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Day 9: Buncrana, Ireland

The Wild Atlantic Way!😎

After a couple of extremely late, fun and somewhat excessive nights of wedding celebrations, we sort of slept in a little this morning. We found a bit of breakfast in town and while we ate we reviewed Paul’s suggestion to drive down to Slieve League to view the spectacular cliffs. Somewhat less mentally fatigued after breakfast we decided to drive there as it was probably going to be our only free day until we depart for Scandinavia on Thursday. I figured out a route to get down there and off we went.

as you might expect, the scenery was terrific!

Just by chance we stopped along the way to sort some directions out, and it turned out that there were some really nice waterfalls just below us. We decided to walk down to see the falls, and we were reminded of all the peat bogs in the area by the colour of the water.

Continuing south along some particularly torturous, but fun to drive roads, we eventually stumbled upon the interpretive centre where I took a photo of the wall map that I’m using at the head of this blog post. The people working there recommended that we take the shuttle bus the 4 km up to the lookout as getting parking in the small lot was kind of unlikely. However, we decided to take our chances and we were lucky enough to secure a parking spot for a small fee.

After ditching the car, we started the climb into the site.
It’s pretty special terrain, and promised even better experience as we climbed.
We soon began to meet the locals!

After all the variable weather, it seems that the fairies are beginning to look after us. we were told that yesterday the cloud was right down to the water and it was raining here. Today the weather was spectacular though there was heavy cloud at the top of the mountain that we were beginning to climb.

Things began to get interesting, and we were soon hiking along the top of the lower cliffs with beautiful views. All along the coast, we saw towers, such as the one on the cliff in the above photo. We later learned that these were erected along the coast as an early warning system to protect the country from a possible invasion by Napoleon’s army. That’s something that I wasn’t previously aware of, and I found it interesting. I seem to keep crossing Napoleon’s path, or influence during my travels.

Not long afterwards, we arrived at the start of the main event.

At 601 m (1,972’) These are the second highest cliffs in Ireland after Croaghaun, and some of the highest sea cliffs in Europe. As special as these cliffs are, the cliffs of Mohar, which I first visited in 1975, will always be my favourite Irish cliffs.

We decided to climb to the peak on the right side. I think the climb all the way across would be spectacular, but we had neither the time or the visibility to do so.

The trail was clearly marked, and is visible in the upper part of this photograph.

Of course, the higher we went the better the view.

From time to time I would wander off the main path looking for something of a different view and evidence of the glaciation that shape this area during the last Ice Age.

The view out to the north, and away from the cliffs

On the climb up, I met a fellow who lives just 40 km away to the south. He told me that he had never been here before, but that most of his family had previously visited. He told me that he was a sheep farmer, and he enjoyed climbing up and down the hills in his area. I thought he moved along pretty well as we climbed, and later descended partway together. It’s always nice to randomly meet someone from the area where we are visiting.

On the descent.
There were little bundles of white fluff tucked in here and there trying to keep out of the high winds that were lashing the cliffs.

After finishing this beautiful hike, we retraced our steps to our car and then drove out to the small village a few kilometres away where we found a very late lunch at around 3 PM.

The seafood chowder they were serving in. The small pub was excellent, as was the butter that is made in Ireland. I do not tend to put butter on bread or toast at home, but this stuff was outstanding

While we were having lunch, I suggested that we drive as far back along The Wild West Way as possible before it got dark.  So we set off across some beautiful windswept countryside

Lots of locals beside and on the road.

It’s beginning to get quite late here, and after an extremely long day, which was proceeded by some very late nights, I’m just going to post some photos as we progressed up the west side.

Road sheep!😂

Climbing away from the coast.
A textbook ‘U’ shaped glacial valley. The ice would’ve been at least 1 1/2 times the depth of this valley. After the last Ice Age scientist have enough evidence to prove that the Earth was pretty much reforested. As you can see much of Ireland has been deforested over the past centuries.

And that’s about it for today’s adventure! Caitlin has told me that I can post photographs from the wedding in my blog, and tomorrow I will try to do just that. Time permitting, of course. There is talk of a trip to the beach tomorrow as part of Caitlin‘s birthday celebrations. The weather is indeed changing. It’s a good thing. I brought a pair of shorts with me!😂

OK, time for bed. Sleep is required!

Geoff😴🥱💤

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