Europe 2012- Day 62: Ireland- The Cliffs of Moher

We didn't know what time we were supposed to be down for breakfast in the morning at our Bed and Breakfast. We knew we had several  hours of driving for the day so we didn't want to get started too late, but at 9am we were the first ones down. Nate and I both ordered French toast with bacon. There was also a buffet of fruits, pastries, cereal, and drinks. The food was very good and as we set out for day two of Ireland we were very pleased with our first stay in a B&B.

Our room at the Tree Tops Bed & Breakfast in Sligo, Ireland

Upon leaving we decided to drive down the hill so I could take a few pictures of the abbey in the day time. After getting the pictures Nate wanted me to try driving the car in the empty parking lot, just so I could see what it was like to drive a right hand drive car. It wasn't too much different, but I still wasn't willing to drive on the narrow roads in Ireland.

We had around an hour and a half drive to get down to our first stop, which was the Dunguaire Castle. As we went along we decided to stop in the larger town of Galway to get gas and have a quick lunch, as I didn't know what we would find when we got to the castle. 

A church we could see from the road

There are tons of these small abandoned stone homes all over the Irish countryside.

Rock walls are never far away.

A logging picture for my father-in-law

This was a really cool church ruins that we drove past. We actually turned around so we could get this picture.

It's a good thing we did stop because the castle was closed. Now that I'm home I see that the Castle is only open April-October . . . oops. It didn't really matter though as I hadn't planned on spending a ton of time there. 

When the tide is in the water comes up to the rocks.

The Dunguaire Castle is considered to be a tower house, built in the 16th century on the southeastern shores of Galway. There is even a legend about the king who once lived there; Part of the lore about Dunguaire's Castle is that the Lord of the castle was very generous and he continued this generosity into the afterlife. One example of this is the story about a poor beggar whom King Guaire had often helped in life. The beggar visited the King's grave and said, "King Guaire, even you cannot help me now." Undeterred even by death, the King's skeletal hand dropped several gold coins at the beggar's feet. According to legend, still to this day, if a person stands at the front gate and asks a question, they will have an answer to their question by the end of the day.

 
Once we found the parking lot we walked back to the castle. The rocks around the castle were covered in seaweed. I didn't really remember what I had looked about the castle, and I think that's because the pictures I had seen had water very high up to the castle, and I had thought it would be really neat to get some pictures of it reflecting in the water, but as you can see in the picture the tide was way out, it was still very interesting though. 

There was a very narrow path that went all the way around the castle, and Nate  and I ventured around it. Once we got back to the front of the castle it started to rain a little so we headed towards the car.

Spider-Nate

 After the castle we had around a 2 hour drive to get to the Cliffs of Moher. As we were driving along we could see the hillside in the distance, it looked like it was either covered in lavender flowers or possibly rocks, as we came near I could see that it was rocks. I had wondered with all of the rock fences around Ireland if the fields seemed to produce rocks like they do in North Dakota, or if they brought them all in, I still don't know the answer, but I know where they can find rocks if they need.

Notice there is a rock wall even going through the rocky hills.

This is the remains of what was once someones fortified home.

After driving all day on windy roads we came across this sign. Apparently they only warn you when they are slightly tighter corners than normal, because there really are no straight roads.

The roads up the hills seemed to get even narrower if that's possible, and there were actually signs warning about dangerous corners, and bends ahead, which is amusing since we had been driving down very windy roads all day and they just now decided to warn us. While going up a steep and windy hill I told Nate to stop as there was a large bus coming and if we met on the corner there wouldn't be enough room for the both of us, as it was the bus was over the line, but we made it past.

The Cliffs of Moher, like the Giant's Causeaways are breathtaking. I have to say I'm glad for the stone barriers they've added in recent years, not that they really stop people from going out the the edge, but they did make it feel a little safer. 

There are signs all over the inside of the wall about suicide prevention, and a phone number to call if your thinking about it, plus there was a memorial to those people who have lost their lives at the cliffs. There are no official numbers I could find, but it looks like around 10 people per year jump off the cliffs.

You can see it was windy as my hair was blowing around.

Nate with a steep, slippery, grassy 5' edge before a shear drop off.

Nate wanted to wander near the edge to get some video. I wasn't very happy about this as it was very windy, but nothing I could do to stop him [Editors note: I was still about 5 feet away from the actual edge!]. There were some people that would wander out to a cliff edge and I even have a picture of a couple sitting on the edge with their feet dangling over!! Crazy people!

Crazy people on the ledge

A little hard to see but there is a small water fall in the far corner where the rock face meets the grassy hill.

On the one corner of the cliffs there is a tower that you can pay to go up into, we figured we had a good enough view that it wasn't worth the money to go up another 20 feet. By the time we were thinking of heading back to the car it started to rain. I didn't have a rain coat or a hat so I zipped my camera in the sweatshirt and quickly made it down to the cover of the visitors center.

Nate and I wanted to get going as soon as possible as we waned to get out of the really narrow, windy roads before it got to dark. Luckily we had about a hour of daylight left, and that allowed us to get to some slightly wider roads before it got dark.

This stone ruin was in the middle of a golf course.

We drove by several rushing rivers. If you fell in there is no possible way you would survive.

I thought this sign was funny. No horse and buggy, horses, bikes, or walking on this freeway.

  After making a few wrong turns in Cork we found our destination for the night, Fernroyds Bed & Breakfast. We were greeted by Avril and she showed us to our room. Then she gave us a map and suggested a good place for dinner. She also told us about a place that was going to have a live band playing traditional Irish music if we were interested.

We had around a 15 minute walk into town, and with the help of our map we found the Strasbourg Goose. They were having a special where you could get a 3 course meal for 20 euros. Nate and I got different things so we could try each others. I started with baby tuscany bruschetta, had crispy chicken served over rice with a lemon sauce for a main, and a white chocolate strawberry meringue for dessert. Nate started with homemade sausage, had an Irish steak with a creamy pepper sauce and mashed potatoes, and some Bailey's Irish cream cheese cake. All of our food was very good!

After dinner we went and found the pub where the music was going to be, but there was about 15 minutes before it was supposed to start, so we walked out along the water for awhile.

I found my next home, never mind the 2,250,000 euro price tag

Nate was a little worried about the music being to loud, and was trying to figure out earplugs for both of us. As it turns out, even with us sitting right in front of the band we didn't have an issue. It was Irish folk music, and not too loud at all. The band was known as Arundo. There was 3 people in the band, first there was Johnny "Bongo's" Horgan, he was amazing at playing the spoons as well as many other percussion instruments. Then there was John Byrne who blew our mind playing the very complicated uilleann pipes, along with other flute type instrments, and then Kevin Byrne who played the guitar.

Left to Right: Johnny Horgan, John Byrne, and Kevin Byrne

 Here is a YouTube video of them playing. Johnny is on the spoons, and as you'll see, he is amazing at it.  

It was very enjoyable and after listening for around an hour we were sad that we needed to leave. We had a full day the next day and didn't want to get to bed to late. We did however buy their CD, which we have already listened to several times.