Aillte an Mhothair

Day: 43
Km travelled: 730.06 km
Steps: 14,932
Location: County Clare (Ireland)

October 22, 2017

Ireland has plenty to offer and luckily, much of it is easily reachable in a day.  Whenever I met anyone to had visited Ireland, they all recommended The Cliffs of Moher as a must-visit site.  Every.  Single.  One.  That’s how I found myself standing on a street corner in Dublin, shivering in the very early morning, waiting for the tour bus to arrive.  I have conflicting feelings about the whole ‘organized tour’ thing as it flies in the face of my independent-figure-it-out-on-my-own travel persona.  However, in certain cases, I will grudgingly admit, they serve a purpose and can be even better than going at it alone.  

As in true Irish fashion, it was raining when we left.  20 minutes later, it stopped.  10 minutes after that, it started again.  And on and on it went.  4 seasons in a day.

We headed off towards County Galeway & County Clare and stopped at Dunguaire Castle, one of Ireland’s most photographed castle ruins.

Overlooking the southeastern shore of Galeway Bay near the town of Kinvara, the 75-foot tower house castle was built in 1520.  At one point in its history, it was the meeting venue for great literary minds such as W.B. Yeats & George Bernard Shaw.   The site of the ruins is as picture perfect as it gets (see above); that, combined with its location on the way to the Cliffs are likely the reason behind its photographic fame.  Otherwise, there is nothing truly remarkable about the castle or its history.

Continuing north, we soon found ourselves to be driving along one of the world’s most scenic driving path: The Wild Atlantic Way.  Stretching out over 2 500km on the west coast of the island, it passes through nine different counties and dozens of different landscapes.

The Burren,  250 square kilometres dominated by karst (basically, limestone) landscape make up one of the most stunning and unusual landscapes I have seen.  Rolling hills of limestone pavement stretch out as far as one can see, stopping abruptly as it meets the Atlantic.

Wild Atlantic Way, scenic coastal route  (above)

Traditional rock fences separating field in The Burren (above)

The Burren limestone shore (below)

At Ballyreen, 100 feet cliffs overlook the water and it is here that you can witness the sheer power of the Atlantic Ocean as it violently crashes upon the rocky coast.  These are known locally as ‘The Baby Cliffs of Moher’ or ‘The Cliffs at Ballyreen’.  Starring down the 100foot vertical drop to the water, it’s the first hint of the impressive height of the Cliffs of Moher themselves, which are 7x higher than these…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the southwester edge of The Burren in County Clare, we’d arrived at the highlight of the trip, its ‘raison d’être’:The Cliffs of Moher (or Aillte an Mhothair in Gaelic).  It was truly one of the  most majestic sites I’ve seen.  Towering an incredible 702 feet above the ocean,  the cliffs consist mainly of beds of shale and sandstone and is cut through by 300million-year-old river channels! On a clear day, one can the Aran Islands in the distance.

South view (above) & northview (below)

There’s over 800m of cliff edge paths and viewing areas.  At some sections , only a small rock fence 1 or 2 feet high separate the walking path from the edge.  Some sections have no fence at all, although there are clearly posted caution signs warning visitors not to deviate from the path.  Many do, in order to bring home the most Instagram-worthy photos.  Knowing that at least 4 people fall from these cliffs ever year and given the strong winds at the top, I was not of these.(You’re welcome, Mom).  Atop the north side cliffs stands O’Brien’s Tower, constructed in 1835. (above, right).  

Some keen observers might have noticed that the Cliffs look familiar, especially to the movie buffs amongst you.  The Cliffs of Moher have been featured in two iconic movies: 

• In The Princess Bride: they are standing in for The Cliffs of Insanity
•  In Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince: in the scene where Harry & Professor Dumbledore apparate on a rock off the shore from forbidding sea cliffs and enter a cave to find one of the Horcruxes.  By now, I’ve started to jokingly refer to my trip as ‘that time I unknowingly took a Harry Potter film location tour across Ireland and Scotland”.

  It’s easy to see why The Cliffs of Moher are Ireland’s most visited natural attractions and the second most visited site in the country (who remembers the #1 most visited site?)