County Clare Day Three
Yesterday was clear and blue so today it will rain. And that's what it did most of the day. We were leaving Doolin and working our way through the Burren to just inside County Galway, right on Galway Bay. This is not ideal weather for showing off the Burren. The white rock blends in with the fog. But there will be something to photograph. Maybe an abbey or two.
The Burren is about 200 sq. miles of northern County Clare where the glaciers of the last ice age scraped off all the soil leaving the bare limestone. It is a unique area in Ireland and despite its moonscape appearance it has had human habitation as long as anywhere else on the island. The Poulnabrone Dolmen, pictured below, is a 5000 year old tomb.
Here's something you don't see in every village in Ireland, or anywhere else, but you'll see it in Lisdoonvarna, County Clare.
This is not a gag. The owner of the bar, Willie Daly, is from a long line of matchmakers and claims to have arranged 3000 marriages. Going back not that many years it was common for many Irish, farmers in particular, to consult a matchmaker to find a mate. Things have changed but as the Irish like to do they have morphed this practice into a party. The Matchmaking Festival runs the month of September (so we were in the middle of it) and people do actually come here hoping to find a special someone.
Keeping moving we worked up to Kilmacduagh Abbey near Gort. And yes, the round tower is indeed leaning.
It might look to some like I spend too much time in old abbeys and graveyards. Well maybe. But they are so much part of the history of Ireland and her people that I feel most deeply connected to them when I'm in those places. And they hold their delights as well. Here's a marker Jeanne Marie spotted in one of them, probably in Co Kerry, being an O'Sullivan.
We are planning to plagiarize from it for our own.
It's time now to mention some of the flora Ireland displayed for us. It was late summer so a lot of the most extravagant stuff was over. No big riotous displays of gorse or rhododendron for instance, although it looked like the gorse was going to try a second blooming. The first interesting plant that caught our eye was something with red berries in the hedges. We didn't get that close for a few days but then walking back from the stone circle in County Cork we saw what they were - fuchsia. The berries were actually buds about to burst open which they proceeded to do the remainder of the trip. Big thick hedges of fuchsia along the roads.
We were also seeing the heather turning purple but we might have been a little early for that. Where we could find the heather and the gorse together it made for a great display but none of them were all that massive.
Something else we saw a lot of, not growing wild but in abundance, were these raspberry color hydrangeas. These are spring/early summer bloomers for us but with the even temps of Ireland I guess they bloom whenever they want. They were everywhere and I don't remember seeing pink or blue. I wonder why these couldn't grow in Missouri?
Then we have the obligatory "stopping traffic while the cows cross the road" shot. Or sheep. Doesn't matter. You need one of those.
Above is Muckinish West Tower House, easily photographed from the road. And below is Corcomroe Abbey which we drove past. Yes, I showed great will power. I'm including it because it is the best rendition I got of the Burren's landscape. The bare hilltops and the farmable valleys is a common sight.
Our destination for the night was the village of Kinvarra, just into County Galway. There we had Dunguaire Castle, ancient seat of the King of Connaught, which I've photographed on previous trips. But I'd always been there at midday and low tide. This time I checked the tide tables and high tide was just an hour before sunset. Close enough. But I was not thrilled with the sky.
Oh well. The best laid plans of mice and men...This was at 6:15, just before high tide. We waited around until 6:30 and the sky gods did give me this.
I shouldn't complain, right? I noticed though, the horizon in the west was lighter. I could see there was a chance the setting sun might get up under that overcast. We still had an hour before sunset, we were starving, and our B&B was three minutes away so we dashed up there and scarfed down some cheese and crackers. I had a good view of the western horizon from our window. At 7:25 it was evident that something might happen so we jumped back in the car in time to get this:
At 7:39 we got this:
This is what the sunset itself looked like:
And at 7:46 we got this:
It ain't over till it's over.
