Sept 10 A Rainy Day Walk (Day 349)
A rainy morning didn’t deter us from a walk in the nearby woods.
We tried walking into the woods on this narrow path, but it quickly became too muddy, so we returned to the gravel road through the managed forest.
We turned around at this point where the road dipped down into the valley this oak overlooks.
The afternoon weather cleared up and we were able to get a nice photo of our accomodations.
This renovated barn has two apartments, we are enjoying the 2 storey one bedroom on the right named Field View, with the upstairs balcony at the end of the building.
Sept 9 A Trip to the Welsh Coast (Day 348)
The morning view from our bedroom balcony over green fields dotted with happy cows!
A beautiful day for a drive to the Welsh coast on winding narrow country lanes!
We arrived at the blustery shore in the town of Aberaeron.
A brisk walk along the waterfront led us into town past these colorfully painted town houses.
We continued our tour to the town of New Quay.
We walked uphill and found a path that follows the coast and got a few photos from above!
Back in town we had lunch and walked out on the ‘new quay’ the town grew up around.
Looking back at town from the end of the quay.
Sept 8 Way to Wales (Day 347)
I said goodbyes to family and boarded the plane in Dublin for the short flight back to London. Robert met me at the airport and we made our way to pick up a rental car and started the drive to Wales. We stopped in Cardiff, the capital and largest city of Wales, for dinner at Tiny Rebel Brewery.
We had delicious lamb burgers!
Sept 7 Achill Head Hike (Day 346)
A beautiful day for a hike! We headed out of the cottage and down a few lanes out onto the moors towards a headland.
We came across an arch, probably the mouth of a collapsed sea cave eroded into the rocky coast by the incessant battering of waves on the wild Atlantic coast of west Ireland!
At the base of the headland, Achill Head, looking north towards Keem Strand where we went swimming a few days ago.
We hiked further up on the slope on our way back, coming across ancient rock walls. Were they property boundaries, maybe erosion barriers? They don’t seem to hold the sheep in or out of the area at any rate.
Sept 6 Irish Castle (Day 345)
On our drive back to Achill Island from Galway we stopped in the small town of Clifden and found these ruins of a relatively ‘young’ castle outside of town. Built in 1835, it didn’t last very long for a castle!
At one point the castle was a school for young Irish girls training to be maids for the “Big Houses” of the English or Irish gentry landlords.
The drive along the wild west Irish coast is beautiful!
We ended the day with an evening walk into the moors as the sunset colored the clouds.
