Irish Road Trip - Part I

On Sunday we joined a tour to the west coast of Ireland, which included Limerick, the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren Coastline and Galway Bay. While Ireland is a relatively small country (roughly the same size as Maine if that means anything), the cross-country trek from Dublin to the west coast nonetheless required an early start and late return.

Our bus departed at 6am and we were joined by about 10 other tourists as well as a guide who also served as the driver. Given the early start and couple-hour drive ahead, the guide allowed us to sleep following a brief introduction outline of the itinerary.

Over the next couple of hours we drove west through the Irish countryside in near darkness. The one constant was the fog, which varied from a murky haze to the pea soup variety. And as the sun came up, the fog remained, though at times it cleared enough to see the rolling countryside and tons of sheep. Everywhere.

Our first stop was the town of Limerick along the river Shannon. While we didn’t have much time to explore, we were still able to see some of the main sights.

The Thomond Bridge

King John’s Castle (named after the John of Robbin Hood lore) 

 King's Island

A church along the river Shannon

We then headed to the Cliffs of Moher and during this stretch of the drive our guide took on a much more active role by providing some background on Ireland’s history (highlighting the Viking and Anglo Norman invasions) and landscape (seemingly endless hedgerows and pastures as a result of deforestation in favor of farming).

As we approached the Cliffs of Moher, the brief promise of clear skies that appeared when we reached the coast quickly gave way to the reality of heavy fog once we began the climb in elevation. You know it’s a bad sign when your tour guide starts apologizing.

And after finally arriving and exiting the van, the fog was actually kind of comical. It was literally so thick that you could hardly even tell that you were next to a cliff that rises roughly 600 feet above the sea at its highest point. The faint sound of crashing waves was the only reminder that the ocean was indeed a stone’s throw away (albeit a long way down).



We tried our best to be optimistic, knowing that we had an hour and a half for the skies to clear, but in the end we simply had to accept the cards that we were dealt. The Cliffs of Moher would not be making an appearance. Fortunately, there was an on-site museum (built into the nearby hillside so as to not infringe on the natural beauty of the area) that provided history on the cliffs and had some interesting visual exhibits.

That said, it also reminded us about how impressive a sight we were missing out on. Here are some pictures that I took of pictures of the cliffs...