The Wild Atlantic Way

Promoting the tourist potential of the west coast of Ireland is the Wild Atlantic Way, an initiative started in 2014 that marks 2500 km of roads, from Cork on the south to Malin Head, the northern tip of the country. I, for one, am not convinced that the west coast of Ireland needed to be flogged as a destination. It has a substantial reputation already. The Wild Atlantic Way does have a memorable stylized wave logo (vvvv). The route includes many scenic roads like the Slea Head Drive outside Dingle, and Conor Pass.

Along Slea Head Drive
Conor Pass

There are also lots of beaches. Since we love beach combing, we visited every beach on the Dingle Peninsula. Then we started north. This is Fenit Beach, northwest of Tralee.

It’s not all beaches. The arrows pointing down small country roads may encourage visitors to go just a bit further. We decided to find the ruins of Wardtown Castle. I later read that it’s the ruin of one of the first Palladian structures in Ireland.

Wardstown House

Sadly, it burned down and not much is left. It was a good ruin, in any case.We’ve followed the WAW around half of the Ring of Kerry, all around the Dingle Peninsula to Banna Beach in north Kerry. We went to Tarbert, on to Limerick, the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, and into Galway. We haven’t driven every kilometer of the route, but now we are extending our reach north from Sligo to the Slieve Lieg and beyond. Sometimes we’ve visited an area for one of the sights and been captivated by the scenery instead. That’s what happened at the “Ghost Village of Port”. The ruins are nothing special but the views are wonderful. There is another beach and another cliff around every corner.

We’ve seen birds on land and seabirds on the rocks. We’ve watched ships sailing by, sailboats tacking back and forth. We’re on the lookout for whales, but haven’t seen any yet. (Whale Watch Ireland 2017 is this coming weekend. I hope the whales will come out for it.) We pass ruins everywhere, from a 20th century Coast Guard station to neolithic ring fort and dolmen (tombs).

For anyone traveling with children, there is a Wild Atlantic Way passport you can buy and then get a stamp in the local post office of every participating town. If you get 20 stamps, they will send you a prize. I can imagine kids watching the map like little hawks to avoid missing any stamps. It could be fun.

Patterns of Nature

Here are some things I’ve seen that remind me that nature is amazing all on its own.

On the left are the vertical columns of basalt at the Giant’s Causeway. On the right are ridges in beach sand.

 

We visited Giant’s Causeway and the next day went to Dunluce Castle, not far away.

The Giant’s Causeway is made of basalt columns. The tops are visible here. On the right you see a wall at Dunluce Castle made with basalt quarried from Giant’s Causeway. They cut off the tops of the stone columns to use in the wall–the five and six-sided pieces. Notice that the man-made wall isn’t nearly as lovely as the natural formation.

Can you identify the source of these two patterns? They are from land and sea. See below for answer.

 

 

 

 

Photos above: Grazing sheep, fossil coral

 

 

 

 

Off the beaten path at Lough Melvin

We set out on a loop from Bundoran to Manorhamilton, on to Rosinver, then back to Bundoran. We started with the farmers market in Manorhamilton that turned out to be very, very small. After buying a few things, we went in search of a ring fort and we found a site, but it wasn’t the one we were looking for.  Having mostly struck out, we saw a small hand painted sign at the start of the last leg of the drive that said “Scenic Drive” and so we turned that way. The map showed a route between a bog and a lake, possibly a good spot for some birdwatching.The road turned out to be a narrow lane, where the plants brush against both sides of the car. The bog was either on the side of or over the top of the mountain and we were on a hiillside far above the lake, Lough Melvin. The sun was out and the view was gorgeous over blue water and islands, with Bundoran and the sea in the far distance. It could not have been lovelier. We picnicked and looked out over the lake with our binoculars and realized there was NO ONE on the lake from one end to the other. It’s a Friday afternoon of a national holiday weekend (August Bank Holiday) in a popular tourist area and not one single person was on Lough Melvin. We decided to go down to the edge of the Lough. We found a perfect place, a tiny rowboat harbor and boat launch ramp. No one was there, despite the boats. We strolled along the shore and were met by three horses and a pony checking to see whether they knew us. After they trotted off, we walked the edge of the lough, which is pebbly and rocky. You’d need water shoes, but the water is warmer than the ocean.  Perhaps with the ocean so near, no one bothers with the Lough except to fish. In the US, there would be a giant development somewhere along the lake. As we walked along the shore, we found fragments of glass and pottery that had been tumbled in the water. It was some of our best beach combing, and there was no beach.

