Northern Ireland & Ireland
June 12-22, 2007


Killybegs and Slieve League

Thursday, 6/14 and Friday, 6/15
  
Left: Back in the car, we stopped by a grocery store to pick up lunch! Bread, butter and cheese - mmm. Right: A picture of Bushmills Distillery - the world's oldest distillery.
 
  
Our destination for the night, Killybegs, a small fishing town, put us in close distance to Slieve League our destination for Friday morning.
 
  
We stayed at the pink Bay View Hotel
 
  
Dinner at the hotel was a delicious. We started with seafood chowder and Irish brown bread (a staple during the entire trip), followed by yummy fish and chips.
 
Friday, 6/15
  
My favorite aspect of the trip? The hot Irish breakfasts that are included with every hotel stay! I tried black pudding (sausage made with animal's blood) for the first time, but it didn't taste any different from normal sausage....On the right, Jas was excited about the fresh fish stand.
 
  
After breakfast it was off to Slieve League, the highest cliffs in Ireland. Along the way, we drove through tiny villages and little lakes, really, really beautiful.
 
  
To get to the cliffs, you can either park in the lot (just on the other side of the gate on the right) and walk a few miles, or risk a treacherous one-lane drive and hope no one is coming the other way. Because of the rainy weather, there was no one there, so we decided to risk the drive. I read tons of advice on the web warning about the narrow, cliffside road, recommending that those with a fear of heights not risk the drive. It was a tad scary, but not as bad as we thought. There are essentially no guard rails to stop you from plunging off the cliff, but if you take it slow and honk as you approach each turn (in case there's an on-coming car around the corner), you should be ok.
 
  
We stopped along the drive and took pictures. It was wet, rainy and freezing cold.
 
  
Sheep everywhere...
 
  
The picture on the right shows the scariest turn; miss the turn and you plunge off the cliff
 
  
 
  
The top of the cliffs are covered by clouds and it was raining. On a clear day you can walk the top of the trail, but it's supposed to be rigorous and because there are drops on either side, shouldn't be attempted on anything but a clear day. I was only able to make it part way up the trailed side before becoming frozen with fear (I don't like heights).
 
  
Jas went up a little higher to see how far he was willing to explore on his own. He just went to the top of the mountain we were on, but didn't venture across to the cliffs on the other side. More information on these cliffs, and other hikers' experiences can be found here
 
  
 
 
  
These pictures don't express how high, peaceful, scary and beautiful these cliffs are. This was our favorite and most exhilarating part of our trip.
 
  
It's amazing to see the ancient ruins built along the cliffs, like this one on the left.

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