The Salt Shaker

Kilkee in the rain

Loop Head

Loop Head

The Long Dock in Carrigaholt (hoisting a Smithwick's)

Kylemore Abbey

Killary Harbor

Irish lad on Clare Island

Brian with Catherine (Kitty), Eileen, and Gerry

Kitty's house in Tralee

Friday 5/15- met Dave Whitman at the Travelers parking lot @ 10 AM and proceeded east on I-90 to Boston’s Logan Airport for a 7 PM Aer Lingus flight to Shannon Airport. Discovered that parking for 9 days ran $144. We had our bags checked by 3 PM and had a late lunch at a terminal restaurant. I had come off a persistent flu virus that had generally cleared up, but when I got up from lunch to go through security check, my stomach, chest and head felt really off. Fortunately, it passed after a nap in the waiting area, and that was about the last of feeling bad for the next 9 days.

Our flight was generally good. We had some young children in the seats across the aisle, but they were fairly quiet, and we got a bit of sleep. It was a 7 hour flight- Ireland is 5 hours ahead of the US East Coast, so the sun was only “down” for about 3 hours.

Saturday, 5/16- arrived about 6 AM, but had a long wait at the luggage check- lots of golf clubs went around the turnstile! Dave had done a lot of pre-arrangement of B&Bs and had a Hertz auto rental lined up. The agent tried very hard to get him to rent an automatic, but Dave kept insisting on a standard, which resulted in the agent continually lowering the price until the automatic got quite reasonable & we took a Ford Vetec diesel. It was roomy and the seats were up a bit from a true compact.

Dave did the driving and got himself oriented to driving on the left side of the road as we made our way north on N19 to Ennis in the rain. It was cool out, and when we got into Ennis at 8:30AM, it seemed that all the businesses were closed. We set out in search of a restaurant and found one eventually that was open. Dave got the 1^st sighting of what we’d come to know as the “traditional Irish breakfast”- eggs, lean bacon, white & black pudding, sausages, beans & toast. Only a week later did we learn that the active ingredient was sheep’s blood. I ordered pancakes & was surprised to get crepes, which were consumed in about 5 bites- so I ordered some toast to shore things up. We noted that the servers were speaking with an Irish accent that was difficult to decipher, so we did ask twice to understand things better. The chilly rain seemed like a portent of the potential for an inclement week, although Dave had learned that the average May had the fewest number of rainy days.

Our 1^st castle sighting was Leamaneh in the Burren, so out came the cameras. We moved on to the Kilfenora Cultural Center for a quick film on sights in the Burren and a more leisurely stroll through the gift shop. From there, we went into the Burren to see a hilltop megalithic ruin; Ballyvaughan on Galway Bay for lunch @ Monks Restaurant; Black Head to see the Point Lighthouse; the Cliffs of Moher; then down into Doolin to our 1^st B&B, Daly’s. We were greeted by her daughter, Katie Daly, whom we later learned is a voice major interested in opera. We got our stuff into our room – with a private bath- referred to as en suite. Katie made us an Irish coffee, welcome after a wet, chilly day, and in the guest living room we met a group of 6 Californians making a minibus tour with a guide. The guide had been running the business now for about 15 years and most of his trade comes from word-of-mouth.

We headed down to Gus O’Connor’s Pub for a fish-and-chips dinner with a pint of Guinness to wash it down. We left before too long, having been up the better part of that and the previous day, and slept well.

Sunday 5/17- when we awoke, we met Susan Daly, the owner and she is a pistol! Very quick wit and obviously runs a top notch operation. There were cereals, juice, fruit, coffee, toast, brown bread & the “traditional” breakfast. She told us her family (the O’Connors) had owned the pub we were at the night before and before the tourist boom, her mother pumped as much beer as she could into the locals to stay in business. Susan herself was very involved in the business, which accounts for her obvious business savvy & high marks on the internet sites.