After our long stroll marveling at the absence of people, the bright sunny day, great sights and finds, we headed for home, and saw an animal cross the road. Almost as dark as a black cat but with a weasel head. It may have been a pine marten. Another rarity capping a rare day.

Bundoran!

We are settled in Bundoran, north of Sligo. The wow factor here is the sea just over the back wall. It is always there and really wonderful. The sunset and evening sky has been clear our first two nights, a bit different from Dingle where we often had heavy clouds, fog, or rain at night.We are in Tullaghan, a hamlet that has two pubs and a lot of summer/second homes. We had tea with our hosts, who came from Dublin to meet us since we are staying for a full month. They were very kind, left us cookies and cake and all the instructions. Later we met our next door neighbors, Frances and Paul from a town near Belfast, here with their three children for a vacation. They were here last year and are back again.

The house is two stories and has all the mod cons (washer/dryer, dishwasher, microwave) that I missed in Italy. We are comfortable and looking forward to visitors later in the month.

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We’ve visited a couple of beaches and located the stores. Now we’re ready for adventure.

From the Cliffs of Moher and The Burren to Galway

On our way north along the coast of Ireland, we stopped to see the Cliffs of Moher, one of Ireland’s staggering sights. People look tiny standing on the edge of the 390 ft. high escarpment. It was impressive (Look for the tiny, tiny people on the top of the cliff).Before you rush to book your trip, keep in mind that we were there with 20 bus loads and hundreds of cars full of other visitors. The Cliffs of Moher is one of the most popular sights in all of Ireland, with about 1 million visitors per year. That’s more than 2,000 people a day all year long. That’s a lot of people. From the cliffs we headed toward Galway, our overnight stop halfway to Bundoran. The road cuts through an unusual geologic formation called The Burren. From a distance you see gray, stony hillsides. These rocky places are home to unusual plant species of both alpine and mediterranean origin. We stopped to take a photo and when I got out of the car and looked over the nearest stone wall, I was face to face with The Burren. Plates of gray stone cover the ground, with plants growing up through the cracks. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would wall in an area like this. (From Wikipedia):The rolling hills of The Burren are composed of limestone pavements with criss-crossing cracks known as “grikes”, leaving isolated rocks called “clints”.

OK, whatever you say. Grikes and clints. It is a remarkably stony landscape. I have never seen anything like it.

Further on, we passed a castle and found out it is the Burren School of Art. It would be  a lovely place to study.

We ended the day with dinner in downtown Galway and a stroll through the pedestrian area. It was very lively as we happened to be in town on the first night of the Galway Races. The horse races were being broadcast on every TV. They ended around 8:30 pm and by the time we finished dinner women and men in their best Race Day clothes were pouring in for an evening on the town.

An Idyllic month ends

Colorful storefronts in Cloghane

I have learned a few things about Ireland in our first month here. Most people are friendly and everyone seems glad to be here. People often refer to our surroundings as “god’s own country.” There are many signs of prosperity,  even a construction crane in Dingle. Restored houses dot the peninsula, usually with well kept gardens. There are abandoned stone houses, but few abandoned storefronts in town, and no charity shops.

