Day 9 Cliffs of Moher

Italics tour company description
Photos are SOOC straight out of the camera, no editing.

September 11 2015

HALF DAY TOUR TO THE CLIFFS OF MOHER AND THE BURREN: After
breakfast at the Castle today you will meet with your driver guide and travel northwest to The Cliffs of Moher - a sheer precipice that stretches for 5 miles along the Wild Atlantic Way. The Cliffs of Moher rise to a height of 668 feet above the Atlantic and is one of the most impressive coastlines in Ireland. In nesting season the cliffs are home to a variety of seabirds. Entrances to Cliffs of Moher Visitors Centre included. T

Breakfast at the "Castle" at 9AM. There is a huge buffet with loads of fresh fruit, cheeses, cold meats, cereals and pastries.
The food is divine and I have the best potato cakes that taste exactly like my mother's, there just wasn't enough of them!!

It is a rather rainy and dreary day not at all what you would want on the day you are headed to the Cliffs of Moher. We dress as best we can for the occasion. Mick manages to procure a couple of hotel umbrellas from the doormen.

Cliffs of Moher
Standing 214m (702 feet) at their highest point they stretch for 8 kilometres (5 miles) along the Atlantic coast of County Clare in the west of Ireland. From the Cliffs of Moher on a clear day one can see the Aran Islands and Galway Bay, as well as the Twelve Pins and the Maum Turk mountains in Connemara, Loop Head to the south and the Dingle Peninsula and Blasket Islands in Kerry. O’Brien’s Tower stands near the highest point and has served as a viewing point for visitors for hundreds of years.

One of my absolute favourite places to visit in Ireland!! On a fine day....not so much today. The good thing is that it is not too crowded.

They are so famous that in 2011 they were included in the final twenty-eight candidates in a global on-line poll to find the New Seven Wonders of Nature.

They didn’t make the final seven but then neither did the Grand Canyon or the Galapagos Islands!

I have been here so many times and they have changed drastically over the years as they have  been commercialized with a vengeance with paved walkways, concrete viewing areas, touristy craft outlets and a visitor centre with restaurants and a gift shop.
Today the gift shop is absolutely packed with wet tourists!

The human story and history of the Cliffs of Moher dates back at least two thousand years as the name derives from a 1st Century BC fort that stood where Moher Tower now stands. The old Irish word “Mothar” means ruined fort and it is this that gives the cliffs their name.

There will also be some time to see the Burren Region a remarkable landscape of Limestone and littered with Neolithic sites dating back 6,000 years.

The Burren (Irish: Boireann, meaning "great rock") is a karst landscape in County Clare. It measures approximately 250 square kilometres and is enclosed roughly within the circle made by the villages of Ballyvaughan, Kinvara, Tubber, Corofin, Kilfenora and Lisdoonvarna.

Karst topography is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes, dolines, and caves.

Mick picks the perfect spot for a coffee break in Ballyvaughan. We had rented a house here in town in 2005.

The "salmon on bicycle" in the centre of the photo is part of a campaign against the setting up of Salmon farms in Galway Bay, because of concerns for their impact on wild Salmon and Sea Trout and other inshore fisheries

 In the early afternoon you will return to Dromoland Castle for free time to enjoy the castle.

We need to be back for 2:30 as we have afternoon tea booked. Traffic is heavy, we arrived back at 2:15 changed and made it! Lots more photos to come.

We all went back to our rooms until dinner! We were going to nap but we ended up in The Mystery of the Missing Underpants!! This morning's laundry had been returned but yesterday's had not. I called the desk and they were on the hunt. Several call backs and no luck.

We were meeting in the bar at 7 so I stopped by the desk and still nothing. They couldn't understand what had happened to it. then the bellhop steps into the back office and magic! there is the missing laundry.

We have dinner reservations in the Earl of Thormond. Just a sampling here.