England and Ireland---Day 14

Thatched cottages, Adair

Left Killarney for points west and north today.  Temperature somewhat moderated, it's cloudy and pleasantly warm, rather than being hot.  Stopped first in Adair, a very charming town.  Drove through the usual rolling green hills out of Killarney heading to the Cliffs of Moher.  This sounds like it is something from Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, and actually the cliffs did appear in the Half-Blood Prince movie.

Cliffs of Moher--there are people on the top!

The cliffs rise straight out of the ocean, the highest one being 702 feet.  They are about 7 miles long, and a hiking paths follow them the whole distance.  The Cliffs are home to thousands of nesting seabirds such as puffins and various gulls as well as hawks and ravens.  We had a wonderful view of the Aran Islands which lie directly west of the Cliffs.  I never realized how close the islands are to the coast, as well as how barren they appear.

Burren scenery

We left the Cliffs and entered the Burren region.  This is an area overlying extensive limestone deposits filled with Carboniferous fossils.  Much of the high hills have been denuded of soil and vegetation due to later glacial action, So the hills are white with the limestone.  Rock fences are everywhere, as the fields have been made by removing the rock and using it for the fences.  Drove down a road named Corkscrew toward Galway.

Sand dollar fossil

Thatched cottage at farm

We next went to a farm called Rathbaum where we first had some wonderful scones with jam and cream and tea.  A tour of the farm followed.  We learned something about the agricultural practices of Ireland, in this area of Galway being pasturage with meat sheep and meat cattle.  Not the area for dairy, apparently.  A sheep shearing demonstration followed a demonstration of sheep herding by a Border Collie.


Our hotel for tonight is on the shores of Galway Bay, cool with a nice breeze blowing.  Had baked hake, a fish, for the first time.  Very tasty.

Old farm kitchen---in front of the peat fire

Connamara pony and colt