Our first photo stop was Doonbeg castle, on the Doonbeg river, in the town of Doonbeg.
The local elementary school was walking through town in their halloween costumes. It seemed to be mostly zombies and skeletons. A woman dressed in orange and black came running by, saying, "I wanted to meet up with the children!" as she passed us.
Our next stop was Carrigaholt castle, on the southern coast of Loop Head peninsula in town of Carrigaholt. Standing guard over the mouth of the River Shannon we found it was not easily accessible. It's situated next to a pier, but there is no entrance into the castle grounds from the pier or the walkway back to the parking lot. Lisa leaned out over the wall of the pier to get some photos of the side that faces the river. On the walk back to the car, just past the end of the castle walls, we noticed there was an opening in the brush from foot traffic. It was steep, and slippery, but it was clear that people had climbed there. We decided to see if it led to anything interesting. We were happy to see that there was an opening to get inside the walls, where we were able to capture more pictures, and see the tower better. All the doors and windows were covered in iron bars, and it was clear that the tower was not tended to by any cleaning or maintenance.
Our westernmost stop of the day was Loop Head lighthouse. With ocean on three sides of us out at the end of the peninsula, the view was amazing this would have been a perfect place to use the panoramic feature of the iPhone camera. Unfortunately, we didn't think of it at the time. We snapped some photos, looked around a bit and then headed back west.
We followed a narrow road that hugged the shoreline as we headed back. The views were amazing, and yet is seems very few tourists are aware. We saw extremely few other vehicles on the road at all. Unfortunately, the photos we captured were horrible at representing the size and scale of what we experienced. There were many cliffs along this rocky northern shore. None of them were as tall as the Cliffs of Moher, but the entire area was so much less crowded (nearly empty) and, in some ways, the shapes, and features of these cliffs were more interesting. Many times Lisa would exclaim "Stop here", and I would just stop the car in the middle of the road. She would get out, and walk up to the edge of a cliff to capture a photo of something that caught her eye. After a few minutes, she'd get beck in and we'd continue on our way.
Just west of the town of Cross, we came across a small cemetery surrounding what appeared to be the ruins of a very old church. We stopped to check it out. The entire walled in area was packed with gravestones. Looking at some of them, it appeared that 4 or more people were stacked in the same location across 100 years or more.
Headed to the car ferry to get us across River Shannon, we drove down N67 through Kilrush. The lanes were quite narrow, and most vehicles parked with their passenger side tires on the sidewalk and their drivers side mirrors folded in to leave room for vehicles driving on the road. One vehicle, however, was nearly a foot from the curb, with it's mirror sticking out. I misjudged how far he was sticking out by an inch or so, and my passenger side mirror hit their driver side mirror. We parked our car, and I inspected the damage. The plastic covering over my mirror had popped off, but with a bit of pressure, it popped right back in place with no visible damage. Their mirror however was cracked. I went about trying to find the vehicle's owner, thinking I was about to find out just how well that rental car insurance was actually going to work.
I stopped in several local shops asking if anyone knew who the vehicle belonged to. Eventually, I found the owner, and explained what happened. She said she wasn't sure what the process is for getting a vehicle accident reported, but that she'd get a pen and paper to write down my information. Then she stopped a moment and asked, "Was it the driver's side mirror?" I confirmed, and she claimed that it was already cracked. She suggested we go take a look at it, to see if it looks any worse. We walked over the the car, and she claimed that it looked the same to her. She said she didn't want to bother making any claim, and not to worry about it.
As we started to pull back out on to the road, we saw a sign for the Vandeleur Walled Garden. We followed the signs, and found it without any difficulty at all. Perhaps it is impressive and beautiful in the summer, but today we were disappointed. Lisa looked around at what we could see of the grounds from the entrance way and decided she didn't want to spend the money on it. I was glad to hear that (not because of the money, but because I was getting concerned about how late we might be getting in to Killarney and was happy to not spend the time).
Leaving Vandeleur, we made our way to the ferry. I purchased some snacks as we waited in line for the ferry to return from the other side of the river. We boarded, and paid. Then I turned off the engine, tipped my seat back, and took a nap. Lisa woke me when we arrived at Tarbert. The drive down to Killarney from Tarbert was uneventful and uninteresting. Finally, we arrived at The Fairview Hotel. It's been renovated since the last time we were here, and looks much more modern. It doesn't have the same friendly feel that it had last time we were here. Also, the decor in the room didn't really feel Irish. Take a close look at the wallpaper.
After checking in and getting our luggage to the room, I took the car to a local parking lot. Then we headed into town stopping in a pub to listen to some live music while we waited for our 8pm dinner reservations. After we each had a cola, we were off to Cronin's for dinner. Five years ago we pulled into Killarney so late that nearly all the restaurants and pub kitchens were closed. After being turned away by a few locations, we stepped into Cronin's just as their last customer was leaving. We explained the situation, and they kept their kitchen open so we could have a meal. We both enjoyed the food, and the service. They didn't rush us at all (though we tried to be quick out of courtesy), and were genuinely pleasant. Therefore, it was the first place we thought to have dinner when we returned.
After dinner we were both completely exhausted. We headed back to the room to get some rest (which is why this entry is a day late).
1 comment:
Your drive to Kilarney was certainly a full day of sightseeing. It is such a beautiful Country. I am glad you are enjoying your trip.
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