Ireland - Doolin, Aran Islands & Cliffs of Moher

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Ireland -Doolin, Aran Islands & Cliffs of Moher

Monday 24th & Tuesday 25th March

Doolin is set right on the west coast of Ireland and right near both the Aran Islands and the Cliffs of Moher. It’s a great spot to stay - not only is it beaufitul countryside, but its close to a lot of things to see and do. The landscape is entitrely different from Killarney but equally lovely. Its more open, rugged and farm-like, yet the mountains and the coast line are right there also. The villages are not so far apart, Liscannor is only about 9km away, this is a sweet little town set on the river/ocean(?) and they are famous for the gorgeous Liscannor stone with which so many Irish houses and walls are made from.

We are staying at Doolins Activity Lodge (not quite sure why its called that..) but it is in a perfect location, and the buildings are beautiful...all two story, made of stone, with dormer windows. Our bedroom is so cosy - wooden floorboards, huge soft white doonas and HEATED tiles in the bathroom so you don’t have to walk on cold tiles - what a great idea! (Talk about being amused by small things, but Reagan and I both run into the bathroom every morning and exclaim over the nice warm tiles lol). We have a view over the fields, horses, sheep and other cute little houses and we are also about 5 minutes walk up the road from the teeny little main street, which consists of a pub, a sweaster shop, a grocery and a music shop and thats about it. 5 minutes the other way is another pub, a cafe and a miniscule tourist office (which is pretty crap) and everywhere you look in Doolin there is a Bed & Breakfast or Hostel. Definaltey catering for thje many tourist who stay here yet its so unspoilt and “un-touristy” at the same time. Its very small and spread out so its a great place to go walking.
We walked though the village today and talked to the guy at the tourist bureau and we were stoked to realise that they were actually running the Aran Island boats even thought is been a little rough. We meandered down to the pier (about 3km from where we are staying and a gorgeous walk along little village shops, cliffs, golf course etc. Great place for a golf course, right on the ocean and a gorgeous view. Rabbits bobbing around the grounds too. Windy as all hell. We have booked to go over tomorrow, followed by an hour on the boat going around the underneath of the Cliffs of Moher. Hopefully the boat stills goes out, as they cancel if its too rough. This time of year its usually quite bad.

If you go to Doolin make sure you eat at O’Connors pub, on the main street. We’ve been in quite a few great pubs by now, but this one wins the crown hands down and the bus drivers were all telling us that the pub was famous. The atmosphere is fablulous, irish music playing, people everywhere laughing, singing, telling jokes and generally having a good time. The food is mega-delicious, although a word of warning the portions are huge. We could have shared one meal and still been full. Enjoyed our night although the walk back to the lodge was a bit scary, we didn’t realise there are NO street lights along the main strip between the pub and the lodge (!!) and so we had to walk in almost pitch blacknes except for the moon, along this pebbled road, with hedges all along. It was a little misty out and I kept having flashbacks to the moive Americaqn Werewolf in London, and I don’t think we have ever walked so quickly in our lives. Wasnt far (only about half a km) but thats it, dinner before dark in Doolin from now on and taking our maglight with us just in case.

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I heard the rain in the early hours of the morning and the wind was still howling when I woke up about 6am. I started getting worried that we wouldn’t get to go to the Aran Islands today, which would have been disappointing as it was one place I had wanted to visit. We dressed and went down to breakfast then set out for the walk down to the pier, wind blowing us in every direction.

Stepped into the boat office to see the guy shaking his head at me and saying “sorry we’re nto going out, the weathers a bit too rough for our boat”. Noooo.... but then he told us that Doolin Ferries were still going out (bigger boat) and we should be able to get a spot with them, as long as we were ok with the ride being a bit choppy. Didnt worry us so luckily we managed to get tickets and went down to settle in on our boat, which was called “The Happy Hooker”. The guy at the boat place recommended we go to Inis Oirre, which is the smaller of the three islands, as we could walk all over it in a day. So, Inis Oirre here we come.

The boat ride was definitely a bit rough, and I must have still been a little under the weather as the swells (not
too high) made my tum queasy again. I don’t usually get sick on boats but this time I got to see the amused looks on a few faces when I lurched into the loo and came out 10 mins later. One of the other mums sitting across from me made a bolt outside too and we exchanged very sympathetic glances with each other, while Reagan smirked next to me. She had no problems at all and was quite happy with the bumpy ride which only lasted about 45-50 minutes.

