County Clare & The Burren

Day 4: Wednesday June 8th
We got up a bit earlier than the previous day and headed for County Clare. Our mission today was to find the house in the Burren where they filmed "Father Ted" as well as the Cliffs of Moher. I had found directions to the house on the Internet and hoped they were right. We took a couple wrong turns but eventually found it! We were thrilled and stopped by the road to take pictures. A neighbor was working on a stone fence up the road and must have thought we were crazy... But I'm sure he's seen this before.
Apparently there is a family living there, and we didn't want to disturb them. So we turned around and headed back to a main road.
Next on the agenda was getting to the beautiful cliffs of Moher. And we did. The last time we were there the parking lot was close to the cliffs next to an adorable stone cottage that served as a gift shop. This time the parking lot was torn up and major construction was going on. There was a makeshift gift shop across the highway with a much larger parking area. The walk went over the hill past many cows next to the fence. Meri wanted several pictures of them. Thus coining Robb's famous quote of the day... "We live in IOWA!! We don't need any more pictures of stinkin' cows!" This only encouraged the kids to point them out for the remainder of the trip.
The walk was through construction, but came out of the edge of the cliffs to a gorgeous view. Ryan, Meri & I purchased the euro tickets to get to the top of O'Briens tower. There were clouds of gnats up there, so we didn't stay long. There was a free telescope. Ryan bought more Guinness items and the girls found some souvenirs as well. We took lots of pictures! Meri went to town taking pictures with the panoramic camera.
It was very warm on the cliffs that day. In fact the weather had been much warmer than we had anticipated and we were running out of summer clothes. Everyone's jackets were tied around their waists. We saw one man from Germany singing in German on the edge of the cliffs with a friend video taping him. Don't know what that was about.
I bought a cd from a young man who was playing guitar on the long sidewalk down the cliffs. Meri and Maddy found a couple dogs that belonged to a woman who played the accordian there as well. I let Maddy throw a Euro in her case when they were done playing with the dogs.
We then had a picnic lunch in the car in the car park there. Afterwards headed north through the Burren. The ground around us became very rocky. We stopped a couple times to let the kids run out on the rocks. It was like landing on the moon or being in another world. Some plants grew between the rocks, but not many. Totally weird landscape. We found another beach farther north and let the kids collect shells.
On the way back we took a wrong turn and ended up on one of the secondary narrow roads again. Oops! Oh well, Clare county is beautiful and you see it up close and personal on those roads. We then made our way back to Bruree. Maddy and I drove into Kilmallock (6 miles away) for some take-away (take out). We turned down a one way street, but some helpful Irish boys helped us get turned back around. We brought back some chicken and chips (French fries). Not Kentucky Fried, but it was very good.
Meri discovered snails all around the Mill and started collecting them. She was determined to take her new pets home, but we convinced her that the officials at the airport would confiscate them. So she let them go every night. But that morning, she had quite a collection. Kludo, the puppy from downstairs had become Meri's best friend as well and came up to see if we had any treats. Maddy had some leftover chips from the plane and was giving them to Kludo. Kludo saw the snails and took off with one, thinking it was a chip. We heard him crunching it behind the flower bushes and Meri flipped out! Crisis!!!

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• county
• clare
• ireland
• father
• ted
• moher
• cliffs
• burren
• drive

[ironshields]

Not sure if you knew this or not, but the well that the family are standing in front of in the photo is known as the Gleninagh Holy Well (near Gleninagh Castle) and it is also refered to by the locals as the Pinnacle Well. My aunt used to own a house located just north of that well, and my fathers house was about a mile south of that well. Hope you enjoyed your visit to County Clare.

[MCVALKRIE]

Thanks! I didn't know the name of the well. I'll have to update our scrapbook of the trip! We loved County Clare! Both times we've been there. My husband does want to visit the eastern side of Ireland next time tho.

[jratt2]

Enjoyed the photos. I know the purple house...cuts the eyes out me everytime I pass it. Purple Pain I call it.

[MCVALKRIE]

lol! We passed that house several times and kept commenting that we needed a picture of it for a friend back home. She NUTS for the color purple and we knew she'd appreciate it.

[phioma]

What's the name of this song????

[MCVALKRIE]

The music is from the Celtic Tiger cd (newest Michael Flatley thing). Song is the main song, called Celtic Tiger.

[larrythelookout]

nice video.. must go looking for fr teds house might get a cuppa in it

[homer091]

a few summers ago some tourists asked me for directions to the burren...... from eyre square in galway

[stampeed442]

Wow thanks loved it ;)

[upmeath]

European niggers? I've never heard that term applied to us before!

[dnrothen]

Nice, very nice. In Brazil there's few people of irish origin. I knew in Brasilia, few years ago, a young architet from Dublin. Something I know is that the Irish people are known as "the Europe niggers!". OK, it means, in my country, to have good teeth, nice voice, make good music...and to be Master Football Players. All right, except this last adjective... lol

[MCRtheblakparade737]

haha nice shots. hope u had a good time here at the emerald isle lol! yay ireland rocks

[xylsvoss]

The most beautiful country glad my family comes from there.

[nicko209312]

whew...I love being irish