Aran Islands

I need to wrap up our Ireland trip and get on to other things we've been up to! The last full day in Ireland we took a ferry trip from Galway to the Aran Islands. Again we lucked out and had great weather for the trip. It was cloudy and cool on the way over, but the sun came out while we visited and it was definitely welcomed. The Aran Islands are comprised of three separate islands, but we visited the largest island, Inishmore (in Gaelic Irish: Inis Mór) to see some of the Iron Age relics still on the island.

Irish Gaelic is the spoken language on the islands among the few inhabitants, but because of the number of tourists in the summer months, they also speak English. The islands have a unique geography, in that there is not any land for farming or raising livestock because the ground is mostly limestone. Through the centuries, the island people have moved the limestone rocks and make small stone walls with them, which has cleared out areas to build homes and have some horses or cows. But trees and plants don't really grow there, although weeds and brush have found their way between the limestone.

Upon our arrival, we rented bicycles, as they suggest it's the best way to travel on the island. We also grabbed a quick lunch at one of the few restaurants, so we wouldn't have to worry about getting hungry in the middle of nowhere! Once we were ready to venture out, we hadn't gotten far down the road and my bike tire went flat. I was wondering why the three of them were going so fast and I was struggling to keep up! Luckily, Ruairi has an Irish mobile phone on him and we called the bike company. They just drove up the road with a new bike and picked up the flat one. It only held us up for 15 minutes, so that was good.

We then headed straight away to the other side of the island, about 8 miles away. On the route, we stopped at the old stone lighthouse tower to check it out. We couldn't go in the lighthouse, but there was a small farmhouse next to it with an old bed, and cupboard and fire pit to show how the people used to live on the island.

We then rode to the pre-Christian ancient site of Dún Aengus (I'll show pics from Dún Aengus in the next post). It's a prehistoric, Bronze Age fort on the edge of a 100- meter high cliff overlooking the ocean. The fort has three enormous half circle stone walls that go right up to the edge of the cliff. We went to walk around within the walls and peer over the cliff - which was pretty scary but really cool.

On our way back to the port, we had to do the touristy thing and stop at a couple of the shops with trinkets and knitted sweaters (or jumpers as they call them in England). Aran wool sweaters are well known as the wool used retains some of the natural oils. This helps the fishermen when they get sprayed with water, the sweater repels the water and keeps the fishermen dry. We didn't buy a sweater (too itchy and spendy!), but I found a lovely wool scarf and Brian found a grey wool knitted hat.

We headed back to Galway on the ferry and Andrea and Ruairi took a little snooze. That night we just grabbed dinner at a place close to the flat, and then headed back into the main town area for the pub for one last drink together.

Brian and I headed back for England fairly early the next morning. We had to take the train from Galway to Dublin (about 2.5-3 hours), city bus from train station to Dublin airport, then fly to London (1 hour in air, but all that airport waiting time), then take the London to Oxford coach bus (about 2.5 hours) and then the city bus to our flat. So it was full day of travel, but luckily it went off without a hitch. We'd definitely say we had an awesome time in Ireland and were so grateful to spend quality time with our good friends and Ands and Ruairi as well.