We left, following the coast, for Lahinch on Liscannor Bay (still overcast), saw a rolling golf course and surfers. Further south on N67, we stopped and walked around Kilkee in a drizzle, saw some stands selling winkle & dillisk (fish and seaweed). Over to Carrigaholt, where we checked out a ruined castle as the weather started to clear; then out to Loop Head (a light house point), the weather now great, where we got some beautiful views of the ocean, an unofficial sea bird sanctuary on a stone’s throw split off island; and some interesting geological rock formations- it was nice to get in a long walk after bring cooped up for the past 2 days. Then back to Carrigaholt to the Long Dock for lunch & a pint of Smithwicks (Smidicks); followed by a walk @ Crean Point (north of Spanish Point where part of the Armada broke up and south of Rinneen); and a car bushwhack north back to Doolin. We encountered a border collie with serious herding instincts, and were rewarded with a great view of the Aran Islands, Galway Bay and castle ruins outside of Doolin. It was back to overcast as we made our way on foot to Fitzgerald’s Restaurant, not as popular a spot as O’Connors, where we watched 2 Spanish soccer teams. The rain returned as we walked back & we got a good soaking.

Monday 5/18- following breakfast & goodbye photos with Susan Daly, we headed northeast on N67 to Ballyvaughan to check out a castle ruin; then followed N18 to N6 into Galway, where we found traffic backed up and things as busy as you might expect in a big city. We continued along the coast on R336, then R340 past Cnoc Mtn, through Glinsk and Cashel. We saw a lot of stone, sea, barren mountains & peat bogs in the desolate western part of County Galway called Connemara. Any road with 3 digits after the alpha is really a country lane, with no shoulder and barely enough room to pass. On both sides of the road are stone walls, usually covered with vegetation. As we’d pull to the left, we’d be trimming the vegetation & closing in on the wall, but Dave kept the car in good control, despite some close calls. The worst situations were tour busses- they rarely slowed, and were invariably taking at least a foot over the center of the highway.

We’d stopped at Roundstone Village and walked around a bit, finding a gift & music shop, with a guy from Dallas, TX, manning the register. He had managed to find 10 months employment there and was working on a house that he was living in, with the hope of spending a good portion of his time in Ireland. We noted some unattractive 2 BR condos nearby, with a view of water, and the asking price was 555k Euros (about $775k!). At this point, it should be noted that the “Celtic Tiger” economy is in the toilet. As one host put it, “When America sneezes, we get the flu”. The US economy is doing poorly, and it seems that the European Union has sunk a lot of development money into Ireland, which they’re going to have a hard time paying off.

We left there, stopped at the beach at Dog’s Bay, traveled on further & saw the Twelve Bens (mountains) in Connemara Nat’l Park. We arrived in Clifden, an attractive “Tidy Town”, where we walked around and had dinner at Guy’s Restaurant on an outdoor table, enjoying the sun. Afterwards, we drove up above the town for a scenic view of the town & the mountains, then on through Connemara Nat’l Park to the other side of Letterfrack for our stay at Kylemore Lodge, located on the other side of the lake (Lough Kylemore), via a dam road through the center of the lake- with mountains rising immediately behind it, a very dramatic setting. There was enough time to get out for an evening walk down the road to where some horses were corralled. All above us were sheep, high up on the mountainside.

Tuesday 5/19- We got outdoors early for a walk partway up the hill to the fence line on a lovely sunny morning, saw loads of sheep high up on the hills, then came in & had breakfast with our host Nora Conroy, who was a lot more reserved than Susan Daly. Her son worked in Dublin & ran the sheep operation, over 1000 sheep. The sheep live up on the mountain, and 4 dogs would bring them down, 100 at a time, for shearing. Their biggest predators were foxes. We saw some evidence of sheep bones in the side yard. We checked out & headed over to Kylemore Abbey, but realized it was a century old + estate and not a real antiquity, so passed on the tour. We continued east to Leenane, at the head of scenic fjord Killary Harbor, with salmon & mussel farm floats, the boundary between Counties Galway and Mayo. We visited the sheep & wool outlet and noted the collection of empty kegs outside the village pub. That was a sight outside nearly every pub in every town we visited. From there, on to Aasleigh Falls between Benwee and Ben Gorm Mtns, in an area described on the map as Joyce’s Country.

