The Burren, and a country fair (A)
The trip to Northern Ireland left us fairly exhausted. Alas though, there is no rest for the wicked and Matt and I were up and off to work early Monday morning. Matt’s parents however reported that they took it easy and slept in well after we had sat down in our cubicles.
On Tuesday I had my second trip to the library. Noeline had recommended a book to me called ‘The Whitest Flower’, which is a historical novel set during the Irish potato famine. Unfortunately it was out. Thus started my harassment of the local librarians; I tried without success to find some of the other books that the librarian recommended to me but finding what you want in that place is a bit of a nightmare. Although novels are mostly put shelved according to the author’s last name that is where the order ends. An author with the surname Carson could be in the fiction section under the C’s between Chris and Citole or in the CA. Anyway, Due to the fact that I was exhausted I found it all a bit stressful. In the end I picked a Maeve Binchy book that I had seen whilst on my mission to find the books I was looking for. I am almost finished it now, and must say that it was a very good choice, I recommend ‘Tara Road’ to anyone wanting a chick lit type book.
The rest of the week skipped by nicely. Matt worked diligently in his Man Cave taking his bike to pieces, as you can see in the photos, and I read my book. Thursday night Brent and Noeline had dinner in at our house and we made plans for the weekend’s adventures. Fortunately the plans this time were a bit more relaxed.
On Saturday, we set off about 10am to travel around County Clare, just south of County Galway, where we live. The area that we traveled through is known as ‘The Burren’, which comes from the Irish for Barren. The landscape was similar to that which we encountered on the Aran Islands, strange but beautiful. The upper hills were covered with rock, lilac-blue in the morning light. Then, in straight lines bordered by stone walls, the hills changed to green paddocks with cows grazing in them. We couldn’t quite decide if it was a freak natural occurrence or if some crazy Irish people had moved all the rocks from the lower bit. Throughout this area the paddock fences are all made of stone. From what I now know this is a feature mainly in the west of Ireland where there’s more stones than trees. Easily more stones than trees. In fact, a Cromwellian General tasked to make it hard for the Irish in the area had the following to say about the Burren; ‘There aren’t any trees to hang them from, no water to drown them in and no soil to bury them in’.
Eating Doritos out in the Burren
We were equipped with our trusty National Geographic Ireland book (really good) and all the pamphlets Brent could get his hands on. Our first stop was Dunguaire castle. We went into the grounds and had a look and went to the wee craft bit. It really well maintained but we were too cheap to pay €5 each to get in. The castle had medieval banquets there every night for a cool €50 per person. For that though you get served by buxom wenches, serenaded by a harp ensemble and get to eat with your fingers.
Dunguaire Castle
We then ventured down to Ireland’s oldest perfumery, which is a grand 35 years old. It wasn’t what any of us were expecting to be honest When we arrived we were asked had we been here before and did we want to watch a video? Yes that would be great we said. We were wrong it wasn’t, it was rather painful. We were expecting to see a wee film about how they make the perfume, but no, it was all about plants in the area. There is an interesting collection of plants in the area; I think 75% of Irelands native plants are found in that small area. A lot of the plants are usually only found in the Alps but the seeds are believed to have been bought there in the last ice age by the glaciers. (boring was pretty much exactly what I expected, by the way. M).
After that anti-climax we headed on. We went to a stone fort, which was charging €5 to go to. We could see it from the outside it wasn’t very big, and it was a bit of a rip-off so we looked at it on one of the postcards then headed back out. I read afterwards that there is an audio-visual presentation there as well, but after seeing the stone forts on the Aran Islands this one looked like a toddlers play pen.
We headed up the road, and went to a cool burial site. It looked a bit like the pi sign. How on earth the people managed to get ten tonne rocks in that arrangement I will never know. People have been buried there now and then over a couple of thousands years. Strange thing is this place was way more interesting than the 5 euro fort down the way, and free as well.
A Neolithic tomb, serious stone age architecture.
