landscape

Antrim Coast and Whiskey in a Jar

It is not the literal past, the “facts” of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.

Brian Friel

The Antrim Coast is stunning, whilst the Giant’s Causeway is the main attraction the coastline is littered with soaring cliffs, abandoned castles, beaches and the Bushmills Distillery.

We enjoyed a pleasant day driving along the coast, gazing out across the Irish Sea to Scotland laying on the horizon so close it appears as if an extra low tide may allow you to walk there.

After a short hike, we reached the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge and made the short crossing to a small island that houses a small fishing outpost. Who would keep the fishing boat on this small island instead of the nearby mainland? A question I asked a colleague who immigrated from Northern Ireland and he replied, ‘My Grandfather.’

Fans of Game of Thrones can check out a film location down to the left of the main car park.

Antrim Coast

Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge

Steve crossing the rope bridge

Dunluce Castle is one of the finest castles in Northern Ireland but not nearly good enough for the Countess of Antrim who begged her husband for a new home away from the coast and finally left without him when the kitchen disappeared into the sea during a dinner party. According to legend, taking the heavy dessert and most of the staff with it.

Happy to be at Dunluce Castle

Dunluce Castle

The History of Dunluce Castle

Old Bushmills Distillery has produced fine Irish Whiskey since the 17th Century, and every year hosts 120000 visitors on an intoxicating tour of their facility. The air is literally steeped in whiskey, and the distillers only spend two hours tending to the distilling process at a time to ward off the effects. It’s a fun tour, a chance to indulge in some history and distilling folklore before exiting into the cafe where you can sip a free sample over lunch. You can buy a 12 year old bottle of Bushmills at the distillery (not available elsewhere) but buyers of the widely distributed 10, 16 and 20 year old Bushmills may well find a better price at Duty Free than the distillery.

Enjoying a Whiskey at Bushmills.

Old Bushmills Distillery

Giant’s Causeway – A Link to Scotland?

An Irish giant challenged his Scottish counterpart to a fight but soon realises he is outmatched by the bigger Scottish giant. The Irish giant dons baby clothes, and when the Scottish behemoth sees this massive ‘baby’ he flees in terror smashing the causeway that connected their countries behind him.

Like many tales there may be an element of truth to this fable, a few weeks before we arrived on the Antrim Coast, Colleen and I sailed to Staffa Island to see Fingal’s Cave. As you can see in these two photos, the basalt formations of the Giant’s Causeway are replicated on Staffa, and the Causeway points in its general direction north of the Antrim Coast. Were they once connected by a basalt land bridge?

I’m not sure but the possibility brought together two disparate parts of our travels through the United Kingdom in an unexpected and delightfully silly way through the Irish fable.

Giant’s Causeway

Staffa Island – The Other End?

Giant’s Boot

Aran Islands – Inishmore

The snot green sea. The scrotum tightening sea.

James Joyce

A perfect autumn day, a picturesque island and good friends – is there any better advertisement for an Irish vacation than the pristine beaches and ancient monuments of the Aran Islands?

Pascal delivered us to the ferry terminal, and a short boat trip latter we disembarked on to Inishmore for an island tour. By bike, by horse drawn carriage or by rust encrusted van we set out of from Kilronan ferry terminal to circumnavigate the island, first stop Dun Aenghus. The stone fort sits precariously on the cliff edge, the sea having claimed almost half of the original structure over the centuries but it remains an imposing feature on the island landscape.

At the foot of the trial we lunched on the ‘best tomato soup’ (according to Barry), and found it to be a very pleasing lunch for a warm autumn day. Local shops sell the famous Aran Jumpers made from the local wool, the skill of these knitters is obvious and the intricate textured patterns remind me of the fisherman who relied on these thick woollen jumpers to keep them warm against the freezing Atlantic gales.

After lunch we headed off to complete our sprint around Inishmore, the island hosted a rich monastic life from 500 to 900 A.D. during the Age of Saints and Scholars including Columba who founded the monastery on Iona that would produce the Book of Kells. In a tiny corner of the Seven Churches, a few graves are marked as the Romans, a testament to the Inishmore scholars these men travelled from Rome to study the Holy texts in this lonely outpost of Christianity.

Before returning to Kilronan, we stopped at the pristine waters of Kilmurvey Beach (Trá Chill Mhuirbhigh), one of five Blue Flag beaches in County Galway. The Blue Flag is awarded to beaches and marinas that meet a specific set of criteria including:
• Environmental Information and Education
• Water Quality
• Safety and Services
• Environmental Management

A few hardy souls dipped their toes in the cold Atlantic water but most of us were satisfied with a stroll along the beach with thoughts of summer on our minds.

