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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…
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SĂ©ipĂ©ilĂn Ghallarais
Having dabbled in dry stone walling, the masonry work that must have gone into building the Gallarus Oratory impressed me no end. It has been described as resembling an upturned boat, the metre-thick sides and gables curving towards the ridge. Each of the sandstone blocks has been dressed on every side to fit perfectly with…
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Cathair na FĂ©inne
A wet start to climb Carrauntoohil in the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks mountain range, the highest mountain in Ireland, but the rain soon gave way to swirling clouds and clear summits. This is the twin topped Cathair na FĂ©inne (or just the Anglicised Caher). With a height of 1001m, it would be classed as a Munro if…
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Clogh Oghaim
One of the sights I wanted to see in Ireland was an Ogham Stone. These are standing stones inscribed with a script of the Ogham alphabet. They are found throughout Ireland but are most numerous in the south-west. Many are found on private land and so are inaccessible to the general public. A large number…
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Mainistir Achaidh MhĂłir
The ruins of the 6th-century Ahamore Abbey, overlooking Derrynane Bay in County Kerry and lying on the appropriately named Abbey Island which only lives up to being its status of being an island at the highest spring tide.
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