Inishmore – christineswalkabout

I woke up on my second day on Inishmore to a wonderful breakfast at Cliona’s house. Then, I packed up my rain gear, camera, water bottle and snacks for my outing on my rented bicycle. It was a beautiful, warm day with a mix of sun and cloud and little wind. A great day for cycling!

My first destination was the “Worm Hole”, a remarkable pool made by nature in a perfect rectangle. It’s hard to believe that it is not man made! The pool became widely known when Red Bull sponsored a diving competition there (look it up on youtube!)

Cliona let me know how to find the pool which is on the western side of the island. First, I travelled on a rough, back road that crossed the island and then travelled northwards, towards Dun Aengus. There was not a soul on that road, and I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the fences and fields.

Looking south. The mainland and the Cliffs of Moher are far off on the horizon.

My route across the island, up and then over.

Looking north, with Dun Aengus in the far distance on the clifftop.

When the farmers want to move cattle from one enclosure to another, they just undo a section of fence, and then built it up again.

Look at all the stone, row after row of fences, and more stones in the fields!

Finally I arrived at this path to the ocean.

This is a storm beach of huge rocks and some boulders that are flung far back onto the land during Atlantic storms. I crossed this storm beach, and then travelled on the limestone shelves for about 500 m to reach the Worm Hole.

And this is it! The Worm Hole – a completely natural geologic feature!

There were two other people at the Worm Hole when I was there. With the person on the ledge, you can get a bit of perspective on the size of the size of the pool and rock ledges. In the Red Bull competition, the divers dive from the topmost layer of rock.

As I walked back, I looked more closely at the cliff face. (It is difficult to see, but in the photo above, the person standing on the lighter coloured rock has a huge amount of rock above their head.) The limestone cliffs are being eroded at their forward edge by the action of the sea, but also by rain which falls from above and seeps down the cracks in the limestone. Both physical and chemical weathering occur because as the rain mixes with carbon dioxide in the air, a mild carbonic acid is created which slowly dissolves the limestone.

When the rainwater finds a seam of weaker, softer rock, that rock erodes more quickly…

…leading to overhanging portions of rock which eventually give way catastrophically, as in the photo below. This geology lesso is important for later in the afternoon!

After recrossing the island to the eastern side, my next stop was Kilmurvy Beach, a beautiful, curving beach with soft white sand, lovely green and blue water, and a view of the Connemara mountains across the water.

I walked the length of the beach barefoot, tried out the very very very cold water for about two seconds, and then amused myself for awhile organizing limpets and a gull’s feather for some nature art. (At Dun Aengus, almost 8 tonnes of limpet shells were found during the excavations!!)

After my time at the beach, I cycled back south in order to go visit Dun Duchathair, the “Black Fort”. Unlike Dun Aengus which is protected and operated by Heritage Ireland, the black fort has no admission fee, no interpretive centre, and as far as I know, no geotechnical engineer vouching for the safety of the site for it too, sits perched on the edge of highly undercut cliffs.

There was about 3 km of very bumpy road to negotiate, and then the bike had to be left behind to walk on the limestone pavement alongside, and sometimes over, fence after fence.

I arrived at the cliff edge and this was the view to the north. Erosion, yikes! Is the piece of limestone I am standing on undercut?

The Black Fort was south of me, on a deeply undercut promontory.

It’s difficult to see, but the cliff is undercut by maybe 20 m at the water line.

As I walked over and around to the promontory, there was a jumbled field of upright rocks. This was also present before the outer walls at Dun Aengus, and is presumed to be the remnants of a sort of spiky line of defense against any oncoming invaders.

I got closer to the fort, but was wary about going out onto the promontory until I saw a family of 5, with three young daughters, come out from behind the wall on the left. If they can do it, I can do it…

Getting closer and heading towards the left.

This was the view as I came to the edge of the wall on the left!

It looks wider in this photo, but the distance to get around the wall was maybe 150 cm. I was holding my breath, hanging onto the wall with my left hand, thinking about undercut cliffs and catastrophic failure…A quick photo to the south…

A quick photo of the inside of the fort…

And then another quick photo before I slowly and carefully edged my way around the wall, and headed as carefully, quickly, and *lightly*, as I could away from the Black Fort!

Phew! What an adventure! I was exhilirated, but slowly getting tired too. I rode my bike to the main village, Kilronin, to pick up an easy lunch at the Spar grocery store. Juice, banana, a scone with butter and jam, and yummy Irish bacon left over from my breakfast. I rode again south of the village, around a beautiful sweeping bay edged with white sand to find a place on the rocks for my picnic.

A beautiful place, a beautiful summer afternoon that reminded me of that feeling you get on Hornby Island, and suddenly I missed my family so much. It was the first time I have felt lonely on this trip. I was just feeling so sad that they could not be here with me, enjoying this special island.

