay we headed for the south end of the Cliffs of Moher. We thought we were heading to Liscannor but Ann assured us we actually wanted to go to Hag's Head and park there for the start of our hike. She had also suggested Doolin Caves for lunch so we thought we would check out the location before the cliffs. We were so glad we did since, depending on how the day develops we could have changed our minds. Now that we've seen it there isn't much chance of that. More about that at lunch time!

The road to Hag's Head was incredible. Incredibly beautiful, incredibly narrow, incredibly unbelievable...we are so glad we came here! We arrived in Hag's Head in some woman's backyard with a little sign that invited us to park for €3. We were more than happy to do that and started our 10km hike through some of the prettiest land God put on this earth! David revived his "shooting fish in a barrel" comment each time he took a picture. While my shots will give you some idea, his pictures are spectactular! The visitor centre is the place that most people visit and where you will see that iconic shot of the Cliffs of Moher, but the coastal hike is rugged, and beautiful, and isolated and very moving. You can't help but feel blessed to have been given the opportunity to be here and experience this moment! We occassionally passed other hikers, or they passed us, but with a little pacing we were able to enjoy this incredible landscape alone! What a gift!

Views like this before we even started our hike!
The division of pastures here is incredible. All designated by stacked stone walls, and no two lines anywhere parallel.
Napoleonic Moher Tower at Hag's Head.




About 300 feet of this part of the trail was designated on both sides by large pieces of local slate simply driven into the ground and balanced against one another! Now that was a job for someone on this wind swept cliff edge!! Clearly one side was much older than the other and had quite a lean. We couldn't decide which was the greater risk, to fall over the cliff or to have one of the protective barriers fall on you? The result could well be the same.
The coolest flying bugs, I think they are six-spot burnet moths.


Meeting friends along the way. Amazed how close some cattle were grazing near the edge!
Maybe someone else was here before us!

The boat that we will take later.

Coming down from the cliffs the hiking is still spectactular.
More friends
A last look back at Moher Tower

Back for lunch at Doolin Cave with only one stop to appreciate 'another incredible view'!


Doonagore Castle looking down toward Doolin.

Doolin Cave is home to Europe's longest stalactite (7.3 metres!), a beautiful setting of interesting flora, fauna, and the cutest baby goats I have every seen, and a great little cafe that prepares food from local ingredients. It was a very interesting spot with great food!


When your parking lot is a view from the local castle!!
Those plants higher than the table umbrellas are Gunnera - Giant Chilian Rhubarb. They are actually an invasive species, but here in Ireland the growing conditions are not ideal, so they are not considered invasive. This is how they grow when they're NOT invasive!!!
A close up of the plant. It's huge!
Delicious local lunch, served on pottery made from the cliff's clay.

While enjoying lunch we talked about how much we had enjoyed hiking the cliff coastal trail and decided, if we could still book tickets, we would book a late day Cliffs of Moher boat tour. We've learned that a water view is sometimes a very different perspective. The luck of the Irish was with us we found seats on the last tour of the day. What a great idea!!! The pictures will speak for themselves. These 700 foot wonders are maybe just as spectactular by sea!











Walking back into town from the pier, we were parched and since we passed O'Connor's Pub thought we would stop for a pint. I suggested we try a new spot but David said he was starting to think of it as our spot! So glad I listened to him! When we walked in, the bar tendered called to welcome our return, so we sat at the bar to continue where we left off last night!! By the time we left my face was sore from laughing at the stories and the banter among staff and locals! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 16 Northern Ireland - Take II

Image
Although not one to complain about weather, when we woke this morning to glorious sunshine my mood lifted and I began to think of possibilities for the day. After we sorted ourselves for a trip back to Dublin, we started our day headed for Portrush. Portrush is known as the quintessential, seaside, genteel, resort town. We actually stopped several times on our way there because we just couldn't pass some of the sights we were seeing! A friend had commented on my blog yesterday when I noted the difference south to north. She spent a lot of time in Northern Ireland when her husband worked there. She is also from Newfoundland and noticed a "whole different world" between them. She also told me that "the scenery in Northern Ireland would take my breath away" and man was she right about that! The Antrim Coast is exquisite! Our first stop was for a sign that pointed to Dunluce Castle. Dating back to the 15th Century, these are possibly the most complete ruins we have ...
Read more

Day 6 Limerick

Image
Today was a brilliant day that most visitors to Ireland would ever get to experience! It started out with rain but we were ready for it and after breakfast headed to Lough Gur for a hike. The scenery, like all of Ireland, was beautiful but the area also contained ancient treasures. The pictures will tell the tale.  After our leg stretch we traveled through the countyside stopping in at the sites that held the Murphy's roots. It was beautiful Irish county to be sure, but it was so cool to travel to the places we had heard about from their stories of growing up in Ireland. The highlight was a visit to Patrick's brother's farm. We knew the farm held a castle remnant that was never allowed to be touched. The Irish historical trust insists on the preservation of castle ruins, thankfully! This remnant has continued to hold feed and farm equipment but remains standing in all its glory since 1306!! Incredible! Dennis, Patrick's brother, was a delight! He's 80, and although ...
Read more

Leaving Pearson without incident

Image
July 17, 2022 Well this is something that I didn't think I would be doing now! As much as I LOVED to travel BC (before COVID), The world has changed and dragged many a travel plan along with it. Sometimes though, the universe conspires. When that happens a body oughta listen and so off we go! Our dear Irish friends Margaret and Patrick Murphy made us an offer we couldn't refuse. They called, somewhat out of the blue, a few weeks ago, to tell us that they were going back to Ireland to visit family.  Margaret's nephew was leaving his house in Dublin for three weeks.  As the house sits alone with cars in the driveway, if we wanted to join them on this trip home, they would extend the visit to three weeks to include a holiday as well. My mother, who has been terrified of COVID and of the idea that sooner or later we would set out once again on our exploits, was the first person to speak up and claim I would be a fool to pass up this opportunity! Thus, despite the many reasons t...
Read more