Monday, March 17
Cliffs of Moher, Burren Visitor Center in Kilfenora
I was up before sunrise, thanks to my lazy Sunday. I hiked up the hill from the house; much shorter than I anticipated, and not very steep either. Photo after photo of the scenery of course. I only went as far as the gate, and unfortunately I haven’t been able to find a plant identification book, so I have no idea what kind of plants I saw on my travels. Ferns, grasses, trees, and shrubs are as close as I can get to species identification. In the photo above, you can see the barn to the left; our house is the small brown stone house; and Tony and Dee live in the big white house.
There was a cattle barn off to one side of the hill, so I went down and investigated that. About 20 or 30 calves on one side of the barn, in three pens, with no outside access. I don’t know if they were getting weaned, or they were drop calves getting fed out. On the other side were cows, maybe twenty of them? Both sides were Holsteins, as far as I could tell. And the cows could get outside. It was obviously nearly feeding time, so rather than disrupt them further, I went back to the house.
By the time I got down the hill, the sun was fully up, so I took the opportunity to take sheep photos ad nauseum. Cute little yummy lambs! They’re quite late; in the U.S. most sheep ranchers try to time lambing for the spring market, and by this time most lambs would have already been sold. I am guessing things are a little different here, as there are butcher shops everywhere. I would love to bring some fresh meat home, but I understand that’s verboten. Due to mad cow disease, I suspect.
We are living in an absolutely gorgeous area, in a lovely house. It’s smallish, but more than adequate for the six of us. Three bedrooms, all with queen size beds, as well as a hide-a-bed in the living room. Ramona and Marilyn (and Ramona’s air mattress) share the master bedroom, while Carolyn and Sheila share a smaller room next to me. I am ensconced in my own room, as Dorina can’t get up the stairs. She’s using the hide-a-bed downstairs and seems quite comfortable there.
You enter the house through a nice little hallway (I call it a mud room) with coat hooks and a shoe rack. Straight ahead of you is the large dining-living area, with a fireplace, and of course the t.v./vcr/dvd/stereo center. Two couches and a rocking chair provide ample seating, with a double door to the backyard patio and lawn. The dining table sits off to one side, in front of the kitchen door. It’s a small kitchen, so free-for-all meals tend to be eaten in rotation. Two or three people will fix their meal, and while they eat, two or three more people will fix their meal.
Sometimes we prepare a meal, and sit down to eat together; we had corn beef and cabbage on Tuesday night, cooked by Marilyn and Carolyn. My childhood memories of the taste of cooked cabbage and corned beef are not that pleasant, so I was surprised that I enjoyed it very much. The group is pretty flexible about meals and housekeeping, so it’s been surprisingly easy to get along with everyone. Certainly has made for a very pleasant trip!
Well, I digress! It’s time to hit the road for the Cliffs of Moher!
This was our first sunny day in Ireland. I did have some sun earlier, but it was interspersed with rain and cloudy skies. Today it is thoroughly, beautifully, sunny! Carolyn led, and I followed; three people in each car, so it was comfortably uncrowded. A lovely drive to the Cliffs, with much oohing and aahing over various bits of crumbling stone walls standing in the middle of nowhere, houses, and scenery in general. One visit to a wonderful rock shop; I never thought I would enjoy looking at rocks! I even found some things to buy for my crazy quilting. Oh, and a couple gifts too ☺.
The Cliffs are quite the tourist attraction. We were there early in the day (before lunch), and it wasn’t very crowded at all. We walked up to an old lookout which of course I don’t remember the name for! You can’t go inside, darn it! But there was a wonderful view of the coastline and ocean. The photo below is fairly true to the colors.
I was surprised to see that there are only three cliffs; I thought it went on for miles and miles. And please note that the sun was in the wrong direction to take decent photographs; I should have waited around til late afternoon so the contrast between where I was standing and the cliffs wasn’t so great (yeah, right, like I’m going to wait around just for the sun??). The postcards are much better!
All the paths are lined with these wonderful stone slabs to keep all us tourons from falling over the side of the very very steep, very very high cliffs. Lots of signs warning you of the dangers as well. All in English. Pity the poor Russian who can’t read English!
At the end of the path going towards the cliffs, there was an interesting stone wall, with the slabs on both sides and filled in with soil. The sign saying private property was totally ignored; since I am just a teensy weensy bit afraid (like TERRIFIED) of heights and cliff edges, I stayed where I belonged.
The visitors’ center and several gift shops are all dug into the hillside. I wonder how they deliver food stuff for the restaurant and shops? Must be quite awkward to go in while all the tourons are gaping at things! But all was very well organized and under control while I was there.
We grabbed a quick snack at the car, and headed off to Kilfenora to the Burren Visitor Center. On the way I hijacked the crew and we stopped at a woolen mill, where many purchases of tea towels and scarves were made. I was disappointed that they no longer sold yardage, nor did I find any wool yarn, but surely there will be other occasions to purchase those.
My next foray was to follow the sign to the beach. And they followed yet again, the fools! After much twisting and turning, slogging our way through the remnants of a St. Patrick’s Day parade, and some more twisting and turning, we stopped at a slate beach. Thoroughly covered in stone, there were cracks and tiny areas of soil filled with grass. Too early for any spring flowers, darn it all, or I would have been crawling around on my knees taking millions of photos. Hm, maybe it’s a good thing we were too early for flowers…
It was quite a dramatic drop to the sea. We could have hiked around and down to a rocky beach, but we were on a mission, and it was getting late in the afternoon. In the righthand photo you can see Ramona, Carolyn and Marilyn on their way back to the car.
We drove through Lisdoonvarna, home of the September matchmaking festival. I am SO glad it’s March! A very quiet little town at this time of year, and we moseyed on towards Kilfenora.
The visitors’ center was brand new, and quite nice. I was disappointed that I didn’t find any plant identification books, nor any information on hiking trails at the center. We did find a nice little Irish craft shop and left a few Euros there before heading on home. I led the way home and in Ennis Carolyn went one way and I went the other, but we still beat the other car home! Even though I did miss the turn to the house and went through Broadford (the long way ‘round) before getting back home.
