Inish Mor

Hello,

So we spent the weekend over on Inish Mor, the largest of the three Aran Islands. The Aran Islands are just off the coast so it was an hour on the bus and a very manageable 40 minutes on a ferry and we were there. We left Galway at 9.30 on Sunday morning and were back at 7.30 Sunday night.



The Galway hooker is the local traditional boat, we were lucky as we left on the ferry to see a bunch of them racing. The ferry was packed with tourists, many of whom were just on a day trip. The islands take tourism seriously, you land and rows of tour buses and horse drawn carts are waiting at the dock to offer you a tour of the island. The tours are really cheap, 20 euro for the carts and between 10 and 20 euro for the buses. One really good reason to avoid the tours is that there are lots of cool spots on the islands that no roads go to and therefore you won't see if you take the tours. However on a rainy day if you're only on a day trip they probably give you a good overview of the islands main attractions. We walked past the tour guides and on to our hostel, we tried sleeping in dorms for the first time as it's much cheaper than having your own room and we needed to know if we liked it enough to save ourselves some money when travelling around Europe. We were in a 4 bed dorm with 2 Spainish guys, the hostel was really clean and relaxed and run by an Australian. The only real downside of the dorm was that one of the Spanish guys snored like a trucker but I guess that's just the luck of the draw.

The islands are somehow famous for their woolen crafts, so sweater shops line the main town front. It wasn't until Sunday afternoon that Emmett and I realised that we'd been around nearly the entire island and not seen a single sheep...



Ok so after a quick look in the sweater shops we headed out to find Black fort. It was wet but if there's one thing a couple of months in Ireland will teach you it's that you can't let a bit of rain stop you. To get to the fort we needed to follow the coast for a bit. The east side of the island has beaches, the west cliffs.



The beach had a whole path in the sand made of these tiny shells, from a distance they looked like those coloured pebbled pavers that used to be popular.



After heading along the beach we had to go up and over the island to the west coast, on the way we passed through farmland. There is very little dirt on the islands, they are basically rocks. There is just enough dirt to grow grass, so here you can see there is lots of space with lovely stone fences but very little stock on the island. Maybe all the farmers have traded in their tractors for tour buses, I don't know.



Emmett loved these snails, they were everywhere and he would point them out so I didn't stand on them. They are really pretty and they came in different colours as well, like green and yellow.



Up on the west coast of the island it is much more rock than grass, the rock layers give little flowers a place to grow. There are no real paths across the island so we simply had to cross the rocky countryside to get to Black fort. There are no warning signs, no fences along the cliff edges and no DOC walkways to protect the plant life. You really get to explore unwatched and because Black fort is not on the road route we only saw one other group at the site and we hung out there for about 15minutes and didn't see another soul.



Emmett outside Black fort.



Me climbing on Blackfort, well there wasn't a sign to say not to.



The fort has the cliffs on one side so it is basically a wall to stop anyone coming over land from invading. It is pretty big and what's truely immpressive is the idea that it was all made by guys picking up rocks and stacking them up. You can climb up to the top of it and the views of the rocky landscape and cliffs are awe inspiring.





So after Blackfort we called it a day and went back to the dorm for a nap before dinner. We went for an evening walk after dinner and found this Mary shrine. There are lots of shrines on the island, most of Mary but some of Jesus as well.



Sunday we hired bikes and set off to see the sites, the first was the lighthouse. It turned out to be modern and not that interesting but just down from it was another stone fort. this one was perfectly circular with a couple of levels like the Black forts and a round platform in the middle of it. The above photo is taken from the top of it.



We got back to our bikes, after hiding from a nasty downpour in the fort, and found this idealic scene. Horses grazing under a rainbow in stonewalled fields, it's cheesy postcard heaven.



The water is amazingly clear and clean on the island and it has some fantastic beaches, shame it wasn't warmer or we could have gone for a swim.



One of the must do's on the island is get up close and personal with the cliffs. Up at Dun Aonghasa fort (believed to be as old as 800BC ) is the perfect place to do this because it's on of the islands highest points. Dun Aonghasa is an impressive fort but it's on the road route so it's covered in tourists, it has a "no climbing" sign (spoil sports!) and you have to pay a couple of euro entry fee. It is a must see but the other forts were quite frankly more fun.





Me at Dun Aonghasa.



Ok so after the fort we went to find the wormhole, it's a perfect rectangle cut into the stone floor of the island and the sea crashes up into it, or so they say - we never found it. We did find an amazing rock coastline and we jumped over boulders and did some minor rock climbing. It was great fun and again we pretty much had the place to ourselves which is more our style than the waves of tourists.



This is a stream that runs from the island to the ocean through the rocks on the coast we found when looking for the wormhole.

Ok it's been a long one but in my defence the Island was amazing. If any of you get as far as Ireland you should at least make a day trip because it will blow your mind with history and natural beauty. We had a ball and it is one of the cheapest weekends away you can do in this area.

There, done, see you later,

Aimee