Connemara

Last night's Irish Studies introductory course prepared us for a day trip to Connemara today. Our first stop after passing Galway was Moycullen, for brief coffee and refreshment at Tony's. Across the road, the first of a number of farm stands was being assembled. I purchased an apple for twenty cents, gave fifty, and receive two complimentary plums. They were all delicious, not overly sweet. The gent minding the stand was just about the most cheerful I have ever seen another human being.

The farm stand across from Tony's in Moycullen.

The countryside changed as we entered Connemara. The hills flew up into the low hanging clouds and fog. The day was not the best for sight-seeing, but glorious Irish weather nonetheless. We paused at Killary Harbour, a glacial fjord in the heart of Connemara county. A clootie tree stood near our layby, perched above the grey water full of salmon farms.

Me by Killary Harbour.

The clootie tree.

The fog.

The fjord.

Our next stop was Kylemore Abbey. Built in the wake of the potato famine, the opulent, gothic revival manor was first the private residence of wealthy Londoner Mitchell Henry, and later an international girls' school. Having closed in 2012, the site remains a Benedictine monastery.

Kylemore Abbey.

And again.

The hills above Kylemore, coated in fog.

On to Clifden for lunch. We stopped at a quiet pub for fish and chips and soup. The fare was not spectacular, and the real star of the place was the health shop, in which I wish I could have lingered. Little bags of designer grains, bottles of holistic supplements and various remedies lined the shelves.  I was at last able to replace the tea tree oil I lost in Heathrow.

Facts of interest!

A street in Clifden.

We stopped off at a beach covered in maerl, or coralline algae. The whole strand was littered with fantastic and highly photogenic shells. A random fistful of sand would yield a treasure trove of little souvenirs of the sea.

A patch of maerl.

We were allotted fourty-five minutes at the next beach, Dog's Bay. The sand here was white and lined with veins cut by the water. Lichens and mushrooms were to be found on the rocks by the sand. As well as a hotbed of barnacles, snails and crabs. We collected a few of the choicest, vacant shells.

By the beach.

Dog's Bay, looking out.

Moss and lichen.

The curve of Dog's Bay.

A path by the beach.

Tendrils of water.

On the ride home we stopped to inspect one of the peat bogs of Connemara. We found a place where the turf had been cut away (for storage and burning over the winter) and surveyed the local flora. I found a big, black slug.

This guy was the size of a small sausage.

Bogs and hills.

Low cloud over the bog.

A patch of sun in the distance.

Back through Oughterard and Moycullen, Galway and Kinvara. Back to the Burren and hot porridge for dinner. Nothing fancy, just something to warm the cockles before bed. Tomorrow is the week's big shop in Galway!

Bumper stickers are a rare find here, finally spotted one!