Kinvara and Aran Islands

We stayed in an unbelievably quaint village south of Galway called Kinvara. This photo shows the front of our hotel, the Merriman, and the main street of the town.

During the day we went up to Galway, to catch a bus, to catch a ferry, to go to the Aran Islands, which Sandy had always wanted to do. After we got there, we signed on for a mini-bus tour around the island, which at about eight miles long, is a bit too long to walk, and some of our party are getting on a bit for doing it by bicycle. Since we were the first people on the bus, we could specify a bit what we wanted to see. So we asked for the Beehive huts, some very primitive rock huts from before 1000 A.D. that Irish religious hermits lived it. We had to walk through a series of cow pastures, dodging cow patties, to get there. But they were pretty cool as you can see here.












They really weren't too bad. Here are Sandy and Chris standing in one. At least you could stand up in it. But your heating, cooling, and lighting options were pretty limited.














The other most famous thing on the island is a large, very old ring fort at the top of a mountain. It was used by several different groups since 1000 BC to after 1000 AD. Here is Sandy standing quite a bit down hill from it as we climbed up.














The fort used to stand on the edge of a cliff. Here you can see the cliff, which drops over 300 feet -- enough to make me nervous and I am not particularly afraid of heights.


















But the cliff has sheared off several times over the years, taking parts of the fort with it. Here is a picture of Chris standing where the wall of the fort meets the edge of the cliff now. Pretty breath- taking drop.