Saturday, June 16, 2018. The Cliffs of Moher and the Burren.

We met Martina in the hotel lobby at about 9:00 a.m. for our tour of the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren. Martina was good about asking us what we had seen already and what we would like to see. We quickly established that there was no desire to go into the city of Galway on a Saturday morning. We had seen enough of Dublin, Cork and Killarney and didn’t need to see any more Irish cities. We also said that we are not big on shopping, something which she was going to poke fun at later.

Our first stop was St. Brigid’s well, which lies between Liscannor and the Cliffs of Moher. This is one of the oldest wells in Ireland reputed to have healing powers, which means no one knows how old it is. Martina said that the water is good for the joints. A whitewashed building has been built around the well to protect its pilgrims from rain. Inside the building is a shrine with thousands of tokens – photographs, rosaries, flowers, written prayers, etc., - placed there to memorialize someone who is sick or dying. A niche held votive candles that were still burning from previous visitors. I dipped my hand in the well and made a wet cross on Abby’s forehead, hoping that the well’s healing powers would ameliorate Abby’s arthritis.

Martina knew of an access point to the Cliffs of Moher that is on private land. For only 10 euros we parked right next to the cliffs and avoided the crowds at the visitors’ center. We had a great view of the cliffs and, best of all, it was only a short walk to get there. In a limestone wall along the footpath Martina pointed out the fossil of an ancient eel. A large black and white draft horse grazed in the pasture next to the parking lot. In the distance we could see the Aran Islands, three flat limestone islands that are home to about 1300 Irish-speaking people.

We stopped at the Doolin Cave, at first just to use the café and the restrooms, but then I decided that I wanted to see the cave. The 50-minute tour involved a metal staircase of 122 steps that would be traversed going in and coming out, so the cave was not an option for Abby, but she didn’t mind having a Diet Coke in the café while I took the tour. Martina found a well-worn copy of a book entitled, “The Burren and the Aran Islands, Exploring the Archaeology,” by Carleton Jones, which Abby read with interest while I plunged underground.

The cave is known for the largest free-hanging stalactite in the Europe, and the third-largest in the world. The stalactite is 24 feet long, according to our guide, and hangs from the ceiling like a giant chandelier. It is a curtain stalactite, meaning that the calcite-laden water that forms the stalactite flows down in patterns that leave curtains of calcium carbonate behind. The stalactite is 500,000 years old. There is a stalagmite at the bottom, but it rests on a sloping bed of clay. As the stalagmite builds up, it becomes too heavy for the clay slope to support and it topples over. This is why to the stalactite has not become a column, a stalactite and stalagmite fused together.

Martina drove us to a spot near the coast where there is a typical Burren landscape. Limestone surface rocks have been fissured by wind and water. In the fissures grow flowering plants, including both Arctic and Mediterranean species. According to Fodor’s, there are 23 native species of orchids in the Burren. We did not see any of them, but we saw many other beautiful, though small, flowering plants.

For lunch we stopped at A.E. O’Donohue’s Pub in Fanore, where the County Clare flag was flying upside-down. There was a charity bicycle ride taking place on the narrow roads, and a table full of cyclists had stopped at the pub. Each had a pint of beer in front of him, so I assume that they were through cycling for the day. Abby enjoyed pureed vegetable soup with goat cheese and salad, while I had beef and Guinness stew. Both were delicious.

We drove to Caherconnell Stone Fort, which was continuously occupied for 600 years until the beginning of the 17^th century. Inside the fort are the remains of stone houses that were occupied by local leaders of the O’Loughlin family. Two modern tents inside the fort were roped off and labeled as archeological digs.  This being Saturday, there was no archeological digging taking place.

Just a stone’s throw away is the Poulnabrone Megalithic Tomb, which dates from 3000 B.C. Of the 90 tombs in County Clare, Poulnabrone is the best-preserved and the most accessible. Excavation has found the remains of 33 people buried in the tomb. Their bodies had been allowed to decompose before their bones were buried at the site. One of the signs at the site opined that some of the stone walls in the area may have been built by the tomb-builders to mark property boundaries. It was amazing to think that some of the stone walls in the area might be 5000 years old.

Our last stop of the day was the Cathedral of Kilfenora, built in the 12^th century on the site where St. Fachtna had founded a monastery 500 years earlier. Kilfenora was named a diocese in 1152, as the Irish church transitioned from being monastery-based to being diocese-based. Inside the church were effigies of early bishops, carved in sarcophagus covers, as well as two spectacular high crosses, carved from stone. The Doorty cross had previously been broken in two. The upper part had been in the church and the lower part had been a monument on the Doorty family grave. In the 1950’s the two parts were re-joined to form a single cross again.

At this point it was 4:00 p.m. and we were about a half-hour from the Gregan’s Castle Hotel. Martina said we were entitled to another half-hour of touring and asked what we would like to see. We said that we would like to go back to the hotel and end the tour a half-hour early. Dinner at the hotel was just as good as the night before. In fact the menu was the same, only this time I had the free-range veal and Abby had monkfish. We learned all over again why the restaurant was so highly regarded. We watched the evening World Cup Soccer game on the hotel’s only television. Croatia won 2-0 over Nigeria.