Back in August of 2019 we toured around Ireland for two weeks with our son and his family in small camper vans. It was a great adventure, with lots of great food and scenery, and I thought long overdue for a post.
Here is an image of our campervan at a campsite along the wild Atlantic coast.
The Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary is not strictly a castle, but a spectacular collection of medieval and ecclesiastical ruins on a dramatic limestone outcrop.
Dunluce Castle, in the image below, is a now-ruined medieval castle in Northern Ireland, the seat of Clan MacQuillan. It is located on the edge of a basalt outcropping in County Antrim, and is accessible via a bridge connecting it to the mainland. Dunluce is considered one of the most picturesque and romantic of Irish Castles.
Their natural beauty has inspired artists, musicians, and poets for generations, as well as absorbing scientists and geologists, drawn by the unique landscape in which they sit. The Cliffs of Moher are the most famous cliffs in Ireland.
The Galway Hooker is a traditional wooden sailing workboat that originated in the Claddagh village and is famous for its dark black hull and rust-red sails. Developed after 1790, these boats carried turf, limestone, seaweed manure, and livestock across Galway Bay and supported a busy fishing trade.
The iconic brownish-maroon sails get their color from "barking," a treatment using a mixture of tree bark, tar, and butter to stop rot. The hull was built with a flat bottom and a curved shape, allowing the boat to rest easily against a pier when the tide goes out.
My personal favourite view point of our trip was the Slieve League Cliffs. The Slieve League Cliffs in County Donegal, Ireland, rise 601 meters (1,972 feet) above the Atlantic Ocean, making them some of the highest sea cliffs in Europe and are nearly three times the height of the famous Cliffs of Moher.
Some images along the wild Atlantic way coastline.
Killarney National Park drive.
Some images of the roads along the coastal area of Ireland. These are all two way traffic roadways. So not only are you driving on the wrong side of the road, with the gear shift also on the wrong side, but you have to carefully navigate some pretty narrow passages. And even when you get two lanes there are other obstacles to navigate. Needless to say neither my son nor myself got our deposits back!
Cushendun is a small coastal village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It sits off the A2 coast road between Cushendall and Ballycastle. It has a sheltered harbour and lies at the mouth of the River Dun and Glendun, one of the nine Glens of Antrim.
It was extremely cool to stop and listen to this young lad entertain us with some banjo tunes.
The European Robin, known simply as the Robin or Robin Redbreast in the British Isles, is a small insectivorous passerine bird belonging to the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It is found across Europe, as far east as Western Siberia, and as far south as North Africa.
The Robin is found in a wide range of wooded habitats, including forests, gardens, hedges in farmland, and heathland, usually fairly near cover and hops perkily on the ground, pausing to look around, often flicking its wings and cocking its tail. Also feeds by dropping to the ground from low perches, snatching up prey and flying back up to a shady perch.
The Rook is a large, glossy black crow. The adult is easily passed off as another crow species unless you see the diagnostic pale patch at the base of the bill. They inhabit farmland and other semiopen areas with hedges and groups of tall trees, where they nest in rookeries. Rook forages on the ground, usually in flocks, and associates readily with crows and jackdaws.
The End