Seals near Cloghane

I’ve learned that life in Ireland can be very different even for people of the same age. I spoke to a young woman cutting hair. She was just back from some months working in Melbourne and plans to return to travel. We talked about what Australia was like and what she saw while she was there. New Zealand was one of her favorite stops along the way. She returned to Dingle when she heard there was a job opening–she has an excellent family grapevine in the area.

I spoke to another woman of about the same age who said she was not from the area. I asked where and she said, “North Kerry.” That means the other side of Tralee, maybe an hour’s drive away. She and her husband moved to Dingle for his job. They have two small children. Her friends and family look at Dingle as terribly remote because of the narrow roads. Tourists singing the praises of Dingle don’t impress her at all. “Why do you live there?” ask her family. She said they don’t see her family much, often three weeks between visits. I couldn’t tell her how close to her family that seems to me, since I see my family twice a year, maybe three times. She would think me heartless.

We’ve walked all the beaches on the Dingle Peninsula that are more than a few meters long.

Coumeenoole Beach

Our beachcombing has been a pleasure and we’ve enjoyed the wind and tides. Though Dingle is very popular as a vacation spot and the town is full of visitors, we often had the beaches to ourselves.

On the right is Coumeenoole beach, where the movie Ryan’s Daughter was filmed. That was in 1970, but apparently people still visit to see the location. Much of the coast is rocky and steep, another reason that in a month we managed to visit all the beaches.

Brandon Point

There are spectacular clifftop walks. We spent a morning at Brandon Point, looking out over the Atlantic. “Next stop, Boston,” joked a hiker we chatted with in the parking area.

Overlooking the sea at Brandon point are abandoned houses that may date back as far as the famines that began in 1841.

Archaeological sites are thick on the ground. Since everything is built of stone, my colleagues must tear their hair out trying to figure out which comes first. Everything from the Neolithic (8000 yrs ago or so) to the early 20th century is built of the same stone. There weren’t a lot of household goods, so there aren’t a lot of castoffs and broken pieces lying around. The pottery pieces that archaeologists rely upon to tell the age of a settlement are long gone or buried. We visited only a fraction of the 1200 or so archaeological sites on the peninsula, but we have enjoyed the fact that there is often an informational sign on sites even when they are not marked on maps. Many sites are melting into the fields, but how many stone enclosures can a person visit? How many can be restored when they all look alike?On Brandon Point, peat is still cut for fuel. The hillside is scarred from digging and someone had just set aside their tools, a peculiar peat shovel and a fork used to spread the peat blocks to dry.

In addition to the abandoned farmsteads and peat-cutting on Brandon Point, we’ve seen Ogham Stones, early Christian crosses, monastic settlements, beehive huts and many historic houses that collapsed in place after the famines drove people away. When the population of Kerry was over 293,000 in 1841, there were tiny farms everywhere. In 2016 the population of Kerry was 147,500. I have trouble imagining double the present population with no automobiles.

We will miss the lovely view from our living room, yet we are on to another adventure. We head to Bundoran, a summer holiday town on the west coast of Ireland in the north, nearer to Belfast than to Dublin.

 

 

Harry Clarke, stained glass superstar

Harry Clarke isn’t a name well known outside the world of stained glass, though he should be. An Irish artist who died at age 42 (in 1931), at the time of his death he had completed 40 commissions, including one in Dingle for the convent of the Presentation Sisters. In the 1990s, the order decided to reduce its presence in the region and The Diseart Center of Irish Spirituality and Culture formed to take over the space, including the chapel with 12 individualistic, dramatic stained glass windows of Bible scenes. They are very much worth visiting.

Clarke lived during a period of artistic upheaval. After the Pre-Raphaelites, but during the Celtic revival in Ireland, Art Nouveau in France, Arts & Crafts in the UK, Art Deco, too. He used elements of many styles in his work. Clarke also illustrated works of Edgar Allen Poe and Hans Christian Andersen. Some of his drawings resemble the work of Aubrey Beardsley.

