Ireland - Ennistimon

Deena and I cooked up a big breakfast on the first of two mornings in the little village of Ennistimon, located on the edge of the Burren in County Clare.  The sky was overcast in the morning, so we let the kids sleep in a bit and left them to do some schoolwork.  Deena and I went across the street to the library to do some research and print boarding passes for the next stage of the journey.  We love these Irish libraries—helpful staff and reliable internet.  We packed a picnic lunch and headed out to our first target of the day, the Cliffs of Moher. 

 Everyone talks about the cliffs as a must-see, and even the most jaded Irishman has an appreciation for this natural wonder.  I was under the impression that one could just drive up to any point of the coastal walk and start enjoying the cliffs, but it’s set up much like an American national park with a paid entry point and visitor center.  Our admission was only twelve euros—quite a bargain for the wonders we saw here.  The visitor center was informative, and one of the employees even took time to help us plan our afternoon excursion to the Burren.  We hiked about a mile along the cliffs, up north to the O’Brien Tower and back down south below the visitor center.  The cliffs rise to 702 feet at their highest point, and their rugged, curving faces stoutly stand against the relentless Atlantic ocean.  Puffins, peregrine falcons, and other birds make their nests on the faces of the cliffs, and there are huge swirling swarms of gnats all along the paths at the top.  The cliff formations are so massive and unusual that we could see why so many natives speak of them with reverence.  We left the park completely satisfied with the experience even though the walk past the obligatory gift shops was a bit of a buzzkill.  One of them is named, "The Gifts of Moher"—sheesh.

The Cliffs of Moher

Our second target of the day was the Burren which is a vast, rocky national park steeped in ancient history - easily the highlight for me on this day.  The region is known for its huge limestone formations, and there is nowhere else in Ireland quite like it.  The colors of the terrain turned from green to gray the farther we drove on the twisty roads, and we stopped at a couple of pullouts to take some pictures.  J.R.R. Tolkien visited the Burren, and his time here was inspirational.  The landscape is ragged and stony, and on a cloudy day like the one we had, the Burren has a haunted quality; I could imagine banshees swirling among the rock formations.  It is said that the inspiration Tolkien received from his visit here produced many of the settings in the Lord of the Rings.  Being a major Tolkien geek, I began to figure out which scenes from the books could have taken place here:  Weathertop, Tol Brandir, Amon Hen…the wave of disinterest from my passengers was palpable, so I acknowledged that I was traveling with Philistines and drove on.  We spent a lot of time at one of the pullouts that allowed access to the limestone fields, and we enjoyed wending our way through the rocky landscape.  Time and the elements have sculpted the stone into mesmerizing patterns.  In the crevices of the rocks, there are many varieties of blue, yellow, and orange wildflowers that soften the edges.  Through the gusting wind, we could hear the faint bleating of sheep, and on a hillside in the distance we could see a farmer and his dogs working a small herd, separating the animals into tight groups and single-file lines.

The Burren

Irish Princess

My favorite spot in the Burren was the Portal Tomb and its surrounding stone walls.  There is speculation that this settlement is 6000 years old, which places its construction way before the time of the Pyramids in Giza.  The information placards had some excellent timelines on display, and they helped us put all this history into perspective. The tomb itself looks like a miniature section of Stonehenge, and an major excavation in 1986 turned up the remains of thirty three neolithic people along with pottery, tools, and jewelry.  I love the mystery of places like this; there is enough evidence present to form a fairly good idea of how these ancient people lived and died, but it’s up to the imagination of the observer to fill in the gaps.

Portal Tomb

The children slept on the way back to Ennistimon, and I had a big tour coach as a front door for the drive, so it was like having a hulking older brother clearing the road for me, nice.  After a quick trip to the Supervalu, we had a simple dinner and spent the evening relaxing—I was even halfway interested in watching a soccer match.  We’ve enjoyed our quick visit to this area of Ireland which is very different from the places we’ve already seen.  Tomorrow we pack up again and head north to Ballycroy and the Aran Islands.