It should be noted that many of the mountains had cirques formed by glaciers, leaving a sheer wall of mountain in a bowl (cirque) shape. Dave noted that this would be on the north side of the mountain, where the glacier melted last. We worked up the hilly road through the Doolough Pass on R335 where a famine monument is situated, commemorating a march made by starving peasants who were made to present themselves in a distant town to establish their need for food, only to be forced to march back without food. We noted peat bogs along the way. Peat is cut from the earth by hand and laid out in strips on top of the earth to dry out, then brought in for burning in September. The peat is very thick in this area, and since there are virtually no trees, it’s clear that peat was the major source of heat.

We arrived in Louisburgh about 11 AM and located Carrowmore Beach by accident, then the River Villa B&B, where we were scheduled to stay the next evening. We drove through the hamlet of Askillaun, where Dave’s forebears had lived, and then on to Roonah Pier, for the O’Grady ferry to Clare Island, with a population of either 140 or 168. There were other travelers on the ferry, but we were the only overnighters on board. We inspected the ruins of pirate “Granuille” Grace O’Malley’s castle in the harbor, checked in at O’Grady’s Guest House, then hiked out to the lighthouse across the island, with some nice cliff views and panoramas of Clew Bay, the Atlantic, and surrounding landmasses- islands & mainland. Again, sheep everywhere! On the way back, we noted the rolling nature of the fields as old potato “lazy beds” that had survived for over 100 years. We continued on to a Cistercian Abbey, access to which was gained by a key from a caretaker next door who was extremely lax in his security (“If I’m not home when you come back by, leave the key under the mat”). The Abbey had some incredibly old drawings on the walls and ceiling dating back to the 1200s, and was reputed to be the burial place of Grace O’Malley. Back at the B&B, we had dinner prepared at the B&B kitchen, served up by “Lisa” who told us that she had grown up on the island. She was schooled to 5^th grade, then the government paid the rooming fees for children in Louisburgh as they stayed on the mainland for the entire school week. She boarded with a family that had boarded some of her relatives before her. We met a friendly collie who may have been the mayor! Although we were full & tired from the walk, we felt it our duty to visit the hotel pub for a pint to help their struggling economy. A beautiful weather day!

Wednesday 5/20- we had an 8 AM breakfast with Lisa as our server again, checked out and took the 9:45 ferry back to Roonah. The ferry off Clare Island was a transport like a Navy LCM. A horse trailer lowered by boom to the deck was actually occupied by a horse! Shortly thereafter, I realized I’d left my camera battery, charger and a borrowed converter plug back at O’Grady’s. We took another route through Askillaun and back-roaded ourselves to Louisburgh, where we took in the local library/historical museum and saw a low budget film on Grace O’Malley.

The librarian referred us to a “Margaret” out at a nearby church in Killeen for information on the Gibbons clan, and she in turn introduced us to Christy Gibbons, who was weed-whacking the graveyard. He wasn’t able to make any good connections. Next stop was in Murrisk @ the Croagh Patrick Center, a launching spot for a hike up the holy mountain, where St. Patrick was supposed to have spent some time. There was a copper sculpture across the road in memory of the coffin ships, which bore poor & weak Irish to the North American continent and lost about 25% in the process of the crossing or shortly after arrival. Next stop was the pretty town of Westport (winner of Tidiest Town 3 of the last 7 years). We had a pint outside @ Dunnings Pub in the main square on a lovely sunny afternoon. We returned to Lewisburg & checked in at River Villa with host Mary O’Malley, who had been in the B&B game for 35 years, then went downtown to the Derrylohan Restaurant for fish & chips. We finished off the evening with a tour of two cemeteries- the older one dating back to the 12^th century at Kilgeever Abbey.

Some notes about names. We saw a lot of thorny plants with yellow flowering- a lot like multiflora- which was identified as gorse. The hills have a lot of burlap colored areas, which make them look barren. That covering is heather, which does bloom with a purplish-pink flower, although not while we were there. A boreen is a country lane; der and derry refer to oak; cill = church; cashel, cathair, or caiseal = stone fort; rath or lios = earthen baked ringforts; mulranny = hill of the heather; an = the; baile (bally) = town; beal = mouth; tra = beach.

