The Burren

Wednesday, we were doing a tour with Galway Tour Company to the Burren and Cliffs of Moher. I had contacted the tour operator before we left and they picked us up at our hotel, rather than having to get back to downtown Galway first thing in the morning. We switched buses at the coach station and headed south around the bay to begin our tour. As we were leaving County Galway, we made a quick photo stop at Dunguaire Castle and then crossed into County Clare. Our first stop to get out of the bus was at Corcomroe Abbey.

For about 15 minutes, we walked around the 13th century monastery ruins, viewing the ancient graves and structures.

There was a tomb effigy of Conor na Siudane Ua Briain, an early king of Ireland, that looked like something out of a movie.

The doorways between rooms in the monastery were very small and I had to duck to fit through, but had fun scrambling around in the ancient ruins. Outside the abbey itself were a number of old gravestones, some ancient and some more recent, but it made a very beautiful setting. Leaving the abbey, our next stop was in the village of Ballyvaughan, right on Galway Bay. It was primarily a bathroom and coffee stop, but I walked around a bit on the docks and got some pictures of the bay. There was a sign showing a car falling off the end of the dock; I guess some people thought it was a bridge? Well, I had no intention of driving off the dock, but did enjoy the views of beautiful Galway Bay. Looking out across the bay, our hotel in Salthill was somewhere on the other side, but too far away to discern. Leaving Ballyvaughan, we got off main roads and onto a very bumpy road heading into the Burren.

We made a short stop at the Ballyalban Ring Fort and took the opportunity to walk the ancient site.

There wasn't much of a fort left but we could see the raised circular path around the enclosed area.

Back at the bus, we headed a little further into the Burren and stopped at Poulnabrone Dolmen, a 6000-year old neolithic structure, consisting of two portal stones supporting a horizontal capstone across the top.

From the right angle, it kind of resembled the Greek letter pi or Stonehenge.

I walked all around to get pictures of it from various angles as well as the surrounding landscape.

This was a great area to see the karst landscape of the Burren. Limestone pavement stretched out all around with vegetation growing in the clints between the grikes.

After twenty minutes or so here, we headed back for the bus and started driving further into the Burren. We passed a couple interesting ruins shortly after leaving, including Carran Medieval Church and Leamaneh Castle. Unfortunately, Sandy got really sick at this point and we had to leave the tour prematurely. Back in Galway, she took a cab back to the hotel to rest and I walked back for the chance to see more of the city. I passed Galway Cathedral and Eyre Park before leaving the city towards Salthill.

The Salthill Promenade was a particularly nice walk right along Galway Bay and the weather was lovely.

Along the way, I stopped at a grocery store and got some bottled water and crackers for Sandy. When the rest of my family got back from the tour, we regrouped. Sandy was tired so she stayed in bed and the rest of us went to eat. We walked down to Salthill and had a nice dinner at The Galleon Restaurant. I even had the chance to try a local craft beer - Galway Bay IPA, which was very good. After dinner, we made our way back. In the evening, Sandy and I headed over to the promenade and view the bay as darkness was falling.

I played around with long exposures on the camera in the low light. By the time it truly got dark, we headed to bed.