Sligo / Clare

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Time for a piece on the West of Ireland. It seems to be a a general rule that people often take what they have for granted, in this case the culture and beautiful parts of their own country for granted. I remember one instance where I was in Medellin in Colombia and a German guy from my hostel remarked the Cliffs of Moher was one his favourite places in the world. It kind of startled me a little as Cliffs of Moher is only 2.5 hours from where I live in Ireland and yet I'd never been. Therefore myself and Mags decided in 2015 we would be heading Whest to explore the Wild Atlantic Way!



SLIGO

Sligo kind of accidentally ended up on the itinerary. We had intended to go to Mayo but when we heard the Fleadh Ceoil (The big Irish traditional music festival in Ireland for anyone not familiar) was on we decided to cross Mayo off the list and pencil Sligo in instead. Having never heard much about Sligo as a tourist stop, we were pleasantly surprised at what a nice and interesting place it was to visit. The famous mountain Benbulben towers impressively over the town though strangely doesn't seem to peak like other mountains but instead almost plateau at the top.

We arrived on a Thursday afternoon at the campsite we were staying near the racecourse and pitched up our tent. (I say pitched but it was a pop up so all of two minutes work!) The weather was so nice that we decided to head for Sligo's big surfing destination Strandhill. The place was packed but as we walked further and further up the beach, I noticed massive red 'NO SWIMMING' signs ever 200m or so. Thinking there surely must be somewhere nearby to swim, I googled it to find out with dismay that Strandhill is notorious for riptides and under water currents and unless you have a surf board, you shouldn't go beyond waist height. Instead of swimming, we had to be content with soaking up some sun whilst listening to the latest Seconds Captains podcast. Afterwards we decided to do a bit more exploring of the area and made the 20 minutes drive to Glencar lake and waterfall. The scenery is lovely around this area and what I'd call typically Irish. Well worth a stop off.

On the Friday morning, we went to one of the best things I've ever been to in Ireland. Ireland's largest bird of prey sanctuary 'Eagles Flying'. The place is a snip at 10e and we spent about 3.5 hours there. It's situated on 27 hectares and is home to approx 350 birds and animals. We began with a tour around the main house where golden eagles, sea eagles, buzzards, hawks etc can be seen in advance of the bird show at 11. The show itself was fantastic as they explained how they handle so many dominant birds (They're tethered at different times otherwise Darwins 'Only the strongest survive' would happen!), hear about their background and feeding habits, and see a few in action including the barn owl, the turkey vulture, sea eagle and one of the hawks. Really fasinating and something I'd highly recommend seeing for people of all ages. They keep other animals nearby which we all got to see afterwards. There were rabbits, mice, a fox, pigs, racoons etc and every so often a horse or two would just wander up to see if anyone had any food. A lot of the animals have been rescued or donated by owners who can't look after them and as a result they are quite friendly. After a quick stop off in the town on the way back - which was very reasonably priced food wise and the volunteers were also excellent on directions - we stopped off in Aldi to buy a disposable BBQ and some food. Getting the BBQ going proved difficult as it was so windy but about two hours later, I eventually managed to get four burgers done! Cost us the same amount pretty much as if we'd bought them from a stand but they sure taste nicer when you cook them yourself ! 😉 Fed and watered, we then headed into town to soak up the atmosphere. The place was buzzing with buskers aplenty on the streets playing music and dancing. My own particular favourite was a bunch of auld lads singing ballads near the Tesco on O Connell St. My auntie Mag and my Uncle Ray were up in Sligo also so we meet up for a drink (of blackcurrant!) and to listen to some more music.

Saturday we headed to the All Ireland group cheoil competition as my cousin's group had qualified in the 12-15 category. I was up early so I could head to the gym across the road from the campsite and then it was off to Sligo IT where the competitions were being held. The standard was really high with banjo's, fiddles, tin whistles, accordions and harps to name but a few all on show. It made me wonder how good the adult competitions were if this was the level young teenagers were reaching! Unfortunatley we didn't win but they'll be back next year I'm sure! After a lunch in Kate's Kitchen (highly recommend), we visited the YB Yeats clubhouse as Mags is a big fan. Then it was back to the campsite to pack up and a three hour drive down to County Clare.



CLARE

Clare has been well documented as aswell as being along the Wild Atlantic Way, it's also home to the beautiful Cliffs of Moher. We stayed in a B+B just outside the village of Doolan where the cliffs are located.

Our first morning there, after a hearty omelette we hopped into the car and went off in search of the Burren National Park. The Park is unique in Ireland in that it consist of miles and miles of limestone. While that would be bad news for the farmers of County Clare, it has had benefits in other ways as it has allowed a Flora and Fauna and geographical aspects such as stalacmites, stalactites etc to develop relatively undisturbed. In fact the Burren is always a standard section of any Irish geography book! We headed off on a four mile trek around the park (I say park but there's no clear starting or end point so we ended up parking beside a pub and looping the full way round). Afterwards we made a quick detour to 'Father Ted's' house, made famous by the channel four sitcom before continuing onto to the surfing town of Lahinch in South Clare. We had some lunch here in local restaurant 'Joe's cafe' and then into one of the local pubs to watch the Galway Tipp hurling All Ireland semi final (One of Ireland's two national sports). Afterwards undeterred by the rain clouds overhead, it was down to the seafront to do some swimming.

That evening we arrived back in good time to visit the Cliffs of Moher. Words don't do them justice so I'll leave the pics to do most of the talking. They're quite long so while you have to pay for the carpark, if you instead walk over the road you won't have to pay a cent as there's multiple points of entry. The views are spectacular, I can say no more!



Day two we got an hour long ferry out to one of the Aran Islands Inis Mor. The island is interesting in that it's a Gaeltacht area which means Irish is their first language as opposed to English which we speak in the rest of the country. The weather was excellent so we hired bikes and went touring. First stop was a small seal colony just off the coast, then onto a white sandy beach where I got in another swim. Who would of thought that such nice beaches existed on the Atlantic side of Ireland! Next stop was one of the few remaining prehistoric forts in Ireland, Dun Aenghus. It's unique in that one side of the fort doesn't have a wall.. instead there's a 150m drop off a cliff... not the most child friendly place to grow up in I can imagine! :P It was built in the second century and offers great views back towards the mainland and out to sea. Our final stop was the local GAA pitch (probably the worst one I've ever seen, can't see them winning any county championships soon!) before it was back to the boat for our journey back to Doolin.

Our last day of hols we went to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. This place is the real deal as they've hired in full time actors to represent the goings on in the castle and then the surrounding area in the 17 and 1800s. The departing tour in the castle when we arrived was in Spanish so instead of hanging about, we followed them about while I translated to Mags what I could make out. We then went around to the respective houses and trades... there was bread baking, the black smith, the local school, the fisherman's, the pub, photographer, wind mills, estate mansion and farm. The photographer lost the head with me a bit when I didn't see the NO PHOTOS sign and snapped a pic with my phone.. Awkward moment for me as he tried to compare me to a thief (Copyright I assume) but I'm sure the other people present got a good laugh! :D

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Photos

Dun Aengus
Cliff facing side of the fort.

Cliffs of Moher
Don't look down!

Fleadh Sligo
The complete cultural event!