Category: Ireland
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Carrauntoohil from Cnoc na Toinne
Have we really been in lockdown for 35 days? That’s 5 weeks! Now, where can I go today? Haven’t been to Ireland for a while. At 3,407 ft. high, Carrauntoohil is the highest mountain in Ireland and the centrepiece of that wonderfully named mountain range, the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks. The name, Carrauntoohil, is an Anglicisation of…
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Back of Benbulbin
The plan was to climb Benbulbin, a 525m high distinctive tabletop mountain overlooking Sligo but it proved difficult to find out any info on the best way which seems to be a hidden secret. Web forums talk of an approach from the north but also mention recent access issues with an irate farmer. To avoid…
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Mallaranny Saltmarshes
This is the season of thrift, the sea pink. There is so much of it about. The saltmarshes and machair at Mallaranny in County Mayo have a carpet of it happily grazed by the sheep. They must have a unique flavour.
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Croaghaun
The highest mountain on Achill Island, with real mountain look and feel of metamorphic psammites and schists. Well actually this is the 664m high south-west peak of Croaghaun, I am standing on the 688m actual summit which is mapped as Tonacroaghaun. To the right, the cliffs drop steeply to the Atlantic covered by low lying…
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Keem Strand
Achill Island and the end of the road. In Ireland, it is a Bank Holiday Sunday and it was heaving, no doubt influenced by an Irish newspaper article extolling it as one of the best beaches for “wild” swimming. Today there are no residents. The road, built in the 1960s is almost exclusively the domain…
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The black waters of Doolough
A silence undisturbed by those who perished here, a poignant reminder of times gone by. For beside the black waters of Doolough many met their fate. 1849, the height of An Gorta Mor -the great hunger, the potato has gone leaving famine and dysentery. And beside the inky waters of Doolough many met their fate.…
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Connemara
Sea pinks and lichen on the rocky coast of Connemara. Oscar Wilde called it a savage beauty. Fading light and high tide amongst the ‘Inlets of the sea’. Inland more rock and bog, a place to explore.
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The Burren
In Irish, Boireann, meaning rocky country. And the rock is, of course, limestone or aolchloch. A dramatic, barren landscape, much loved by Tolkien (he marked English papers at Galway University). So perhaps an inspiration for parts of Middle Earth. There are clints and grikes of course except in the Burren they are called clinteanna and…
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Duggerna Rocks, Kilkee
Why is watching huge Atlantic rollers crashing on the rocks so mesmerising? And watching a porpoise feeding in the shelter of the pier. And watching the sun go down.
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Cuchullin’s Leap
Crossed the Shannon into County Clare. Cuchullin’s Leap at Loop Head is an impressive cleft in the headland, in theory, creating an island but I didn’t look over to see if there was actually water entirely along the bottom. The story goes that Mal, a local witch, fell in love with Cuchullin who was not…