Exploring County Clare from Limerick to Galway Sunday 1st June, first day of summer!

Last night we went for an Irish Night.  Traditional dancing, singing and Irish food.  Included was wine, and Baileys (2) and mead, so we had a rather nice night.  The girls were pretty good dancers and had been in London when we were there attending the Irish dancing competition, along with our fellow guest at our B&B who represented Japan!

Salmon or Irish stew and delicious apple pie, not quite what we had thought, but very nice.  Then we got to come back to the Bunratty Castle and Folk Museum today for a discounted price.

We left about 9.30 as the sun was setting over the Atlantic! Quite rare to see this as usually there are clouds.

Sun setting at 9.40pm

The Folk Museum was interesting where they housed different styles of homes from a farmhouse owned by a prosperous farmer, to the one bedroom shack which our relatives probably called home.  Mind you how they could survive with the damp and the smell of the peat burning leaves me puzzled.

Poor workers

Wealthy farmers home

Kitchen of wealthy farmers home

 

Kitchen of Fisherman's house

This farmer's home was on the site of the Shannon airport 

Typical workers cottage, some would have housed large families.

After leaving Bunratty Castle, and it's mediaveal dining hall, seen here complete with stag horn light fittings.

We entered Clare County, and headed towards Ennis.  It was a market town, and where our friend's great grandparents were married.  Ennis used to also house a workhouse which was used during the famine.

This was a workhouse

Market square

Our next was stop was Ennistymon  which used to be a bustling market town and formerly the home of the railway, where residents got used to having the train "drop them at their door".  The last service was in 1961 and the town sort of looks suspended in that era.  

If you enlarge the photo you will not the cemetery on top of the hill!  One can only guess who are buried in it!

Must have been a mill race at some time

Don't you love the beautiful hanging baskets, on the bridge of all places!

They have a memorial to the Famine, and it is quite sad reading the panels.  It seems that County Clare had the highest number of deaths from the famine than any other country.  We wondered why, until we explored further into the day.

We drove through quite a lot of small towns to the Cliffs of Mohar.  Last time we were here, people were sitting along the edge, and there was a fence separating tourists from the drops to the ocean.  All changed.  Huge carpark, we counted 16 to 20 buses, and hundreds of cars.

There is a pretty good visitor centre, where I (and heaps of others) was able to secure some great photos.  The puffin bird is resident, only it would take very powerful binoculars to find them!  Two coat job and it was very windy.  The power of the Atlantic wind.

Last time we came people were sitting on this ledge, feet dangling to the 200 drop below

Great photos of lovely birds

Windy at the Cliffs of Mohar

The cafeteria was jam packed, so we headed to Doolin.  Good idea, bad choice cause half of Ireland were there also.  People walking, tramping, cycling, and driving on the long weekend, hardly any carparks, and great difficulty to turn around.  So we gave that a miss and drove on towards the next town, but happened upon a cafe on the outskirts that we managed to get sweet potato and coconut soup and Bundaberg Ginger Beer!

Our route took us along and through The Burren,  It is called "U=Europe's Largest Rock Garden" and extends over 160 sq kilometers.  And rocks, we saw hundreds and hundreds of miles of rock walls, all separating the paddocks and farm fields, and as the edging along the side of the road.  It is a bare grey limestone rock the the weather has cracked and creviced over time to produce amazing patterns on the land.

All these wonderful sights and never any place to park in order to take photos!

The next stop was a fantastic little seaside town, with the most amazing colourful shops!

We passed a fellow sitting in his sailing boat, high and dry and he was drinking, the boat in the mud, he told John while the water was no more, it would come back soon!  Irish optimism.

Then to the outskirts of Galway.  Well there are new houses, new developments, huge shopping centres all around the south eastern side, we passed at least three major supermarkets when we skirted the town, as we are staying at Salthill to the West of Galway, but on the coast.  

Apparently they have had the Celtic Tiger, where money was freely available, forget about having to repay the national debt, as they have now had to be bailed out by the EU.  People lost their jobs, they cannot pay for their 115% mortgages, and the future is uncertain because so many of the extreme parties have taken a lead in the elections.  We have heard that on more than one occasion.

Dunrahty Castle on the way, today we saw so many ruined castles, and so many rock walls, and quite a few old crofters cottages.  We understand now why Co Clare had so many people affected by the famine, as there is so much stone here that it would have been impossible to farm the lands, but the people were also fishermen and they had to relinquish their fishing rods and boats when they could not pay the rent.  I feel a bit guilty again, because our Blake family held thousands of acres of lands around Galway, and would have been the cause of many people perishing or if they were lucky, to immigrate.  The difference between the two sides of people, the landowner and the tenant was huge.

Our view of the Atlantic Ocean.

We had dinner in a pretty swish Chinese restaurant tonight.  Irish chef taught by a Hong Kong Chinese chef, and a bit different than we have been getting at our local Chinese!