THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2019

visiting two of county clare’s most striking landscapes: the cliffs of moher and the burren

This morning we set out to visit arguably Ireland’s most famous attraction, the Cliffs of Moher. The coastal view is supposed to be breathtaking, and it was a cool visit, but it was so foggy and windy that day that we really didn’t see the cliffs in their full majesty. But hey, great excuse to come back to Ireland!

AKA The Cliffs of Insanity

The good news is that there’s a pretty robust visitor’s center with a short video, as well as detailed panels about the local plants, animals, and the cliffs themselves. So we had a nice intro to the setting, and a nice place to warm up and escape the wind after exploring outside.

Really impressed by the local birds' ability to not blow away

So many tour buses!

Seriously… the wind! It felt like a hurricane out there. I had a death grip on my phone trying to take this 5 second video.

I thought the elastic was going to blow right out of my hair! 😄

After leaving the Cliffs, we headed to the nearby site of St. Brigid’s Well (aka St. Bridget’s Well), one of the oldest wells in Ireland that’s rumored to have healing powers. Originally a pagan site —there are still visible signs of Druid worship— dedicated to Irish folklore “triple goddess” Brigid and her sisters (also named Brigid), it was eventually converted to a Christian site dedicated to the newly canonized St. Brigid, and continues to be a sacred place for believers to come for healing and prayer today.

Following the visit to the well, we stopped in the little town of Lahinch (where we stopped for ice cream the day before) for a quick lunch —finally had some stew after 13 days in Ireland, the perfect day for it— before heading back on the road.

Our next stop was right up there with Giant’s Causeway in terms of surreal scenery: The Burren National Park. The grassy landscape is dotted with limestone deposits (“karst”… not gonna pretend to understand the geology) formed as sediments in a tropical sea about 325 million years ago. The random big boulders (like the below photo) came from glaciers that had melted on the spot, creating a very strange but captivating landscape that extends for more than 200 sq. miles.

After stopping back at the B&Bs to rest for a minute, a bunch of us met at a local pub, McDermott’s, for an informal jam session before a group dinner there. Fun to play with everyone!

After dinner, we walked down the road to Fitzpatrick’s pub where we had eaten dinner the night before, and headed upstairs to a wonderful private concert by the local traditional band The Fiddle Case.

Billy, Jeff, and Sims playing along with the band

The Doolin pubs are pretty loud and crowded, so a few of us decided to enjoy some dessert & pizza at a low-key wine & pizza joint before heading back to a quiet night back in the B&B with wine and a ridiculous board game we found in the living room.