I cycled further to even more beautiful beaches, edged with sanddunes.

It was almost unbearable! Knowing that I had to leave the next day, with so much still explore, and yet tired from my big day. Here are a few other scenes from the beautiful Aran island of Inishmore.

I woke up early to hear rain falling on the sky light in my Doolin hostel room. It was a very gray, blustery, and wet day so, after my breakfast, I packed up, donned all of my rain gear, put the rain cover over my big pack, and started down the road for the 2 km walk to the Doolin pier to catch my ferry to Inishmore, the largest of the three Aran Islands.

I love this photo of the cracked limestone rock, looking towards the pier.

Here are ferries, waiting for their busy day of taking tourists to the islands or to view the Cliffs of Moher from below (although the Pirate Queen on the left looks like a fishing boat), and then my “ferry”, the Rose of Aran, a bit rusty looking!

What a crossing! The Rose of Aran loaded an alarmingly large number of passengers. Almost everyone squeezed into a seating area in the hull that had no windows, and I immediately decided to head back out onto the deck, despite the rain, as it felt somewhat claustrophobic inside and I didn’t want to be in close proximity to anyone who might get seasick! It was great on deck! I set myself up in a corner of the stern and hung on for dear life as we swayed up and down big swells, with waves crashing all around. It was a madly fun, rollicking, rolling ride, though the pictures don’t show it!

We got to Inishmore and the weather had mostly cleared up. I decided to take a tour bus (van) to the other end of the island to get the lay of the land and to visit a few places, and then the driver would let me off mid-island at my airbnb, Cliona’s house, which he knew because there are only 900 permanent residents on Inishmore. The principal source of income on the Aran Islands used to be fishing, but it is now tourism and up to 3000 people can visit Inishmore a day in the high season.

Bertie was our driver, and he was quite funny and boyish and fun. He grew up on the island and pointed out his parents’ house, and where he went to school. The Aran Islands are the eastern-most part of the Burren landscape of limestone pavement. The island is long, low, and rounded, and criss-crossed by a crazy maze of dry stone fences that divide the island into small, family-owned pastures for cows, horses, a few goats, and the occassional lovely donkey!

Bertie pointed out several of the last remaining thatched cottages on the island, and one in serious disrepair! There are many remnants of old stone cottages, as well other abandonded houses, left empty as some islanders emigrated and never returned.

We stopped at the peaceful ruins of St.Brechan’s Church, built in the 8th century.

And then we visited Dun Aengus, the remains of what was once a huge, circular, iron age stone fort. It is the largest such fort in Europe, and the site encompasses 14 acres. The fort is perched at the edge of the cliffs, 300 feet above the sea. Half of the fort has fallen away into the ocean as the limestone cliffs have eroded over time. Built around 1100 BC, there are the remains of at least four concentric dry stone walls, which are up to 4 metres thick in some places! In the centre, there is a rectangular stone slab platform, and it is a very scarey feeling to stand on it and near the edge of it, with the Atlantic waves crashing far below.

The dramatic cliff scenery began on the approach to Dun Aengus.

After entering from an external wall, here is a view looking up the the inner wall.

This is a view of the cliffs to the south taken from the edge of the inner wall.

I am on the central platform, looking back a the inner wall.

And I am on the central platform looking out at the Atlantic. I stayed for quite a while at the site, and you could clearly see the rain advancing, then clearing up, then advancing again.

These are the cliffs looking north from the inner wall.

Notice how the limestone often breaks off in a rectangular shape.

It was very exciting being up so high, and so close to such a precipitous edge. What a place to live! I can’t imagine any woman, even an iron age one, arriving at such a wild, windy, and rocky land and saying, “Oh, this is the place! I want to live here honey.” It was probably the men who just started stacking rocks!

Soon after leaving the fort, I climbed over the stone fence and headed closer to the sea. Look at that landscape!

The waves made a wonderful roaring sound as they crashed into and swirled around the deeply undercut cliff. I didn’t get too close to the edge, just in case!

Finally, this is the path leading down from the fort, back to the interpretive centre.

After my van tour, I met my airbnb hostess, Cliona, and her two lovely daughters. This is my room! There’s a view of the sea from my bedside window, as well as a view of the ruins of an 8th century church, dedicated to Saint Ciaran.

After settling in a bit, I walked the 2 kilometers into town to rent a bike for my next day on the island. I cycled back towards my accommodation along the lower coast road, and ended my exhilirating day by having a quiet moment at a beach that has a small colony of seals, and is backed by a small wetland.

Category: Inishmore

Inishmore – What a day!

Inishmore – An exhilirating first day!