Thursday, 5/21- breakfast with Mary @ 8:30- she was chatty about Irish & American politics, socialized vs. private health insurance. Left for the Quay Historical Society where we saw some exhibits and Dave ordered a family search. Over N84- N17 to Galway, where we found traffic backed up for a weekend yacht race, then on to Ennis (where we stopped the 1^st morning), and there to Shannon River Ferry. This runs between Knock on the north to Tarbert on the south. The ferry holds 4 lanes of cars & busses, with a surprisingly large capacity (about 60 cars). Getting off the ferry, we entered County Kerry, our 4^th county. R69 continues south from the ferry to Tralee, and about 5 miles north of there, we did a little searching for the home of my 2^nd cousin, Gerry Lenihan- but no one was home. In Tralee, I stopped in the post office where he works and we met and made a plan to get together at his house @ 7:30 PM. We had dinner @ an Italian Restaurant, then drove out to meet Gerry, his wife Eileen, and Gerry’s mom, Catherine (Kitty). Kitty is 95, quite spry, and cheerful, a bit hard of hearing, but with a fairly good memory. She lives across the road from Gerry and comes over each night to stay over. Eileen has a great mind for Gerry’s family and was able to fill in a lot of names, dates and locations. Gerry is my age and is involved in church choir and a community chorus, which travels a lot- he sings both bass & tenor. He has worked for the PO for 40 years. He drove us over to the graveyard in Abbeydorney for photos of some Trant tombs in the gloaming. The graveyard was in excellent repair. Eileen had made up food for us when we got back and we chatted until about 10:30, a very pleasant visit which could have gone on much longer. We then left for Camp Junction House in Camp, outside Tralee, on the beginning of the Dingle Peninsula. Even on that drizzly, overcast night, we could see he had a great view of Tralee Bay. Our host, John Doyle, was very outgoing. We were told by Gerry that he was a well known Irish football player. He is a wine salesman in addition to running the B&B. The B&B was recently built and well laid out with a lot of expensive touches, including rooms en suite. He insisted we go over to the Railway Tavern, where we sat in the “Bullshit Corner”- John is clearly a regular- and we all had a pint. The bartender/owner looked like a character from Middle Earth, with girth, mirth & hair. It was 12:30 by the time we got to bed- the latest night to date.

Friday, 5/22- It was overcast & “socked in” all day. We had the full Irish breakfast, with beans to boot, and left John Doyle in is pinstriped suit to hawk wine while we explored the Dingle Peninsula. We 1^st went to the Castlegregory peninsula to Rough Pt, a sandy spit with no real views of Tralee Bay due to weather (the story of the day). Then on to Brandon Head for a cliff walk overlooking Brandon Bay & the Atlantic. There was an old concrete hut that may have been a watch point for the coast , possibly during WWII. We continued along R560 through the Connor Pass between Beenoskee & Ballysitteragh Mtns. There was a small roadside falls where we stopped to climb and found a tarn at the top, carved at the base of a mountain by glaciers. Unfortunately, no real view of what should have been a lovely spot. From there we dropped down into Dingle (An Daingean), the main town on the peninsula, and clearly a tourist favorite. We walked around for a few hours in the misguided hope that the weather would lift. So we continued on to Slea Bay, reportedly a “must-see” view. What we were able to see was a promontory stone fort, with elaborate swales of earth, stone ring walls and a circle fort inside those walls, with a cliff to the back. These guys could stack stone! Further along, we saw a beehive hut- a stone hovel stacked in a beehive shape; and “famine huts”. We moved along to the Gallarus Oratory, a 1300 year old stone building 16’ x 25’ x 16’ high. It is an amazing stack of loose stone, carefully corbelled to come to a peak, so the entire structure is closed in by the stone. We returned to Dingle to the Half Door for our fanciest meal of the trip (about 35 euros each). We returned on N86, passed by the South Pole in which there are a number of mementos of a local man who had been on the Shackleton Antarctic expedition- we should have stopped! Back at Camp Junction House, John was trimming the lawn and congratulated us on having such a beautiful day- he said from Camp inland it had been clear & sunny for most of the day! That night, we laid low, read & rested. John, our host, came back with news that a local musician who was to have performed that night, just leaned over and died in the Railway Tavern.