For lunch we had a picnic out of the boot of the car. We drove up the hill to see a pyramid shaped burial mound. From where we were situated we could look down the hill to the stone fort, and we concluded that we were definitely wise to have not gone there. From what I understand about the burial mound it was excavated in the 19th century, the excavators looked at all the bits of people and stones and then put them all back. We also found a little hobbit type house in the side of a rock that had collapsed. It had a couple of small rooms that we could see and led back under the hill. I liked it and Matt even crawled inside for a closer look.
Lunch from the boot
Walking up to a stone age burial mound
Matt taking a closer look at some old ruins
From there we drove through Carran, and after a bit of persuasion from myself, we turned around and went back to it. We visited a church with a glass roof, well a ruin of a church with a glass roof. According to the information there it was the site of one of the earlier Christian churches in Ireland, and was at one stage the smallest diocese in Ireland. There were some very old Celtic stone crosses on display there that had been excavated.
A tall cross making Abby look pretty short.
The next stop on our list of things to do was to visit the Cliffs of Moher. Now Ireland has a lot of cliffs, but at these ones the people are restricted by barriers from going near the end, all because of a stupid person whom jumped over them and another who fell. But that is not what makes them special, every layer of the cliff is made from a different type of rock. We went into the information centre which was built into the side of the hill, and looked like a gigantic hobbit mall. This proved to be the highlight of my ice-cream eating around Ireland adventure. Matt and I shared a 500ml tub of Ben and Jerry’s fish food ice-cream. I got pretty excited when Matt said that he couldn’t eat any more just over half way through. But unfortunately within two bites he forgot all about that and continued to eat his fair share until it was all gone.
The Cliffs of Moher.
A castle, and a typical Irish sky
The next stop from there was home to pick up some bits and pieces. It is a nice drive around Galway Bay back to Galway. Matt and I packed a wee bag and headed out to Carraroe to stay the night with Brent and Noeline. On the way out we went past the Traveler’s camp again, and this time Matt sneaked some photos of the “Pykies”.
Traveler’s camp out near Carraroe. Traveler is the PC name for these folk.
Tinkers, Gypsies, Pykies or worse, they all mean the same thing.
I learnt a very valuable lesson last weekend. To do under any circumstances show any sign of life in the morning, or the morning sleep-in is over and the day has begun. The parents got sick of waiting for us to get up and went to the shops to get some bits and pieces, taking a long, unplanned but appreciated detour home. Once they got home, it was all go. Lunch to be eaten, then the Clarinbridge Country Fair to go to.
I don’t really know what I was expecting of the Country Fair, probably something like the A&P shows back home. There wasn’t a grandstand, or covered yards, no parade and no rodeo either. Brent spent quite a bit of time talking to the sheep people though. They have a breed of sheep called the Galway, and their number’s are now pretty low, so a few farmers got together and decided to start breeding them again. Problem is they are kinda fat and no-one much wants to buy them. They also had a few highly manicured cows. But what really surprised me was the amount of horses. There were 5 equestrian rings going all the time, and three rings to show off the different breeds of horses. I was surprised at how many men and boys were doing the jumping. At home it is not considered to be a particularly masculine pastime. There wasn’t much of a machinery section, but there were lots of places to buy horse gear and floats.
Sheep, just like home
Although maybe pampered a bit more than we’re used to.