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One of the features of the windows is the fine-line painting on many of the individual pieces of glass. There are details that make some panels seem like a game of Hidden Pictures. I don’t know whether Clarke ever created any non-religious images, but I would certainly be interested to know what he might have created. He created 9 stained glass panels illustrating a poem by Synge, “Queens”. Originally created for a library in a Dublin area estate, the panels were sold to a private collector in 1996 and their location is no longer known. The price was a record for Harry Clarke’s work. Since most is located in religious structures, it is rarely for sale.

Check the link below to see whether there is any of his work near you.

List of Harry Clarke stained glass by location

The Diseart Center, where the stained glass windows you see here are located, offers classes in Irish culture, language and themes related to spirituality.

Summer came on Monday–at Great Blasket Island

The boatman made the quip as we left, “Tell them this year summer came on Monday!” That’s because the weather is never forecast to be as fine as it was on our trip out to Great Blasket Island last Monday. The sun shone all day long. The boat ride from Dunquin to Great Blasket was smooth and the 35 passengers smiled and chatted all the way.Great Blasket Island was an independent community lived there from early in the 19th century until Nov. 17, 1953. They were completely Irish speaking, cut off from the mainland as they were. The distance is short, but the water can be rough, and boats were the traditional naomhog, or currach, rowboats framed of wood and covered with tarred cloth.

As the Irish language fell into disuse in the 19th century, linguists and writers discovered the community on Great Blasket and visited to study the language or expand their proficiency. Visitors such as the poet Robin Flower encouraged the islanders to write about their lives and several did just that. The strong tradition of storytelling among people who have to entertain themselves on long winter evenings seems to have eased the transition to writing stories in a book. Best known are: An tOileánach (The Islandman) by Tomás Ó Criomhthain, Peig by Peig Sayers and Fiche Blian ag Fás (Twenty Years A-Growing) by Muiris Ó Súilleabháin. The remains of each author’s house is marked on the visitors map.

Most houses lie in ruins today, though one was being renovated during our visit. That’s puzzling because there’s only seasonal ferry service, no central water source, no electricity, no store, all part of the reason the island was evacuated years ago. We looked at the ruined community and hiked up the spine of the island. At the peak of the island, I could see the faint outline of  the Skellig Islands on the horizon to the south.

Blasket harbor–tiny
At the harbor

We waited for our trip home just above the tiny boat landing on Blasket. Arriving at Dunquin we struggled up the steep incline from the beach.                                               (This is an internet photo–see the upturned naomhog boats in the lowest bend of the ramp.)

Jonathan takes the Prize–at Féile an Phráta

Months before we arrived in Dingle, Jonathan read about a local potato festival and decided that he wanted to participate. He emailed the organizers, sharpened his potato peeling knife, and marked the date. It wasn’t as easy as jumping in the car, because all the publicity for the festival was in Irish. Diligent work with Google translate and the map led us to a pub in Ballydavid (only shown as Baile na nGall on signs). The roads are pretty small, but we emerged into a seaside community centered on a small beach and a pub, Tigh TP. Quite a crowd turned out for the potato festival, and it seems that everyone other than the three of us understood Irish.

We found the organizers, who were delighted that we actually made it there. Jonathan submitted his dish for the cooking competition. He made causa, a potato and fish terrine that is a popular appetizer in Peru.

Causa–Peruvian potato-fish-vegetable terrine

Jonathan’s causa is on the far right.

It took him a few minutes to explain to everyone that potatoes actually come from Peru–there was some skepticism. There was more skepticism that he was from Peru, so he had to tell the story of our retirement travels. After that, we went to find a seat to watch the festivities. There was a tasting of boiled potatoes (no salt, no butter). The judges were heroic in tasting about eight different potatoes submitted by growers from Dingle as far as Tralee. There was a separate panel of judges that tasted the prepared dishes. While we watched the dishes being introduced and tasted, we shared a picnic table with a couple from Dublin who come to Dingle every year. Mary and John were excellent company. The afternoon passed rapidly. The results of the cooking contest were held until the very end. In the mean time was the peeling contest.