Saturday, 5/23- we checked out of Camp Junction House after breakfast on a back road over Slieve Mish Mtns to Castlemaine & there to Kate Kearney’s Cottage at the edge of Killarney National Park. It was drizzling as we arrived, and we could go no further at that point, the remaining road through the Gap of Dunloe being the domain of horse-drawn 2 wheeled traps or “jaunting cars”. We set out for a 4 mile round trip hike, which took us by 3 small lakes (Couaun Lough, Black Lake, River Loe and Cushnavalley Lake) between Na Cru Acha Dubha on the right and Na Toimi and Purple Mtn on the left. The weather remained changeable, with mostly dry, and peeks of the peaks as the fog tried to lift off the surrounding mtns.

A note here about humorous & fanciful speed limits. May of the roads we traveled would qualify at country lanes or boreens, with no shoulder, stone walls on each side, vegetation rising high above the stone walls and often providing a bit of corbelling over the roadway- all on extremely curvy routes. The two limits we saw the most were 80 km/hour and as much as 100 km/hr. Even Jackie Stewart, as Dave self-defined himself, couldn’t hope to approach those speeds and keep the wheels on the road surface- forget opposing traffic!

We then drove through the City of Killarney and along a portion of the Ring of Kerry on N71, through Killarney Nat’l Park. We located Troc Falls after another wee walk, then continued along to Ladies View and Molls Gap, our last view of the park, then south to Kenmare for soft drinks and cookies.

Our next destination was the area of our next B&B, so we struck out generally east and north along R569, N22, R570, and N72 to Mallow, unexpectedly cutting through the northern part of County Cork. We noticed a significant scenery change, with verdant, stone-free fields, forests of mature trees, plenty of agriculture, and fewer sheep. We headed north on N20, took photos of NewTwoPotHouseVillage sign- off to the now irresistible TwoPotHouseCorners, which, alas, had no sign to herald its existence. We located an old priory in relatively wee-preserved state of ruination, in which we could see dovecotes built into corbelled stone walls ( the doves being a good source of protein). We rejoined N20 north to Charleville, then west (entering County Limerick, our 6^th county) on N21 to Adare- a very well-preserved Tidy Town, with a collection of thatched roof buildings, a village park, Trinitarian Abbey (their original mission to gain release of Crusade captives). We had dinner at O’Connell’s. We back tracked to Lough Gur where we found Desmond Lodge and Bridget Durvin, who directed us to a nearby wedge tomb dating back to 2500 BC (a woman was found living in the wedge tomb in the 1800s) and a couple of stone circles on a bluff overlooking marshland contiguous to and east of Lough Gur. We walked back on a truly lovely evening with birds a-twitter, our newly gained brogues in full throat, the last rays of day still in the sky at 10 PM.

Bridget made us Irish coffee, which I proceeded to spill behind me, and we talked about our travels, the economy, her kids (one of whom is a nuclear PhD in Knoxville, TN). Bridget would like to sell her B&B- business is off and the “Celtic Tiger” economy is in a deep recession.

Saturday, 5/24- our last traditional Irish breakfast (unless Pam or Cindy decide to treat us in the fashion to which we’ve become accustomed). We left as another set of guests was arriving and so neglected to pay her the 70 euros rate for the 2 of us (the rate was generally around 35 euros each per night). Nearby, we stopped at the “Irish Stonehenge”, a significant ring of stones with an entryway that was lit by the 1^st rays of daybreak on the summer solstice. Right in the heart of the ring was a cow, clearly intent on absorbing whatever mystical power was lent by being center ring. A farmer across the way (Tim Casey) stopped by to say he maintained the site (I think his cows help mow and fertilize the grass), and to solicit funds for the effort. He provided us with a few postcards and asked us to mail him one back. He showed pictures of his children in a book in a series published to describe children in different lands, taken right there at the site. From that point on, it was a straight shot to Shannon to drop off the Hertz car (we drove 1555 kms that week), to drop off our VAT vouchers, and kill time before the 1 PM flight to Boston.