Ireland–Day 4

On our fourth day in Ireland we decided to go check out the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren.  It was a beautiful day (again) and we were counting our blessings for having such great weather during our visit.

We passed this cemetery every day, and since it was so nice this day, we pulled over to take a quick picture of it.  I wish we would have had more time to get out and look at it more but we didn’t.

It was only an hour or so drive to the Cliffs of Moher.  The Irish landscape is pretty interesting.  It’s mostly flat like this, with a few hills, and then completely drops off at the cliffs.

It was a little hazy the day we were there, but it was sunny, so we can’t complain too much.  They were really, really neat to see.  The cliffs are made of shale and and sandstone and they range from 390 feet in height to over 700 feet.  It was a LONG way down and there are suicide prevention signs at the entrance.  We were eating at a restaurant nearby after our visit and the guy said his dad was in the Irish Coast Guard and they deal with more than a few suicides off of the cliffs.  That’s sad.

I just love this little hat on Ben.  I think he enjoyed the views too.

The first part of our visit was on cemented walkways with a big ledge by the cliff.  (You can see it in the picture below on the right.)  There was no way you could have accidently fallen over.  However, the second part of the walk was completely different and I was a little bit nervous having the kids by it.  Luckily there was another “wall” (about 3-4 feet high) that you could walk on the other side of, so you didn’t have any risk of falling, and we kept Abbie and Ben over there the majority of the time.  My dad and I walked along the cliff side of the wall though, along with many other people, and it was neat, but a little scary.

We had a death grip on the kids in these pictures, and took them back across the wall as soon as we were done taking the pictures.

I think the rock formation below (right) looks like a profile of a face.

Here’s what the view was opposite of the cliffs.  Almost just as pretty!

After the cliffs we headed north along the coast to Doolin.  There are rock fences all over Ireland and I just loved them!

The entire coastline that we saw was rocky.  It was either cliffs or just rocks.  Both were interesting to look at.

We passed this house as we were driving along the coastline and I could have spent a good hour here taking pictures of it.  We actually turned around (which isn’t easy on narrow, winy Irish road) and they dropped me off so I could take more pictures while they went to find another place to turn around.  The tree growing up the side of this old cottage fascinated me.

As we continued our drive, we got to the Burren.  The Burren means “great rock” and it is the largest karst region in Europe.  It is made of limestone and all of the cracks are known as “grikes” and the rocks sticking up are known as “clints”.  There were a TON of grikes and clints.  I’ve never seen anything like it and I kind of wish we had spent a little more time there.

Ben unfortunately missed it all.  He was cashed out in the car.  It takes a lot of will power to not kiss his chubby cheeks.

The Burren is actually a national park in Ireland.(one of only six) and is only 15 square kilometers in size, but the Burren region is around 250 square kilometers.  (Again, I just LOVE those rock walls!!)

We saw the sign for a beach, so we followed them and I jumped out and took a few photos.  It was pretty cold and windy, but it was still pretty, even with the clouds rolling in.  The windy blowing through the grass is one of my favorite photos.

These pictures are just ones I took out the window on our way back to our house.  I don’t even know what town that is, but I liked the way the photo turned out, and I love the fall colors.

There was a lake (Lough Derg) behind our house, and I took these pictures as the sun was setting after we got back.  It was the only time I went out there and I wish I’d gone out there to take more pictures, but never got around to it.  These ones are pretty though!