Jonathan discovered that he had to use a standard knife given to all contestants, he couldn’t use his nicely sharpened knife. He protested to the judges (L), but they insisted that everyone use the same knife. He was up against one other man in his heat and both of them qualified by completely peeling two potatoes in under one minute. In the end, though the winner was a woman in the first heat. She was able to peel both potatoes with the greatest “post-peel weight”. The best was yet to come, however.

When the results of the cooking contest were announced, Jonathan won second prize! There was mention of the original intention of the Wild Atlantic Way to reveal the connections between the sea and the land. Jonathan’s coming all the way from Peru to Dingle in order to participate in the potato festival and his dish with seafood and potato was widely appreciated, and he will treasure his prize plate.

Sponsors included the local radio station and the national Irish potato board, Bord Bía. Féile an Phráta is held every year and is well worth a visit.

An Epic Day: Star Wars and Puffins in the Skellig Islands

Had my sister Paula not read in her guide book about an offshore rock group with an ancient monastery at the top, we might never have visited the Skellig Islands. We considered hiking to the top of the 600+ steps to see the domed stone cells that may date back to 600 AD. If that weren’t enticing enough, the site appears at the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and in the trailer for the next Star Wars movie.

Skellig Michael in the trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi

It’s an intimidating place. 12 km off shore, a jagged triangle juts from the water. After reading about landing, where there is no dock and heaving seas may toss you in or out of the boat, we decided against it (Tours are sold out for the entire season, too). We decided to take a ride around both islands to see the steep steps and birdwatch. It was a wonderful tour!

We had total weather karma. The day dawned sunny for the first time since we arrived in Ireland and stayed sunny and warm ALL DAY. It took us just over two hours to drive from our house in Dingle to Port Magee, mostly along the Ring of Kerry drive, so you could say we were multi-tasking in the tourism department. Our boat left at 11:45 am and we were asked to arrive at the dock by 11:30 am. A friendly young man named Brendan, dressed in a dirty tshirt and jeans strolled out and ticked our names off a list on his phone. He led us to the boat where there were 12 outward facing seats hung with life jackets. Dressed, we took off, heading straight out to sea for 45 min. The islands, two triangular chunks of rock, stick up out of the sea and are easily visible from shore. Cliffs and hills line the coast on the way out to sea from Port Magee, then Puffin Island off to the south, then sea birds zoom alongside the boat or bob on the water. (What are they doing, just hanging out in the middle of the ocean?) We saw gannets and then puffins, the world’s cutest birds.

7.12.17 Skellig Islands-0287.12.17 Skellig Islands-027crMore steps wind up the face of the rock. Made of slabs of the island rock, it’s a long hike. The path on the right is not used today, though rock climbers can access the top this way. The safety video that is recommended for people considering a landing on Skellig Michael shows what the climb looks like in wet weather. (As I write this, the fog is so thick that we can see nothing beyond the front yard of our house. I wonder whether the Skellig boats will go out today.) The safety video shows the stone steps.

Skellig Islands safety video

One reason to make the climb to the top is the archaeological site, a tiny monastery of stone beehive huts enclosed by a wall that was in use at various times from the 8th century until the 13th century. Monks rowed out to the island, climbed to the tiny settlement and lived their hermit existence. The island was finally abandoned when the climate began to shift toward colder weather after 1300. There are beautiful views of the archaeological site on the Heritage Ireland website.

Skellig Michael history and photos

From Skellig Michael we went on to Little Skellig, a bird sanctuary. The entire surface of the island is alive with birds. This is home to one of the largest gannet colonies anywhere.Up close, you see the white area is all birds, calling, flying, wriggling and doing what birds do. The majority of the birds are gannets, but in the lowest most sheltered crevices we could see puffins.So many birds, so little time.

From Little Skellig, we sailed back to Port Magee, delighted by our brilliant day.