We went from there to our house and had dinner. Brent and Noeline had seen advertised “Trad on the Prom”, direct from Riverdance™, The Cheiftains™ and Lord of the Dance™ and we had tickets to the Sunday performance. It was certainly the pocket Irish song and dance show but the dancing that we did see was pretty cool. There were two young brothers that came on a bit and they were amazing. But mostly it was music like you would hear in any Irish pub, ok better quality but with less atmosphere. The MC guy, I was fit to kill by the end of the night. Instead of just saying thank you, he would say danke, gracias, thank you….. It was the silver head brigade there alright; I don’t think that there were many tour buses in Galway not there that night. But I am glad that I went. Afterwards Matt and I went home and went to bed. We were exhausted again, and Monday morning was only seven hours away…
On Tuesday I had my second trip to the library. Noeline had recommended a book to me called ‘The Whitest Flower’, which is a historical novel set during the Irish potato famine. Unfortunately it was out. Thus started my harassment of the local librarians; I tried without success to find some of the other books that the librarian recommended to me but finding what you want in that place is a bit of a nightmare. Although novels are mostly put shelved according to the author’s last name that is where the order ends. An author with the surname Carson could be in the fiction section under the C’s between Chris and Citole or in the CA. Anyway, Due to the fact that I was exhausted I found it all a bit stressful. In the end I picked a Maeve Binchy book that I had seen whilst on my mission to find the books I was looking for. I am almost finished it now, and must say that it was a very good choice, I recommend ‘Tara Road’ to anyone wanting a chick lit type book.
The rest of the week skipped by nicely. Matt worked diligently in his Man Cave taking his bike to pieces, as you can see in the photos, and I read my book. Thursday night Brent and Noeline had dinner in at our house and we made plans for the weekend’s adventures. Fortunately the plans this time were a bit more relaxed.
On Saturday, we set off about 10am to travel around County Clare, just south of County Galway, where we live. The area that we traveled through is known as ‘The Burren’, which comes from the Irish for Barren. The landscape was similar to that which we encountered on the Aran Islands, strange but beautiful. The upper hills were covered with rock, lilac-blue in the morning light. Then, in straight lines bordered by stone walls, the hills changed to green paddocks with cows grazing in them. We couldn’t quite decide if it was a freak natural occurrence or if some crazy Irish people had moved all the rocks from the lower bit. Throughout this area the paddock fences are all made of stone. From what I now know this is a feature mainly in the west of Ireland where there’s more stones than trees. Easily more stones than trees. In fact, a Cromwellian General tasked to make it hard for the Irish in the area had the following to say about the Burren; ‘There aren’t any trees to hang them from, no water to drown them in and no soil to bury them in’.
Eating Doritos out in the Burren
We were equipped with our trusty National Geographic Ireland book (really good) and all the pamphlets Brent could get his hands on. Our first stop was Dunguaire castle. We went into the grounds and had a look and went to the wee craft bit. It really well maintained but we were too cheap to pay €5 each to get in. The castle had medieval banquets there every night for a cool €50 per person. For that though you get served by buxom wenches, serenaded by a harp ensemble and get to eat with your fingers.
Dunguaire Castle
We then ventured down to Ireland’s oldest perfumery, which is a grand 35 years old. It wasn’t what any of us were expecting to be honest When we arrived we were asked had we been here before and did we want to watch a video? Yes that would be great we said. We were wrong it wasn’t, it was rather painful. We were expecting to see a wee film about how they make the perfume, but no, it was all about plants in the area. There is an interesting collection of plants in the area; I think 75% of Irelands native plants are found in that small area. A lot of the plants are usually only found in the Alps but the seeds are believed to have been bought there in the last ice age by the glaciers. (boring was pretty much exactly what I expected, by the way. M).
After that anti-climax we headed on. We went to a stone fort, which was charging €5 to go to. We could see it from the outside it wasn’t very big, and it was a bit of a rip-off so we looked at it on one of the postcards then headed back out. I read afterwards that there is an audio-visual presentation there as well, but after seeing the stone forts on the Aran Islands this one looked like a toddlers play pen.
We headed up the road, and went to a cool burial site. It looked a bit like the pi sign. How on earth the people managed to get ten tonne rocks in that arrangement I will never know. People have been buried there now and then over a couple of thousands years. Strange thing is this place was way more interesting than the 5 euro fort down the way, and free as well.
A Neolithic tomb, serious stone age architecture.
