|14-MAY-2015|  After a nice breakfast in a very old skool dining room at our hotel, we set off for another day of rural adventuring on Ireland’s west coast, most notably, the Cliffs of Moher.

We made a few stops along the way, mostly tourist-free. Bounced along some R-roads that were barely 2 lanes wide and made our way around the coast en route to the Cliffs.  There we encountered the tour buses in droves (fortunately parked).  The site is large and has trails along the cliffs both north and south from the main visitors center so while heavily populated, it wasn’t particularly “crowded”. Got some great pictures, a lot of wind, and some crazy people getting wwwwayyyyy too close to the cliff’s edge!

Continued inland again in search of some other sites marked on the map, but no so clearly marked on the road. 🙁  We found one of the five … but the narrow, curvy roads were a blast!

Returned to Galway in time for another quick trip to Bell, Book & Candle (home to Wingnut Records) to pick up some more local tunes.  Then hit The Dough Bros. for takeout pizza.

Just a few sites on the agenda tomorrow as we make our way directly across Ireland back to Dublin; we return home on Saturday. Time flies!

Interesting docking solution.  This is low tide – boat is perched on its keel, leaning against the seawall.  When we passed in the afternoon, the tide was in and the boat was floating normally.

Dunguaire Castle, located seaside in Kinvara, was built in 1520.  I’d seen some incredible pictures of the castle surrounded by the sea … unfortunately we hit it at low tide and it was surrounded by seaweed.

The Cliffs of Moher stretch for 5 miles along Ireland’s west coast and are 700+ feet high at the highest point where O’Brien’s Tower stands. The site is impressive with cliff-side (read: no fences) walking trails north and south from the visitors center.  The cliffs are a protected site – home to 30 species of sea birds throughout the year.  The sea stack is directly below O’Brien’s Tower and stands 220 feet high.

Poulnabrone Dolmen is a portal tomb from the Neolithic period. For scale, it’s about the size of a small garden shed.  The surrounding landscape is nothing but stone for at least 100 yards in all directions.

Carren Church – random roadside ruins.

Excellent pizza from The Dough Bros.  I had Tandoori Chicken; Jeff had pepperoni. The beer is a White Ale from McGraths – tasty but stupid-carbonated.