Doolin - Day 2

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Geo: 53.016, -9.37758

So today I got up at sunrise....which is about 8 o'clock. I'm really starting to get lazy these days. But I had arranged for breakfast around 8.30 and I had to be down to the pier at 10 to catch a ferry to the Aran islands. I booked a passage onto Inis Mor (the big island) I had thought I could drive onto the ferry, but its only for people. So upon getting onto the island I was on shanks pony. However as I was walking down the pier I was approached by a jaunty driver. That sounded fine to me

The first place he took me to was Dùn Aonghasa. This is a very old ring fort up on the cliffs. The ground getting up to the fort was quite rough. Its a good 20 minute walk from the visitor centre and I was watching my feet the whole way. The first section of the path was a gravel path. Eventually that gave way to a stone path, but not nice neat cobblestones. It was just a rough path littered with big stones all over the place, or maybe it was all just one big rock with a bit of grass growing here and there. Either way, if you don't watch where you put your feet you will be looking at a badly sprained ankle or worse.

This fort was much larger than the one I saw in Kerry. There were actually three stone walls around it. And then a field if large pointy rocks around the exterior wall, clearly a defensive measure. They believe the fort was originally built by the celts around 1100 BC. Over the next thousand years it was expanded but they believe it was abandoned around 100AD. The fort is not a complete ring. The walls go all the way up to the cliffs. And they big mighty big cliffs so I don't think an enemy would come in that way. It did make it a bit breezy though. Some folks were walking right up to the edge. I got to about five feet away and figured that was far enough. No need to be reckless.

After the Fort I carefully made my back down the rocky path to the visitor centre and went looking for my driver. He was nowhere to be seen. One of the other jaunty drivers approached me and told me he had gone to change his horse and he would be back in ten minutes. No matter, there was an old seventh century church nearby I could go check out. I was quite surprised it was so old. I didn't think Christianity had made it this far west by that stage. But good 'ol St Patrick did quite a bit of travelling in his day. The church is called Teampall mic Duach and its clearly been abandoned, it had no roof. From the outside you wouldn't be able to tell it was a church except for a plinth near the door which had a faded cross carved into it. Inside the windows were very churchy and the remains of the stone alter is still there, but is filled with rocks.

Eventually my driver returned with a fresh horse. I didn't quite get the reason why he needed to change but the first horse was a bit flighty so maybe he is in training. He took me back by "the coastal road" which was lovely but very cold. You would have to be made of hardy stuff to live here. The ground is stoney, the landscape harsh and that sea breeze has a bite in it. But it is October. Along the coastal road we went past the seal colony....I saw two seals. They are migrating so theres not many about. They were in the water and all I could see was their head and shoulders. I had to check with the driver if they were real because they looked so still in the water, but he said yes, they'll be sitting on a piece of rock out there.

Further along the road we came to another abandoned building which used to be a kelp factory. They'd harvest the kelp and burn it to make iodine. The population on the islands is about 1000. Inis mor had the biggest population with 700 people. Inis meán has about 200 and Inis Oirr (the little island) about 160. They still speak Gaelic here and as we were riding along my driver was waving to his friends and chatting in gaelic. Its quite cute.

Finally we returned to the pier and all I wanted was a hot beverage. That last stretch was really cold. So I made my way to the pub and had a coffee, just a normal one, nothing Irish about it. I caught the ferry back to Doolin and then after a brief stop home, walked down the street to the pub for some food and traditional Irish music. The music was OK, the food was awesome. I treated myself to a sirloin steak and it was cooked to perfection. Nom nom nom. After dinner I ran into the young German couple I met at breakfast in Cashel. Stephan and Yanni. So we a had a few drinks together. The "football" was on TV and it was Ireland vs Germany. Stephan said I should barrack for Germany...I felt safer barracking for Ireland. I don't know what the end result was but Germany was winning when I left so maybe I should have listened to him.

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