Our first impression of Inis Oirre was not what we had expected at all. Even though it is a huge tourist draw, there is nothing much there to cater for tourists at all, everything is written in Gaelic, with no English translation and there were lots of B&B’s but thats about it, so the island is quite unspoilt. And at first we just wandered around in the wind through the maze of little houses, all lined with waist high stone fences then had lunch and walked up to the graveyard and the castle. It was quite an experience walking into the only pub we found though - kind of a little like walking into a scene being shot for a scary movie though, where the characters are on this small island, no escape, the wind is blowing and the villagers are all keeping a big secret.... complete silence descended as we walked through the door and every single eye in the place swivelled around to eye us... 5 second pause.... action...all back to normal. We seemed to be the only tourists in the place at first but the others soon found their way in and within about half an hour the place was packed and jumping. We had lunch and a few drinks, played cards and then stepped back out into the woolly weather for more exploring.

We came across this tiny little stone house, which seemed to have a few people gathered inside and with a sign in Gaelic so we had no idea what it was, but it looked as though it was open to anyone, so we stuck our heads in for a look. It turned out to be a ladys house, and we had walked into the tony little lounge room, where she served afternoon tea and hot drinks to the tourists who came onto the island. There were a few german couples in there and everyone just sat around the fireplace and the kitchen table, it was like going to Grandmas or something. We decided to sit down for a hot drink and a chat with her son, who was about mid 30’s and his mum made us a hot chocolate and biscuits. It was so funny because when he realised we were from Australia, he said “oh my brother is in Australia, working in Perth” and we laughed. We have met quite a few travellers from Perth in Ireland, but we didn’t expect to find another in this tiny little village. It was fascinating talking with this guy, he had grown up in the tiny little house we were sitting in, cooking over the fireplace and on the very couch and table we were using - they seemed to love the interaction with the people who came onto the island. A group of older couples from Dublin came in while we were there and we talked to them for a while too. This is the best part of travelling, we have met so many people from all over the place.

After that we went to the graveyard which was on top of a grassy hill overlooking the whole village and the coast line. Its was very beautiful in a rugged kind of way....celtic crosses, overgrown with long sea grass, a half ruined church buried halfway underground. Many of the headstones were in both Gaelic and English and we walked around reading them. We were both sad to see one for a family whose little baby boy had died at age 3 months. Reagan was fascinated and took heaps of photos. I took heaps also, some of which are my favourite shots so far. The Celtic crosses on the gravestones were very beautiful and invoke such a feeling of history and meaning, even though these were all relatively new graves (within the last 100 years). We have seen so many beautiful celtic crosses as we have passed through Ireland and there are so many meanings supposed to be attributed to them, and they all have different designs within them. I love the Celtic knots, which have no end, and are thought to symbolise enternity or continuum, of live or of friendsip, love and loyalty. The celtic cross at the church at Sneem was a gorgeous example.

The afternoon became very windy and rainy as we headed up to the castle and we didn’t stay up there for a lot of time, as we had to get back in time for the boat and Reagan wanted to play on this great playground we could see from up there. Absolutely stunning view from the top of the hill where the castle is, you can see far around most of the island, and its very beautiful, the pretty green of the hills against the white of the houses and the grey of the stone, with wild blue ocean backing it all up.

Reagan had a great time on the playground, its set right under the hillside where the castle is, and is full of fun stuff such as flying foxes so she was worn and quite happy when we left.

The boat trip back was rougher than coming over, swells were higher and it was rainy and blowing, but we decided to sit outside on the deck and get the fresh air and feel the salty spray this time and so it was much better. We enjoyed the trip back but we were pretty tired by then, up since 6am and back about 6pm, especially as we then had a 3km walk back to our lodge after the boat docked.

Dinner tonight was at Fitzgeralds Pub, just down the road. We were still stuffed from lunch so we had a light meal and played rummy while we waited. Reagan is getting quite the card sharp and she just loves winning - wonder where she gets that lol. We gave the brain a rest after a while and played Go Fish and the little monkey was in such high spirits, it was a fun game. She came out with some classics when asking me for the next card... “Hand over your Ace girlfriend” (said in a tough Yankee accent...too much American TV obviously). “Give me your nine Woman!” and the funniest was after I had a Guinness - just one - and forgot to pick up my next card ...”C’mon Mummy get your act together, you must have had too many beers!!”. Then over dinner she told me to sit up straight and get my elbows off the table. LMAO! Right...whose the mother here? She does keep me in stitches, god I love her so much.

After dinner we went back to our room and watched Bridge to Terabithia, which was a sad but sweet kids movie. Her eyes were hanging out of her head by the time it finished, but she insisted on watching it right to the end. She’s fast asleep now, cuddling Louey.

Me, I’m going to pack and hit the sack too. Our bus to Dublin leaves at 8am so we’re up early tomorrow.

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