My posts are always about my quilting exploits, but this photo-heavy post has nothing to do with making quilts, or any kind of needle and thread work on my part. You have been warned! On the other hand Ireland is a beautiful country.
I spent two weeks in May and June visiting the West of Ireland.We stayed two or three nights in B&B's in the following places: Killarney, Dingle, Kilrush, Oughterard, and in Tullamore and one night in Dublin on the return journey. I unsuccessfully tried to include a map here, sorry.
From Killarney we toured the ring of Kerry
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| Muckross Gardens |
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| Muckross Gardens: a hidden garden at the top of the rock garden. |
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| Torc Waterfall. Aren't there always dare devils who clamber over rocks in a stream? |
At the western end of the Kelly Peninsula the cliffs are high with wonderful views, I've been told. Unfortunately we only had about 50 metres visibility, so couldn't even see the sea! Alas, no photos!
From Dingle: The Dingle Peninsula
From Kilrush: Co. Clare
One day beautiful sunshine
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| Loop Head, at the mouth of the Shannon |
and the next some drizzle,
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| The beach at Lahinch |
followed by rain,
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| In the village of Quilty, no less! |
and the rain became a storm!
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| The Cliffs of Moher in a storm with driving horizontal rain! |
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| After the cliffs there was just one thing for it ...! |
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| The beach at Lahinch on the return journey. (with raindrops on the lens!) |
From Ouchterard to Connemara National Park
where we found a good example of Irish humour.
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| official looking signpost |
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| to the giant: late twentieth century antiquity!? |
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Connemara
Conn son of the sea
built in 1994
… Mr. Joyce’s craft shop
for no apparent reason
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| Kylemore Abbey |
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| The Church in the grounds of Kylemore Abbey |
On the way from Galway to Dublin we stayed in Tullamore and explored
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| Tullamore D.E.W. whiskey visitors' centre. |
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| a peat bog: laid out as a tourist attraction with a long boardwalk and information boards along the route. |
and Athlone
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| Athlone from the Castle, looking across the Shannon |
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| The River Shannon and the present day crossing; a river crossing which features large in Ireland's history. |
Dublin
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| One bicycle chained to the fence in the quadrangle at Trinity College. |
We only spent half a day in Dublin and spent that time visiting Trinity College where we saw The Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the Gospels from around the year 800. The tiny paintings are beautifully and intricately done in many colours and with gold leaf. Needless to say, there's no photography allowed there. We intend returning to Dublin sometime soon, for a so-called "City Trip" of three or four days.
That concludes my tour of the West of Ireland. We have good memories of friendly and helpful people and interesting conversations in the B&B's and pubs along the way.
The following day we took the ferry to the UK and spent the next week touring in Wales (the land of
my fathers!) and around Bristol.
I hope you have enjoyed the tour, and maybe will make the trip yourself someday.
In the meantime, it's back to the sewing machine and the 1/4 " seams!
Happy sewing
Marly
