We arrived back from our excellent trip to the west coast of Ireland at about 6 this evening, after a long three-and-a-half hour drive from Bundoran. As you can probably tell from my earlier post, we were very happy to have made this particular side trip. The places we went were interesting and different, and the people we met were uniformly nice.
First stop on Sunday was the city of Derry, or Londonderry, depending on which side of the Loyalist/Republican line you’re on. We made such good time out of Belfast early Sunday morning that we were in Derry well before anything was open, which was a little eerie, but which was excellent from a traffic-avoidance and ease-of-parking standpoint. We parked right next to the city walls (which date from the early 1600s, and walked completely around them, which afforded some outstanding views:
We started to eat our lunch on the wall, but the rain came and drove us inside, to a large modern mall, and, of all things, a McDonalds in the food court. But it had excellent, and relatively inexpensive, hot chocolate for the boys, a latte for me, and tea for Suzie, so between that and being dry and warm, it was a good thing.
One thing noticed during our trip to and out of the town was the obvious division between the Loyalist and the Republican areas. The former had Union Jacks out in full flying form, while the later had Irish flags flying. There were also a number of political murals. Again we were struck by the oddness of conflict among such a peaceful-seeming, beautiful town.
From Derry we drove southwest to Donegal, across a wild, windy, wet mountain pass:
In Donegal we found the ruins of an old abbey, set above the harbor:
Then set about strolling around the town, finally ending up in the square, drinking tea and eating ice cream.
I also found a picture for Cory!
From Donegal we drove the short remaining distance to our ultimate destination, Bundoran. As I mentioned in my earlier post, Bundoran is a funky, interesting little beach town, set on a very pretty, dramatic section of the coast. After checking into our place (the Bundoran Surf Lodge, which was perfect for us, a nice-sized room plus use of a comfortable common room and kitchen downstairs), we all took a walk around the beach. As you can see, the setting was dramatic, but it was so very cold and windy (it had to be consistently blowing at 35 mph) that walking was difficult and not pleasant, and we were soon driven back inside for dinner and the Euro 2008 final (which I’ve already described).
We also got to watch some TV that was in Irish, with English subtitles. Very interesting to hear, as I’d never heard spoken Irish before. Two things were striking. First, it sounds very much like a Germanic language (which, I believe, it is). Second, after hearing Irish spoken, it is easy to see why the “Irish” accent in English is the way it is. I guess I’d always thought that the Irish accent was just a function of speakers on an isolated island developing their own unique accent. But it is clear to me now that the Irish accent comes directly from the sounds of the inhabitants’ original native language.
I got off track. Here’s a couple of pictures of Bundoran.
We slept well and got up early to wolf down a free continental breakfast. The only other guests in the lodge were a woman and her daughter (from Holland) and a young man and his girlfriend (or wife, although something about them makes me pretty sure it’s ‘girlfriend’). Both were friendly and cordial. After breakfast, we had arranged for the boys to take surfing lessons (the first time either of them had surfed), which left me and Suzie free to explore on our own. We asked the proprietor for a good short hike, and he suggested the “Gleniff Horseshoe,” a narrow road that forms a loop around the base of two very high ridges, which jut almost straight up from the earth.
It was a beautiful walk, if a bit windy and (at times) rainy. We passed a pretty waterfall at the beginning of our walk. The landscape was much different from most of Ireland, much more rugged and wild. We were alone with the wind, the clouds, and the sheep.
While we were walking back, we noticed on the next hill over a single, dark brown horse, running in a field of sheep. At first we thought it was being ridden, but it became clear that the horse was simply feeling great. It would gallop toward a group of sheep and get them to scatter, then stop and buck and shake its head back and forth, then gallop back the other direction, scattering more sheep, whose bleating we could hear across the wind. It was a vision of joy, and energy, and youth, movement for the sake of movement, muscles stretching as it galloped across the field.
On the way back to Bundoran, we came across what is, to me, one of the most extraordinary things we’ve seen — a mesolithic stone cairn tomb, dating from 4000 – 2500 B.C. Astonishing to walk and to sit among something that could be 6,000 years old, to think of prehistoric humans creating such a thing so very long ago.
More information about this particular cairn can be found here, here, and here.
From that very real, very deep-time experience, we went to pick up the boys, had lunch at the same place we’d eaten the night before (excellent food and reasonable prices), and then did something that I’ve always wanted to do — to play golf on a links course right on the coast of Ireland. Our round was incredibly inexpensive, so much so that we were able to take the boys as well.
Oh, yeah, well, it was putt-putt golf, but on the positive side, the round was quick.
There are additional pictures on the Flickr site for those who’d like to see more.
Categories: Travel -- Ireland