Our bus tour kicked off with a drive past An Rath, a home of the faery folk. We stopped off at a ring fort, from which we enjoyed a perfect view of the Burren is every direction.
A view of the college. Newtown Castle can be seen slightly left of centre.
Our bus climbed the hills, the landscape becoming steadily rockier, the clouds increasingly heavier. We reached our next stop, Poulnabrone. The dolmen is about six thousand years old, and burial site of the remains of upwards of thirty people.
Poulnabrone dolmen.
A hole by Poulnabrone.
The Burren at higher altitude.
The landscape of the Burren.
Withered thistle.
A stoat ran in and around the little limestone crevices and amongst the varied flora. The Burren is treed overwhelmingly in hazel. We trundled back down and headed for Kilfenora. We viewed the carved crosses in the old cathedral and then stopped off at Vaughan's Pub for a lunch of soup and brown bread.
Celtic cross in Kilfenora.
Kilfenora cathedral.
Our stomachs full, we piled back into the bus and made our way through a coniferous landscape and then passed through Lisdoonvarna. It was not long before the pines gave way to farmland once more, and then we were approaching the coast.
I saw the cliffs before they were announced. We never got very close, but in the distance they rose from the sea like behemoths. I walked along the coast to the north, gazing off to the Aran Islands before us and breathing in the violence of the sea.
The Cliffs of Moher.
Looking out at the Aran Islands, towards Inis Oírr.
The Atlantic.
An hour's exploration of the coast came to an end, and we returned to the bus for the loop back to Ballyvaughan. We followed the coastline all the way back, pausing here and there to stretch our legs. Soon we were back in the sheltering crook of Galway Bay, and then the now familiar main street of Ballyvaughan. We would all sleep well tonight.
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