On Monday morning everyone except my mother, who was not feeling well, piled into the two vehicles and drove north to visit the Cliffs of Moher. It is one of Ireland's premier tourist attractions and a UNESCO world heritage site.
Driving to the Cliffs you can see them from a long way away. Once you arrive there is not much to see except a large parking lot and the visitor center. The above photo is looking south from the Cliffs parking lot. There is a large bay to the south with a long sandy bay at its head at the town of Lahinch. It is a popular spot for surfing.
The cliffs are over 600 feet high at their tallest point and run for 8 kilometers. They are truly a spectacular sight.
In this photo you can see that the land on top of the cliffs just ends at the cliffs. There is no warning at all. There is a path along the cliffs and in some areas a wall keeping people from the edge. Nonetheless, people ignore the warning signs and there are deaths every year. There are also signs for a suicide prevention hotline all along the walk.
This is looking south and on top of the headland you can see the tiny signal tower that is a twin to the one on Cape Clear Island.
To the north of the visitor center is a walk with steps leading up to O'Brien's Tower. It was built in 1835 to impress visitors to the sight. You can go to the top of the tower but it costs an additional 2 euros.
The Cliffs are nesting grounds for different species of birds. The water below is a restricted area for boats in order to protect the birds and sea life.
The views from the Cliffs are spectacular. You can see for many miles both north and south as well as out to the Aran Islands to the west.
This is looking north from near O'Brien's Tower.
Even the spots where the Cliffs do not drop off precipitously still look dangerous.
Here is Jack at O'Brien's Tower. He wanted this picture for a friend of his named O'Brien.
Like most places in Ireland, fascinating lichen grows on the stones that make up the fence between the walkway and the edge of the Cliffs.
I think this picture is another taken from the Cliffs of Moher parking lot. To the left in the picture is the town of Lahinch. We went back there for lunch at a pub after our visit to the Cliffs.
After lunch we headed north again to the
Burren. This is a karst landscape region located in northwest County Clare. It is approximately 250 square kilometers and as you drive into it the ground gets rockier and rockier.
Our first stop was in at the Caherconnel ring fort.
Above is the interior of the ring fort. It is an active archaeological site and the yellow tape and roped off areas are sections where they are digging.
The ring forts, of which there are approximately 45,000 scattered around Ireland, were not strictly speaking defensive positions. Rather they were farmsteads. They were built between approximately the 5th and 10th centuries AD (early Medieval period). Above you can see a section of the wall where the gate would have been. They were constructed by stacking stones and infilling them with rubble.
The forts were circular. The above photo was taken outside the actual fort. On the right is the fort wall. On the left is a stacked stone wall to keep the people out of the fields where there are cows and sheep.
The fields in the Burren are incredibly rocky. Thus, raising sheep and cattle were the only practical means of sustenance when the ring forts were built.
This shows how the ring fort might have looked when originally constructed.
After visiting the Caherconnell we drove up the road to the
Poulnabrone Dolmen. The dolmen was interesting and the site is well laid out. There are a number of information boards such as the one above that talks about karst landscapes.
The dolmen is a portal tomb dating back to 2500 BC. It sits in the middle of an expanse of karst stone broken only by the grass and flowers growing in the channels that criss cross the landscape.
It almost looks like some sort of alien landscape.
There are all sorts of indentations in the stone. The one above, that looks like it was made with a giant drill, is called a kamenitza.
Nothing grows on top of the stone but the channels running through it capture dirt and seeds so there is grass and flowers in the indentations.
Some of the depressions look quite deep.
A park ranger told me that over 200,000 people visit the site each year. Unfortunately, it is prone to vandalism and the dolmen is in poor condition. He expects it will be gone in ten years.
It is amazing that 4,500 years ago people could construct such a structure with very little in the way of tools.
The kids enjoyed the landscape. It rambled on and on like stepping stone in a stream but with no water.
It looks pretty inhospitable but people have lived here for thousands of years.
Even Dom enjoyed exploring the landscape.
Ferns and ivy growing in the rock channels.
Patty, Kate, Emily and I sent everyone else back to the house while we stopped at a grocery store for dinner. We got back to the house about 7:30 and had a peaceful dinner.
