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As we biked along the azure coast of Inishmore (the largest of the Aran islands) off the West Coast of Galway, we basked in the sun’s warm glow and drank in our idyllic surroundings; stone walls interspersed with wildflowers, undulating hills, grey seals languishing on warm rocks, cows lazily grazing in green fields, and the clear blue waters of the Atlantic ocean sparkling like a sea of diamonds. Dave sidled up to me on his bike and we laughed together, held hands, enjoying the (rare) Irish sun and discussed how much we loved being together, and how blessed we were that the sun was shining and allowed us to enjoy the outdoors. It was in this setting (whilst still ambling along on the bikes!) that Dave proposed to me asking me to share many more moments like this together
as his wife! After steadying myself on the bike, I said
yes!, and we sealed the deal with a kiss, and raced on ahead to tell the good news to Renee and Matt!
... so we're engaged!
For the first time since we arrived to Ireland in August 2007, the sun was shining on the rainy isle, and brightening
Dave & Suz
Shortly after our engagement! the moods of everyone. It was under these strange but welcome conditions that we decided to take a road trip out of Dublin with Renee and Matt to Ireland’s wild West coast.
Our road trip can roughly divided into two main things: old sites, and nature (but all carried out with loads of fun and laughter). There are some really cool old sites out in Co. Mayo which give cool insight into how our ancesters lived, which has always been a source of fascination with me, in particular how they organised their societies and what their prevailing spiritual (not necessarily religious) beliefs were at the time.
We overnighted in
Sligo and visited the ruins of
Sligo Abbey a Dominican Friary that was founded in the mid 13th century. It has an preserved cloister that was used for meditation by the monks, and the only sculptured 15th century high altar to survive destruction in the reformation.
Carrowmore in Co. Sligo is home to the greatest concentration of megalithic tomb monuments in Europe, and is the largest Stone Age burial site in Ireland with monuments ranging from 5500 to 6500 years old (predating NewGrange by 700 years and is
even older than the pyramids!). There are over 30 megalithic tombs which are visible today, most are small stone heaps, ringed with boulderstones, but one (the biggest and most visible) is covered with turf and rocks as in the Newgrange style.
In continuation of visiting old sites, we visited
Céide Fields where a Neolithic Stone Age farming society has been uncovered from deep beneath the peat bog. The site dates from 5500 years ago, and shows evidence of a organised farming people evident with stone field walls, houses and megalithic tombs pointing to developed spiritual beliefs.
We spent some time ambling through the hills of Connemara, stopping alongside Killary Harbour, Irelands only Fiord, and taking a walk in
Connemara National park before catching the last ferry to Inishmore, the largest of the three Aran islands. We enjoyed our first summer BBQ there and took off to explore the islands on the comfort of 2 wheels which is where the whole engagement took place. Biking along the country roads in the sun was amazing and we were intoxicated from all the Vitamin D that we got! We laughed as vanloads of day-trippers were whisked around the island in air-cnditioned
vans, never stopping to smell the flowers, lie in the grass, or puff their way up a hill on 2 wheels.
We tried stalking some seals, but had to turn back when we started to get wet feet, and sunbathed instead on the green fields and picked wildflowers. We walked up to
Dun Aonghasa, the largest prehistoric stone fort on the Aran Islands that sits perched on the edge of a cliff that drops 100m into the Atlantic Ocean. We mused at all the tourists who quite nonchalantly sauntered up to the cliff edge and had their photos taken, and hoped a gush of wind didn’t send them plummeting to their deaths!
All to soon the weekend was over, and Dublin beckoned us back …
Our Route Dublin > Carrick-on-Shannon > Sligo > Shandkill > Carrowmore > Westport > Killary Harbour > Connemara > Inishmore > Galway > Dublin
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TY (Kathmandu)
non-member comment
Congratulations!
That's awesome, way to go you two! I can't beleive you're still on this amazing adventure- it's cool when the trip of a lifetime takes up a good chunk of it, hey? Stuff is still cool back in Canada- I made it to Ireland on the way back from Nepal- what a great country, good beer, good people, what more could you want? Biking around the Aran Islands was definitely a highlight. Cheers to the both of you, have a guiness for me. T