Trip to Cliffs of Moher

June 5, 2013  Cliffs of Moher

I am getting used to the time change, however, we are both a bit unaccustomed to the fact that it is daylight at 4:30 until after 10:00pm.  But, I slept well.  We were up early because we needed to catch a cab by 6:30.  The worst part about all of this was the fact that we had to miss hostess Bernadette’s wonderful Irish breakfast.  She draws the line at 7:00. 

The cab ride was nice.  The driver owns his own car and is fighting for a living in a very overcrowded market.  There are more cabs in Duplin per capita than in New York City.  I was impressed that he was an intelligent individual who carried on a great conversation.  I remember finding the same thing in Sidney Australia when I was there back in the late 60’s.

We arrived at the train station in plenty of time for us to grab a pastry and a cup

Bunratty Castke

of coffee.  We rode the train toward the west coast of Ireland for a bit over two hours and were met in the town of Limerick City. In Limerick, we boarded a bus and traveled through the countyside to a beautifully restored Bunratty Castle and folk park.  This wonderful restoration was built in 1460.  It is a massive structure with 4 square keep towers three of which you can climb to the top to view the beautiful countryside.  The site is furnished with 15^th and 16^th century furnishings.  The surrounding 19^th century folk village consists of a number of period structures that were also meticulously restored and represented.   Of particular interest to me were the thatched roofs that if they were done by a skilled craftsman would last up to 20 years.  We saw a number of these cottages throughout the countryside. 

Cottage in Bunratty Folk Village

From Bunratty, we traveled through miles of land dotted with small fields bordered with stone or hedge fences.  The main livestock that we saw were sheep with a few farms raising cattle. 

We stopped at the little town of Doolin which is located near the coast and at the doorway to the Cliffs of Moher.  In Doolin, we had a wonderful lunch at a the little Gus O’Connor’s Pub where the service was fast and the food was great.  Our tour guide promised that the food would be delivered to your table

Lunch in Doolin

within 5 minutes of when you placed your order.  I didn’t time them but I would say they made it.   

After lunch, we moved onto the majestic Cliffs of Moher.  They rise vertically out of the sea for a 5 mile stretch of coastline.  The cliffs rise over 700 feet.  This is one of Irelands most visited location.  We wandered along the cliff edges for about an hour.  Among other things these walls are home to a large colony of puffins the eggs of which the early inhabitants used for food.  A group of guys would lower one of their own

Cliffs of Moher

carrying a basket, over the side and when his clutch was full, they would lower him on down to the bottom of the cliff.  They also have built a neat visitors center and restaurant into the limestone rock hillside.  From the inside, it looks like a nicely appointed cave.

The Barrun

Heading north toward Galway, we passed through an area they cThe all The Barrun which is really a barren landscape of limestone rock.  There are hundreds of square miles nothing but rock.  There is evidence that over the ages, folks have tried to eek out an existence on this area but it is obvious that there could be little success farming here.  The hills are periodically divided by “penny fences” which were made by the poor residence of the area.  It seems that the British land owners of the area would hire these local folks to build these fences across the barren land and pay them a penny a day.

Famine Grave Yard

Also in the area we saw evidence of the potato famine in the abandoned cottages and grave yards which had rocks laid at the head of a grave in which a number of bodies would be laid.  The guides told us that the blighted potatoes were a problem but the main problem was that the British who were in control of the country refused to allow the local folks access to food produced on the island.  That food was shipped abroad for cash income.  Thousands of people died and many thousands more immigrated to other countries like the US.

We completed the bus portion of our tour in Galway where we ate in a nice restaurant under a hotel near the train station.  I had an open face roast beef sandwich and, of course, a ½ pint of Guinness.

Back on the train, we traveled back to Dublin and finalized trip with a cab ride to the B&B.  We got in about 10:00p.