Ireland Part 3 - The Burren and Cliffs of Moher

So the fun stuff to do in Galway, is not actually in Galway. They are about an hours drive north and south of Galway. So we decided that we were going to take bus tours to those places (because that is the thing to do if you dont have a car). We would do one tour to the south to the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher and one north to Connemara National Park and Kylemore Abbey. Because the weather was not nice we decided to try the Burren trip the first day and hopefully the weather would get better the next day. We chose the particular company because it involved a unique stop at a family farm that involved learning about Irish farmers and hiking in the mountains in the Burren which was unique to that tour. The Burren like most of the natural beauty in Ireland is not government owned and part of a national park. Instead it is privately owned by the local farmers.

The tour was awesome. While we hurtled ( I mean it literally, we were on a large coach tour bus and the speed limit on many windy roads barely wide enough for two vehicles was 100km/h (60mph) and the drivers took it seriously...) though Irish countryside we learned a lot of interesting facts and before long we were at our first stop at the farm in the Burren. Along the way we had passed several castles one of which we would check out later. They were tower castles which means that they were a tower usually 4 stories high surrounded by small courtyard that was walled in. We learned later that there were literally thousands of the little guys in western Ireland ranging in condition from currently lived in to crumbling and covered in moss. Every noble or person of wealth owned one in Ireland as it was the only way to live safely...

One of the larger and still livable tower castles as you can see by the size of the people in front they are not that small

The current condition for many more of the castles looked like this, still standing but other than that just a neatly organized pile of rocks... Apparently this castle and most of the other ones like that we saw on the Burren trip we owned by the sane family.

So the farm part of the trip was awesome. We got to stretch our legs and climb a privately owned mountain in the Burren. How? well our took is part of the Burren Wild Tours which a guy set up on his family's property using his grandmother's old house as base of operations. His family still lives next door as they have done for hundreds of years. The primary form a wealth and occupation in the Burren is farming livestock, mostly it seemed like cattle. But the Burren was an amazing sight to see. Rolling treeless hills that covered in grey rocks and at the bottom were lush green fields. All divided by rock walls. I have never seen so many rock walls in my life... It was awesome to get a more personal aspect of the tour. I will let the pictures show you what the Burren is like, it was truely amazing though. Due to the type of soil and rocks even though it was misting all day the ground was completely dry, yet still there was a huge bio diversity and it was a very fertile area...

Lyndsay was so happy to bottle feed a lamb at the farm

The Burren more or less looked like this everywhere. White houses sounded by green grass fields that were walled in, surrounded by rolling gray mountains without an trees

A famine wall, built by irish peasants during the potato famine. The weatlthy said if the built rock walls over the mountains (something boring but easiysh to do) they would be paid, seems ridiculous well it was because they barely got paid at all and now most mountains in western Ireland are covered in walls.

A view from the farm land

After the Burren were the cliffs of Moher. They are the longest sea cliffs in Ireland and perhaps even Europe stretching 8 km. They are all over 200m (700ft) tall and the tallest part is around 250m. They are only the third tallest sea cliffs in Ireland, the tallest is in the north east near Belfast and are nearly three times taller ~600m... (over 1/3 mile). The cliffs were amazing although the fog was really thick so often hard to see. But in the brief moments when the fog cleared they were amazing.

The Cliffs of Moher, one of the most interesting parts of these cliffs is that with the exception of where I am standing and a smal stretch of the cliffs that extends north, they are privately owned. In fact all of the cliffs you see in this picture is private farm land.. And the cows are grazing with no fence at the cliffs. I do hope they are smart enough to stay away from the edge....

 A Full view south of the cliffs

The surf is very rough and cliffs are always being battered from below

After the large cliffs we had lunch at an Irish pub and then got to travel to some smaller cliffs before heading home... They were possibly more interesting because you could walk right up to the edge... (Mom if you are reading perhaps now is where you stop.... There are only edge pictures and then this post is over...)

Up close and personal in these cliffs, however they are not quite as impressive at a mere 35-40m tall

Yes mom, I did walk right to the edge and look down, it is quite a view...

It is nice to know that even though I am so high up above the ocean at any moment a wave could come and smash against the cliffs and travel up and over them (taking me down with them...). The tour guide said there have been days when the waves hit the bus at these cliffs which is about 50m inland from the cliffs and higher up....

The Irish countryside on the way home

Some of the best surfing in the UK and apparently in the world is on the beaches of western Ireland. They get overhead and double overhead waves on a regular basis. Interestingly enough some of the best fishing is there as well and the fishers have to be attached to the rocks in some places for fear a huge wave will smash over the cliffs and pull them in.