08 Oct 2024
Phil was a very good guide. He knew the history and stories of the places we visited and had recommendations for places to see, eat and listen to music. The drive through the Burren was beautiful. On a previous trip, I'd wondered what the walls the went to the top of hills were all about, now I know! We stopped in a town that had a market going on and bought a couple souvenirs.
We've been to the Cliffs before, but wanted to see it from the water and this didn't disappoint. We had plenty of time to get lots of pictures and were blessed with picture perfect, sunny weather. Then on to Inisheer, where we saw the shipwreck and castle. We chose to take a horse and buggy ride to see things and that wasn't as good as we thought. The buggy crammed 6 of us on it. We were told that he would stop where we would need to get off an hike up to the castle, but he didn't and when we got back there wasn't time to hike back up. He also didn't stop as promised at the cemetery, but I did hike back for that and the views from there. We'd have been better off renting bicycles to see what we wanted to see. Lunch on the island was ok, but we didn't expect much.
It was a Friday, and we were on a ferry, so when we stopped at Inishmaan, we picked up a load of kids that go to school there and home for the weekends. I later met a man who had been there to be schooled in the Irish language. The drive back was made interesting by Phil pointing out some of the towns and history of the area.
Overall a great experience that I would recommend to all. Just don't do the horse and buggy on Inisheer.