[The Cliffs of] Moher Adventures in Ireland!

Stone Fort

Above all else, I’ve discovered that Ireland is windy.  My new friend Sarah called Friday evening and asked if I wanted to join her and some friends on a bus tour the next day to the Cliffs of Moher and a few other places.   I’ve been told several times I need to see the Cliffs, so why not?  After a few registration mishaps, I met Sarah and her roommate Steph Saturday morning to catch our bus at the UL flagpoles.  Because the bus tour was through an independent company and not the school, I assumed the other passengers would be a mixture of people of all ages and from a bunch of places – as it turned out, they were all students at UL! Another study abroad company, AIFS, had booked most of the tour seats so my entire bus was other undergrad students from around the States.  The bus ride started out a little weird because all of the AIFS students knew each other and the only seats available were spread throughout, meaning I couldn’t sit near the only people I DID know. One of the reasons I decided to go was to meet more people at UL and what better way than having to meet people? I never did learn my seatmate’s name but she lives in Virginia, studies in South Carolina, and has no real interest in rocks. Luckily I LOVE rocks, because that was kind of the focus of the tour!

Our first stop was a stone fort. Located somewhere in County Clare (I have no idea where precisely we were), the fort was in a farmer’s backyard. Everywhere you look in Ireland there are stone ruins from various times, so the farmer thought nothing of it until he was digging around and came across more evidence of human occupation. It turns out that the fort we saw is the oldest and most complete in County Clare and they think all of Ireland! I was fascinated by the limestone used to build the fort and how it has stood up over time (for the non-geo people, limestone wears away fairly quickly relative to most other rocks) but it didn’t prove to interest most of the rest of the group for long – maybe because some of the “stops” on the guided tour were like number 8: “The Elderberry Bush.” Not really the most interesting way to present information, but still cool. The café proved the be the best part of this particular stop; we all opted for coffee to warm up from the wind, and the snacks looked incredible! It was most likely the BEST mocha I’ve ever had in my entire life, and Sarah and I split a small cheesecake made with Bailey’s – YUM. The cheesecake was more fluffy and kind of like Cool Whip than I’m used to and the crust was a little crunchier, which made for some incredible cheesecake!

Sarah and I at the tomb

Our driver stopped again about ten minutes up the road and informed us that we were about to see some crazy rocks – PERFECT! We had stopped at the ruins of a tomb, but not a tomb like you might imagine.  Shaped like a miniature Stonehenge almost, the tomb would have held only cremated remains, and only those of very important people in the society. Lesser people were also cremated, but not given the big memorial site.  Our guide said the horizontal stone is estimated to weigh over two tons, causing many archaeologists to speculate about how in the world it was placed on top. My guess? It was built like the pyramids – aliens helped them. The rocks surrounding the tomb were really amazing also. The landscape is described as “limestone pavement” because there’s not really much else! Huge limestone sheets are separated by tunnels and such cut into the rock by the movement of wind and water with almost no soil or vegetation anywhere. There’s a little bit of ground cover that can grow in the cracks as soil and debris gets stuck, but for the most part you just see grey rock. It’s especially astounding seen from far away – on the drive to our next stop there was a giant hill on the opposite side of the valley that looked like it was covered in snow, but the guide said it was all limestone!

From the limestone pavement we headed down towards Galway Bay and into a little town along the very edge where we stopped for lunch at Monk’s Pub. Galway Bay is known for its fishing and other sea life, and how could I say no to fresh seafood?  For the foodies in the audience, I had delicious fresh fish and chips served with a salad of a bunch of different fresh vegetables paired with a “Bailey’s cream coffee” (pictures included, don’t worry!). Sarah’s roommate Steph and Steph’s friend Lauren turned out to be from Perth, Australia, leading to interesting discussions when Halie mentioned s’mores. S’mores turned to Peeps (yep, the garishly-colored marshmallow things) which led to the Easter bunny vs. Easter bilbys and then to numbats. The last two are Australian animals, and if you haven’t heard of them, Google them. It’s worth it, cross my heart!

New friends! From left: Steph, Lauren, and Halie

With full (almost to bursting!) stomachs, our guide trundled us back onto the bus to start the trek up to the Cliffs of Moher. He thoughtfully took the scenic route which gave us the most incredible views of the coastline, the surf, ruined castles, cows, sheep, waterfalls, and more. We were allowed two separate stops to “stretch your legs and you’re very welcome to take a few photos if you like,” which I did like, thank you very much. The views were stunning; beaches running from the hills all the way to the ocean, giant round boulders left by glaciers that our guide referred to “giants’ footballs,” more SHEETS of limestone pavement, and at the second, a cliff face dropping straight into the ocean at least 200 feet below us. The wind at the cliff stop was so strong that I was getting blown from side to side while walking, and we had to crawl on hands and knees out to the edge to avoid being blown straight off the cliff! Note to self: next time I go sightseeing here, I’m packing a headband and bobby pins. The pictures are pretty funny because my hair is OUT OF CONTROL!

Oh you know, just falling off a cliff

the Cliffs of Moher

Danielle and Halie being blown down the hill

From our first glimpse of cliffs, we headed straight up to the Cliffs of Moher; the reason I came on the trip, and WORTH IT. There really aren’t words for these cliffs. Ranging in height from 120 meters (almost 400 feet) to almost 220 meters (just a little above 700 feet), they are one of the most spectacular things I’ve EVER seen – no wonder they’re in the running for one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World! The geology major part of me loved that every single layer of rock was visible from ocean level up to the very top. When I say ocean, the cliffs look straight out over the Atlantic Ocean, with the Aran Islands just visible on the right side (that’s the islands where Irish sweaters are from).  Again, the wind was absolutely unbelievable. Halie and I had a difficult time walking up to the observation paths, but it was nothing compared to the wind at the top! On the far side of the observation tower built by the O’Briens the wind was so intense that I was leaning forward at at LEAST a 60° angle (from the ground, not from vertical) just to stay standing up! One of the girls said she snapped a few pictures of us trying to stand in the wind that I’ll post once I find who took them. Looking out across the ocean, you could see a huge rainshower headed in toward us (which was really cool watching it stir up the water as it moved!), so we hightailed it back along the path – helped by the wind, of course – to the underground/in hillside visitors’ center to warm up with tea and hot chocolate and wait out the rain before heading home. For an impromptu trip, Saturday turned out to be one of the best adventures I’ve had in Ireland!

PS_If the title of this post doesn’t make sense, it’s because “Moher” is pronounced like “mower” like what you cut the grass with. If you say it quickly, it’s kind of like “more” – at least in my head. J