Ireland 7: The greatest castle ruins, into the Burren

   We had a two and a half hour drive to reach our next town, in the Burren National Park.  We parked our car at a church, and walked the ten minutes to reach Carrigogunnell Castle.  I first had us walk halfway down the wrong road.  The ruins were remarkably beautiful, and there were many areas to explore.

The view from the road at the beginning of the walk, with the castle in the distance.

  We also took a quick stop at the Kilmachuagh Abbey.  There were a bunch of separate installations of ruins, but only one let you walk around.  The inside was also off limits.

  We are staying at a bed and breakfast in the beautiful small town of Kinvara.  The town sign spells it with one "r," however Google Maps have it with two "r"s.  On our first day, we drove around the park.  We stopped first at the Stone Age tomb of Poulnabrone.  There was a nice viewpoint pullover which gave us the first nice views of the rock laden landscape that the Burren is known for.  

  Down the street from the tomb was a stone fort that has daily sheepdog demonstrations.  Unfortunately, we had missed the last demonstration, and I felt no need to pay to see yet another fort.  This one also is guided only, and I wasn't in the mood to listen to another old man tour.  We continued driving to the Southwest, to a small family owned car park near the Moher Cliffs.  The main visior center is a major tourist hotspot, and filled with buses.  This one was more to my style.  We walked to the Southernmost part of the cliffs, where the Moher Tower is location.  The tower was surrounded by an ugly fence and was nothing special to look at.  

  I would have done the cliffside hike, but then I would have had to walk all the way back to the car.  it is more of a one way hike.  So, we spent a little bit on the cliffs, and then returned to our car.  On the way back to our car, we passed two baby cows, who were running in a small field.

  The rest of the day consisted of driving along the road on the west coast and then along the north coast.  There were not too many hotspots, but this first one was along the beach.

This second spot was near the northwest corner of the drive on R477.

  This view was along the North, near to Kinvara.