We plan
to spend most of the day in a place we’ve been told is “the back of beyond”, otherwise known as Connemara National Park. But we have a bit of driving to do
to get there.
We’re
happy to see more Irish scenery. The green, the sea, the stone and for us
today, the sun. It’s idyllic.
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| Road Warrior |
We drive
through a section of The Burren. Burren means rocky place and indeed it looks
covered with slabs of rock, but green peeks through the cracks and crevices.
Even though it looks desolate it has a unique ecosystem with many species found
only in this area. Hills are topped with caps of limestone in the
glacier-created landscape. Numerous stone forts and historic stone structures
indicate that humans found it quite livable. It is being preserved as another
National Park.
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| A Bit of the Burren |
We pass through
Galway and admire Galway Bay.
We find
the entrance to the park and then backtrack to Letterfrack for a yummy lunch at
Veldon’s Seafarer. Local lamb cooked to perfection and seafood right out of the
water in a beautiful presentation. More of a dinner plate at lunchtime prices.
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| Lunch at Veldon's |
The park
is immense and we will only experience a tiny section. Sean looks at the hiking
opportunities and immediately picks out the highest point: Diamond Hill (around
1450 feet). He and his mom set out to conquer the summit while the rest of us
conquer lower Diamond Hill.
It’s windy on the trail and a little chilly but down below it’s pleasant. We
visit the pony paddock. Some say the Connemara ponies are descendants of horses
that swam ashore when the Spanish Armada sank off the coast in 1588 and bred
with the wild mountain horses.
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| Diamond Hill |
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Map of Hiking Trails.
Sean chooses the red line. |
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| Connemara Pony |
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| Lower Diamond Hill |
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| View From the Top |
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| Mountain Climbers |
We’ve
been appreciating a particular yellow blooming native shrub growing in wild abundance
all over the Irish countryside. The park naturalist identifies it for us as
Furze or Gorse. (AKA Winnie the Pooh’s nemesis).
Tonight we
will sleep in Clifden at the Ardmore House on the Sky Loop Road. A fitting
description as the road juts along the cliffs providing more stunning views;
this time of the Owenglin River as it flows into Clifden
Bay. We share the road for a while with a ewe and her baby who are trotting nonchalantly
along in our lane. They make an eventual right turn but not before stopping
traffic in both directions.
The proprietors of Ardmore House have thought
of every conceivable detail. One especially nice touch is a basket full of
adaptors that make it possible for us to charge all of our devices at once!
Dinner is at EJ King's for pub food (Irish stew) and more
Irish music. Very nice, but Ted McCormac cannot be outdone.
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