Ireland - Cliffs of Moher and Galway

The Cliffs of Moher is of course the highlight of every Ireland tour.  I had always wondered why.  It is an impressive landscape with its rugged cliff face and layers of sequenced cliffs.  It matters a lot if the sun was on the cliffs when you visit.  When we visited, it was a dark cloudy day and it didn't really do the cliffs justice.  We took a cruise to see the cliffs from the water and they were quite dramatic but not quite the national icon I had expected it to be.  Timing is everything.

I was in fact more fascinated by what little we saw of the Burren before we got to the Cliffs of Moher.  The glacier karst landscape was unique, looking barren from afar but in fact teeming with life when you look closer.  We didn't spend a lot of time here as the guide wanted us to get to the cruise early.  As it turned out, we got to Doolin too early - I would gladly have spent more time on the Burren, a landscape unique to this area.  See for yourself.

Parts of the Burren

A pretty donkey eating its way along the river - like a prop

A picturesque stream behind the village of Doolin

Cruise boat approaching the first headland

The rugged cliff face and a closer view

Layer upon layer of cliffs

Intriguing rock formations at the foot of the cliffs

The cliffs are teeming with bird life, both on the cliffs and in the surrounding waters.  I didn't have my birding lens with me but did the best I could with my 240mm zoom - bit of a joke.

A razorbill in flight

A puffin!

Common murre

This one has two fish in its beak!

A lone puffin among the razorbills

Leaving behind the cliffs

From the Cliffs we headed back to Galway, a vibrant town with lots of music.  The day before we had a walking tour of the town with its colourful, touristy streets.

Eyre Square at the centre of town

Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed in Heaven & St. Nicholas

One of several rose windows in the Cathedral

A Norman castle inside a mall

The River Comb

The estuary

A pretty black-headed gull by the river

Colourful streets of Galway

From Galway, we headed back to Dublin with a stop in the "Tidy Town" of Kinvarra with its own Dunguaire Castle and a picturesque waterfront.

Kinvarra waterfront

Dunguaire Castle 

Our last stop before Dublin was Athlone with its Athlone Castle.  There is not much castle inside, more of a museum.  The most interesting thing was this sandstone slab bearing an elaborate ringed cross with the depiction of St. Mark and St. Luke on either side of the ring.  It's supposed to be the most elaborate surviving commemorative stone of the Irish Early Christian period.

The photogenic accordion player outside the castle

View from the bridge in Athlone

Town of Athlone

 

This wraps up my tour of Ireland. Northern Ireland and the Atlantic Coast was supposed to follow but I have to cancel that segment at the last minute to return home.  The Wild Atlantic Way will have to wait for another trip.  Thank you for coming along.