For lunch we had a picnic out of the boot of the car. We drove up the hill to see a pyramid shaped burial mound. From where we were situated we could look down the hill to the stone fort, and we concluded that we were definitely wise to have not gone there. From what I understand about the burial mound it was excavated in the 19th century, the excavators looked at all the bits of people and stones and then put them all back. We also found a little hobbit type house in the side of a rock that had collapsed. It had a couple of small rooms that we could see and led back under the hill. I liked it and Matt even crawled inside for a closer look.
Lunch from the boot
Walking up to a stone age burial mound
Matt taking a closer look at some old ruins
From there we drove through Carran, and after a bit of persuasion from myself, we turned around and went back to it. We visited a church with a glass roof, well a ruin of a church with a glass roof. According to the information there it was the site of one of the earlier Christian churches in Ireland, and was at one stage the smallest diocese in Ireland. There were some very old Celtic stone crosses on display there that had been excavated.
A tall cross making Abby look pretty short.
The next stop on our list of things to do was to visit the Cliffs of Moher. Now Ireland has a lot of cliffs, but at these ones the people are restricted by barriers from going near the end, all because of a stupid person whom jumped over them and another who fell. But that is not what makes them special, every layer of the cliff is made from a different type of rock. We went into the information centre which was built into the side of the hill, and looked like a gigantic hobbit mall. This proved to be the highlight of my ice-cream eating around Ireland adventure. Matt and I shared a 500ml tub of Ben and Jerry’s fish food ice-cream. I got pretty excited when Matt said that he couldn’t eat any more just over half way through. But unfortunately within two bites he forgot all about that and continued to eat his fair share until it was all gone.
The Cliffs of Moher.
A castle, and a typical Irish sky
The next stop from there was home to pick up some bits and pieces. It is a nice drive around Galway Bay back to Galway. Matt and I packed a wee bag and headed out to Carraroe to stay the night with Brent and Noeline. On the way out we went past the Traveler’s camp again, and this time Matt sneaked some photos of the “Pykies”.
Traveler’s camp out near Carraroe. Traveler is the PC name for these folk.
Tinkers, Gypsies, Pykies or worse, they all mean the same thing.
I learnt a very valuable lesson last weekend. To do under any circumstances show any sign of life in the morning, or the morning sleep-in is over and the day has begun. The parents got sick of waiting for us to get up and went to the shops to get some bits and pieces, taking a long, unplanned but appreciated detour home. Once they got home, it was all go. Lunch to be eaten, then the Clarinbridge Country Fair to go to.
I don’t really know what I was expecting of the Country Fair, probably something like the A&P shows back home. There wasn’t a grandstand, or covered yards, no parade and no rodeo either. Brent spent quite a bit of time talking to the sheep people though. They have a breed of sheep called the Galway, and their number’s are now pretty low, so a few farmers got together and decided to start breeding them again. Problem is they are kinda fat and no-one much wants to buy them. They also had a few highly manicured cows. But what really surprised me was the amount of horses. There were 5 equestrian rings going all the time, and three rings to show off the different breeds of horses. I was surprised at how many men and boys were doing the jumping. At home it is not considered to be a particularly masculine pastime. There wasn’t much of a machinery section, but there were lots of places to buy horse gear and floats.
Sheep, just like home
Although maybe pampered a bit more than we’re used to.
We went from there to our house and had dinner. Brent and Noeline had seen advertised “Trad on the Prom”, direct from Riverdance™, The Cheiftains™ and Lord of the Dance™ and we had tickets to the Sunday performance. It was certainly the pocket Irish song and dance show but the dancing that we did see was pretty cool. There were two young brothers that came on a bit and they were amazing. But mostly it was music like you would hear in any Irish pub, ok better quality but with less atmosphere. The MC guy, I was fit to kill by the end of the night. Instead of just saying thank you, he would say danke, gracias, thank you….. It was the silver head brigade there alright; I don’t think that there were many tour buses in Galway not there that night. But I am glad that I went. Afterwards Matt and I went home and went to bed. We were exhausted again, and Monday morning was only seven hours away…
posted by Abby at 2:37 PM
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