Yugi’s Island

Yugi roams Inishmore, patrolling his domain as the tourists flow across his home like fleas over a dog. His owner is a Japanese Inishmore resident but clearly Yugi is in charge here. We saw him at every stop from the ferry terminal to Dun Aenghus to the beach, clearly he knew all the shortcuts because he often got there first.

Overlooking his Kingdom of Inishmore

Hans & Cathryn – Inishmore

Colleen, Claudia and Robyn

Climbing to Dun Aenghus

Prestine Beach – Inishmore

Inishmore

The Abundance of The Burren

Ireland invokes a vision of rolling green fields and rich farming land, yet its landscape yields unexpected surprises like the rocky expanse of The Burren. It reminded me of Australia, a seemingly desolate and savage landscape that hides a richly diverse and productive ecosystem. Created out of the geological chaos of the Ice Age, and the acidic mixture of limestone and rain that drilled holes into the surface to harbour the meagre Burren soils to support the greatest diversity of plants in Ireland. Arctic and Mediterranean wild flowers bloom together in The Burren, and drench the grey landscape in colour throughout June and July.

Poulnabrone Dolmen is an ancient portal tomb originally mistaken for a Druid’s altar because the cairn of tones that once surrounded it have been carried away to build cottages and fences. Like similar tombs, the tomb is orientated to the Sun’s annual cycle of life. The effort expended by people to build this edifice to their gods and ancestors drew me into the sacredness of the landscape. Successive generations have worked with the Burren’s natural gifts to create an abundant environment within which they survived and thrived into the modern era.

Poulnabrone Dolmen

Mary, our guide on The Burren.

Jets over The Burren

Poulnabrone Dolmen

Fossilised Coral on The Burren

On Land’s Edge at the Cliffs of Moher

Make sense who may. I switch off.

Samuel Beckett

The Irish landscape is rich in colour, majestic and occasionally dangerous for the unwary traveller. The Cliffs of Moher thrust out of the Atlantic Ocean as great bulwark against the ferocious storms that pound the coastline, and carved their fury into the cliff face.

A fenced pathway and local rangers are there to keep visitors away from the cliff edge but as many clamber over the fence as those that trod obediently along the safe route. Wind gusts and crumbling edges can catch the unwary, and many people have plunged to an untimely death here. But the sense of freedom and exhilaration of sitting on the edge of Ireland is hard to resist while we ate our simple lunch and enjoyed the view.

Not content with the danger on the cliff tops, Irish surfers plunge down massive walls of water at the cliff base to challenge nature on the water’s edge as well. We loved the view but we will leave the surfing to the Irish.

Colourful Dingle

There’s no reason to bring religion into it. I think we ought to have as great a regard for religion as we can, so as to keep it out of as many things as possible.

Sean O’Casey

Fishing Fleet – Dingle Harbour

Autumn arrives in early morning, but spring at the close of a winter day.

Elizabeth Bowen

Viking Heritage

A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.

George A. Moore

Dingle Harbour

Even if the hopes you started out with are dashed, hope has to be maintained.

Seamus Heaney

Looping around the Dingle Pennisular

The Dingle Peninsular is a spectacular coastline, less travelled than the Ring of Kerry, and Rick recommends skirting the latter to concentrate on Dingle Peninsular’s views and history. For film buffs, it is also where Robert Mitchum filmed Ryan’s Daughter in 1970. Enjoy my images:

View from Slea Head

Life, it seems to me, is worth living, but only if we avoid the amusements of grown-up people.

Robert Lynd

Dingle Peninsular near Ballyferriter

I heard the old, old, men say ‘all that’s beautiful drifts away, like the waters.’

William Butler Yeats

The crew capturing the view.

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

Oscar Wilde

An Riasc

Finding the right work is like discovering your own soul in the world.

Thomas Moore

Gallarus Oratory

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.

Oliver Goldsmith

Finding illumination in Gallarus Oratory

God is a character, a real and consistent being, or He is nothing. If God did a miracle He would deny His own nature and the universe would simply blow up, vanish, become nothing.

Joyce Cary

Ruined church of Kilmalkedar

The best decision I ever made was to become a priest and I think the second best was to resign.

John O’Donohue

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Yugi’s Island

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