Ireland Day 4: Cliffs of Insanity, a Quiet Place, and Pirates

County Clare

The Cliffs of Insanity! Hurry Up! Move the thing and that other thing! Move It!!!

My sister and I grew up on Princess Bride. So exciting to see the Cliffs for ourselves, the Cliffs of Moher that is. Now we had intended to get up early and get there early. Pushing off after breakfast at 7 AM, but you know what they say about best laid plans right…

Well our morning detour at Askeaton was a little longer than anticipated so we didn’t get to the cliffs until around noon or so. The place was packed. The parking situation seemed a little ridiculous but we parked and started to wander towards the cliffs.

Ugh it is so crowded!!! We opted to walk south rather than north and we did break the rules a little bit. There is a fence to stay on the safe side of the path but we followed the crowds (like lemmings) and walked the path on the other side of the fence to get an unobstructed view. Now yes we technically weren’t following the rules but there are bigger rules to follow like not sitting on the edge, like this foolish fellow. Don’t do that! It gave me all of the anxiety. The sea was mostly calm this day and we had all of the sun with only a few clouds but they created some nice sunbeams.

It was time to escape the crowds and the heat but first we decided to grab a quick lunch to go for the drive while we went to our next destination, as we had big plans for the day. Can I just say best decision ever? Now the wraps were just wraps but my sister didn’t notice that I grabbed necessary items to help supplement them. We are a salty family, personality and palate wise, so naturally I grabbed some salt packets but more importantly I grabbed some mustard. Now this mustard. There is something about mustard in Europe, they know how to do it right. I remembered this wonderful mustard I had on a picnic in Italy once, the memory makes my mouth water, so I was only half hoping this mustard would be just a fraction as good. It was spicy, spicy, spicy…. Yum. Sometimes you need a little punch in the throat and this did the trick.

County Mayo

Now my sister and I are a big fan of the movies, I mean we just had our own little The Princess Bride moment, but now it was time to move to an older classic and head off to County Mayo and get a little off of the beaten path of the tourists. Now the area were were going to kept flirting with the line of County Mayo and County Galway, so at times we were bopping across the lines to visit a few of the loactions.

We went to the little town of Cong, where the movie “A Quiet Man” was made. Just a little movie John Wayne starred in, a quiet man looking for a quiet place to live. Now we were on the hunt for the house and accidentally turned into the Ashford Castle, which has now turned itself into a fancy hotel. This was not the Quiet Man’s house. Into the main part of the town we went to the Quiet Man Museum (which was a replica of the Quiet Man’s house but not THE house), but unfortunately it was past opening hours. So, while my sister took a little respite away, I enjoyed a quiet moment by the river.

We did top into the Visitor’s Center and there we were given a tip on how to find the house. It is on private land much further outside of the city and since not many ask about the actual house few visit it, but we were told that the owner sometimes let’s people go onto the land as long as it’s not big groups and draws a spectacle.

We wandered around the town and enjoyed a few of the filming locations but it was time to see if we could find the house.

It took a couple of wrong turns here and there and it was nestled further back than we thought it would be but we did find it. A quick pull off on the road and up and over the bridge and here we are to the Quiet Place. It’s a little run down, missing its thatch roof and crumbly but its there. Homes were far smaller back then, I think the whole home was about the size of my living room plus a little (I have a don’t have a large living room).

Now where to next, well the previous night we went on a witch hunt, so naturally its time to look for pirates to the north. Phone service was quite spotty in this area and when it comes time for me to start to hunt for where to stay for the night I get a little hyperfocused on doing that, and juggling providing directions while trying to determine where to go I get a little anxious. I asked my sister to pull off the side of the road where we had a slight moment of service.

I found a good spot for the night and made a reservation so now I can focus on where to go so we pulled off the road and moved straight ahead. Little did we know we were mere feet away from one of Irelands Holy Wells, St. Joseph’s Well in Leenane (County Galway). Shucks! But we were on the road ahead, however, when you’re driving and you see a brown sign, it’s worth a look, a brown sign by the way is tourist information sign indicating something to see. So we pulled over to drive further down to enjoy Aasleagh Falls.

Pirates!

After stretching the legs and enjoying the waterfall it was time to push north, we had an island to get to afterall and we wanted to see our pirate’s lair. Which pirate you ask? Don’t be fooled. Ireland had pirates. I remember in the Galapagos we were visiting Floreana Island at that had been inhabited by one of the Irish Pirates, Pat the Pirate, ha. But this pirate we were after, I have learned about years ago and was always impressed by the story. There was even a Broadway Musical made about this Pirate that I had seen in New York.

This is none other than the Pirate Queen, Grace O’Malley. She was a 16^th century heroine in a way. She stood up, sent fleets of ships and fought Elizabeth, the Queen of England. Eventually the two met in person and came to a truce and she set her eyes to the Spaniards instead.

Where can you find Grace today? Well you can find one of her strongholds and tower castles on Achill Island. Achill is one of the islands that you can visit by car as it is connected to the mainland by bridge. We arrived into Achill around 7ish and got to our B&B. They had overbooked our room by the time we got there. Some backpackers came in right around the time I booked online and they’re systems aren’t quite tied together. Due to the inconvenience, they did have another room and they offered us two separate rooms on the top floor for us at no additional fees. The couple also gave us a tip on where to dine for the evening and made a call over there to ensure we had a table secured and also gave us some good tips of things to see around the island.

Y’all, I feel like this needs a y’all, this island is amazing!!!! I wish we had more time to explore it. Due to the time of day we decided to stop first for food then explore. We had dinner at Amethyst Bar, food was amazing. While we waited we started to plan out our next day. So much to do, so little time. We are deciding to push around the perimeter of Ireland and looking at what Donegal and Northern Ireland had to offer we had way too much to look at. We had our trusty guidebook that is becoming quite useful, Backroads Ireland (see first post about Ireland for planning for links) and our map out. This is when Patrick, seemed like the manager of the bar, came over and gave us some suggestions and roads that might prove interesting to drive in Northern Mayo County.

After dinner concluded and the light was fading we pushed further west to Keem Bay. While we were driving we found a new variation of our game rock or sheep, but this time it is peet or sheep, which is equally if not more challenging. To get to the bay there is a bit of a steep climb and Eileen struggled a little bit, some encouraging bars of Come on Eileen were sung and got us to a dramatic overlook of the bay with the dramatic aqua water below all with sheep around us to keep us company.

We decided to hit up one of Grace’s outposts before the day was out so that the next day we would have opportunity to hit up more things in the morning. Off we went to Kildavnet where we joined in the line of sheep to jump over the wall and through the gates to visit. The light faded quickly and now it was dark, dark, dark and we were rather low on gas so it was time to head back to our barracks for the night and get a little shut eye.

Here is where we met some new friends…Instead of lugging up all of our luggage up the flights of stairs we swapped over to just the essentials in our backpacks so we were hanging out at the back of the car while making the trades. Midges!!!! Or Wee Bastards we learned they were called. Oh these little buggars came out, basically they are biting gnats. In swarms they were attacking us prodding us to move faster and faster to get into the house as quickly as we could. Ugh so gross. We finally escaped them and moved into the house, however I found they really are attracted to hair and the hairline. I was shaking them out of my hair for minutes afterwards and just when you think you’re done you rake your hands through and shake some more and more come out. Excuse me while I gag in the corner. Upon arriving home I saw an article had come out around the same time we were there stating that this year the midge season seemed worse than ever. Next time we go we will have netting, bug spray and I hear tea tree oil to keep them at bay.

Links

Our daily drive