Camping the West Coast of Ireland

The West Coast of Ireland is wild, rugged, desolate, and desperately beautiful. Reading this sort of description from an Ireland guidebook and seeing it in real life is the difference between reading a wine review out of a wine magazine and sipping a local glass of Cabernet on a summer's day at Moondancer winery while listening to a jazz band and taking in the views of the grape vines and Susquehanna river. (Consequently, the latter is exactly what I intend to do upon returning to Lancaster, PA to visit my family.)

The top-five most typical sights according to me are the following:




1) Seaside Cliffs. Angling sharply towards the Atlantic and serving as home to hundreds or even thousands of sea birds.

2) Sheep. Everywhere. Grazing in green pastures or bog wastelands or at the precipices of above-mentioned cliffs, or walking by the roadside.

3) Mountains. Co. Sligo, Co. Mayo, Co. Clare, Co. Kerry, Co. Cork. Typically un-wooded and

4) Castles. I'm not sure it is really possible to explain to an audience largely composed of people who live in an un-castled land the sheer number of castles that dot the Irish hillsides. Trust me it is a substantial number. I believe towards the end of the two weeks a common phrase started out, "If I see one more castle..." Ancient megalithic tombs, often refered to as 'dolmans' come a close second to this category.

5) Irish Towns. And on rare occasions an Irish city. Typically a one-street job with the florist, butcher, grocer, Post Office, chippies, and always always a pub(s). I recall going through one "town" which was really about 5 houses and a post office and....a pub.

Kevin and I covered over 1,000 miles of Irish landscape. The trip started out in Sligo where we visited the Sligo Rotary club first and ended up in Waterford for a quick dinner before a 6 hour journey home. In between we hit Mayo, Clare, Kerry, Connemara, Galway, Limerick, the Dingle Peninsula, and Cork. I am relishing both the little moments of quiet and the miles and miles of breathtaking scenery as well as the big moments of inspiration, excitement or wonder. The following are a few of my highlights.

The Skellig Islands
On the Ring of Kerry we camped for three nights in a town called Caherciveen. On one of the days we took a 15 km boat ride out to the Skellig Islands. The North Atlantic is unforgiving and while I managed to hold it together, others were not quite so lucky. What we saw, however, made all sea-induced nausea more than worth it. As we approached the first Skellig Island, I thought, Is it possible that this island-mountain is snow-covered in this weather? And it is not, in fact, snow-covered but merely inhabited by hundreds of thousands of white sea birds. Gulls, of course, but other large and beautiful winged creatures who I do not know the name of. I've never seen anything like it before in my life. The second island, the Great Skellig, was our stopping point for a few hours. Those few hours were the highlight of my trip. Kevin and I saw wild puffins, seals, and other sea birds flying about or swimming. I have to make a note about the puffins because they really and truly delighted me. In addition to being unafraid of humans and looking like mini clown-birds, their antics actually make it impossible for anyone to dislike them, I think. Most birds swoop in somewhat majestically and gracefully to their cliff edges and glide into their landing. Not so my puffin friends. They zip and dive and then hover a moment above their landing spot, flapping their wings frantically before just stopping to plop down on their webbed feet wherever they land. I even saw one puffin land on top of another puffins head!

The wildlife was only part of the Great Skellig's charm. After a 30 minute hike up to the peak, we encountered an ancient monastary overlooking the smaller Skellig and then just the sea beyond. The monastary is composed of well-preserved stone fortresses in the 'bee-hive' formation. Stone crosses marked burial sites.

Our Captain had a fantastic sense of humor and was kind enough to make the rounds to sea-sick passengers, checking in on them like a nurse while keeping everyone's spirits high while giant waves swelled around us. He has been on the sea his entire life, mostly as a fisherman for 27 years now as a boat captain to the Skelligs.

Achill Islands
We camped right by the ocean and fell asleep to the sound of the waves and woke up to the bleating of sheep being herded to pasture. We then drove out the Atlantic drive to a pristine beach with aqua-marine water, like one would expect to find in the Mediterranean or Caribbean. We hiked a cliff and then returned to jump quickly into the ocean before cooking lunch outdoors for a beach picnic.

Market in Ballyvaghan
Since we didn't really plan much of the trip and used a map and our whim to guide our path. This worked out well for us most of the time. One of the best times was when we stumbled upon a local outdoor market in a town in County Clare called Ballyvaughan on a sunny day. We munched on locally produced foods while watching 3 young fellows (10-11 years of age) play traditional Irish music and dance the famous clogging-step of the Irish jig. These three boys from the Aran Islands had just won a national championship and talent competition, a local man informed us. Lucky us!

The Accent
Throughout the trip, Kevin and I were noticed for our accents. In the Achill Islands, I asked a woman at a convenience shop if they sold ice to which she replied, "What is that?" I tried saying the one-syllable word several times with different emphasis (which is quite difficult with one- syllable words) in order to avoid having to say "very cold and hard water" and eventually she said, "Oh ice!" and it sounded exactly the same to me. Linguistic nuances are funny things. More often, however, Kevin was noticed for his 'northern' accent. Most of the time people would say "Oh a Derry man!" but my favorite incident occurred while visiting a friend of mine in Kerry and having a cup of tea with her parents, who are farmers in Caherciveen. Her father says "You know I am finding it very difficult to understand your accent" to which Kevin replies "Well I am having trouble understanding you as well" to which I say "Well I can't understand either of you!" and we all have a laugh.

Camping in General
I grew up camping and have very fond memories woods and campfires and toasting marshmallows. Camping in Ireland is a bit different--no woods, no campfires, and no 'mallows. We mostly camped on grass in open spaces but often near a beach or overlooking a fantastic scene. Rosses' Point in Sligo comes to mind with a sweeping vista of the entire bay area, the Atlantic ocean, two lighthouses, and Benbulben. We saw some fantastic sunsets over the sea and woke up most days to sunshine and clean air. It rained most nights, but our little tent remained faithfully unleaky. One night we had some trouble with the pesty midge flies, but in general, camping in Ireland is bugless! Look Mom, no bugspray:)

Wildflowers and Wildlife
If you ever fancy embarking on your own trip on the West Coast of Ireland, I recommend the month of May. Besides unusually good weather, the wildflowers are out in full color and absolutely stunning. They creep out from between rock crevices, particularly of note in the Burren in County Clare. They grow alongside the road and by the rivers, lakes and hillsides. Manicured gardens were in full bloom as well and the Kilkenny National Park particularly stood out. Also, besides puffins, seals and seabirds, we also saw a red deer, loads of lambs, horses and foals, and all varieties of small birds. We even enjoyed the two big orange cats that curled up on our laps by the indoor peat fire in the common area at one of the campsites.

As the old addage states, pictures are worth a thousand words. In this case, both pictures and words fail the West Coast of Ireland. I'm afraid over time even my memories will fail me. Nonetheless, here is a link to a photo album if you are interested in catching a glimpse of the beauty of this country. Any fans of the John Wayne film The Quiet Man may appreciate some of the familiar photos taken in Cong, where the movie was filmed. It must be noted I am not particularly a fan of this movie. Enjoy:)

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/samanthamartin08/