Lynne's trip has been a whirlwind.
After so many visitors and doing so much, I would not have believed that we could maintain as much of a schedule as we had with other visitors (remember the crazy whirl-wind tour that Sheila had with her sisters?) and still overlap nearly nothing in terms of sights seen.
The trip to the Skellig Islands was every bit of the trip-of-a-lifetime that I expected it to be.
We meandered down to Killarney (via the Rock of Dunmase and Kilkenny, which if you look at a map of Ireland really isn't on the way at all) and got there at night, early enough to have dinner, a pint, and listen to a bit of music before bed.
Lynne saw the little tiny sign for the Rock of Dunmase (the fort of Másc) and we thought, why not? So we headed off the beaten path to see what was so special about this little outcropping.
Here's a bit from Wikipeda: The Rock of Dunamase is one of the most historic sites in Ireland. Its ruins date back to the late medieval period. The Rock stands 46m tall in the heart of what is otherwise a flat plain, and was ideal as a defensive position with its view right up to the Slieve Bloom Mountains.
Excavations in the 1990s demonstrated that the Rock was first settled in the 9th century when a fort or dún was constructed on the site. In 845 the Vikings of Dublin attacked the site and the abbot of Terryglass was killed there. There is no clear evidence of 10th–11th century occupation. Here is another Website telling all about the old Castle.
Here is a picture of how they think the castle must have looked before it was ruined.
Climbing around the old walls and imagining how the whole thing must've looked was a blast. So much so that we wanted to head down to see a completely intact castle at Kilkenny which, surprisingly, paled in comparison to this old garrison.
We stayed at Murphys in Killarney. It was a great hotel/pub that offered one of my favorite microbrews: Tom Crean Lager.
Both Lynne and I woke up early the next day. It was nerves, I suppose. I wasn't exactly sure how long it would take for us to do half of the Ring of Kerry and another half of the Skellig Ring and the boats were supposed to leave at 10. Plus we really had no idea about any of it. Was the trip going to be rocky? (I have terrible motion sickness). Were the 670 stairs going to be do-able? Would we feel like we were going to fall off the island? Would we be terrified of the heights?
We rolled into Portmagee just before 10, I gave Sheila a quick call, and we headed out to the Pier.
One skipper came up to us and asked if we needed to book a boat but I assured him that we were booked with "Casey." I had been in nearly constant communication with Casey over the prior couple of days and had actually booked the boat three weeks in advance. The new skipper told me that Casey was full.
I was aghast.
We went up to him and I told him who I was, that I had talked to him the day before etc. etc.
He had, indeed, given up our slot!
Michael, our new skipper gladly took us aboard and we weren't two minutes on board before we headed out of the harbor and to the open sea.
Johnny would have been jealous. We've seen these ladders on to the boats below and he has always wanted to climb on one.
The ride was a bit choppy. We sat near a French couple and started chatting it up with a young Dubliner with her new (perhaps) boyfriend (she clarified later that they had known each other for a while but had just experienced a "spark" and were testing the waters before he headed back to San Francisco where he is currently working). She overheard our concerns about the water and the stairs etc. etc. She assured us that it was sure to be worse on the way back (!) and that she, too, was afraid of the island. She mimicked an Irish Times headline: Attractive thirtysomething Irish lass falls off cliff into ocean. I added: and her man follows in after her!
It took quite a while to travel the six kilometers in the open Atlantic out to the Islands. But you can see we had just fabulous weather. I guess that none of the trips had been able to make the trip for the previous four days the water was so bad. I even got a sunburn!
When we got near to the islands, the skipper took us around "Little Skellig" the bird sanctuary. There are around 30,000 pairs of gannets on the island.
I'm going to post some pictures of this island here and wait for the second island blog and videos for tomorrow.
Leaving Little Skellig, heading to Skellig Michael.
After so many visitors and doing so much, I would not have believed that we could maintain as much of a schedule as we had with other visitors (remember the crazy whirl-wind tour that Sheila had with her sisters?) and still overlap nearly nothing in terms of sights seen.
The trip to the Skellig Islands was every bit of the trip-of-a-lifetime that I expected it to be.
We meandered down to Killarney (via the Rock of Dunmase and Kilkenny, which if you look at a map of Ireland really isn't on the way at all) and got there at night, early enough to have dinner, a pint, and listen to a bit of music before bed.
Lynne saw the little tiny sign for the Rock of Dunmase (the fort of Másc) and we thought, why not? So we headed off the beaten path to see what was so special about this little outcropping.
Here's a bit from Wikipeda: The Rock of Dunamase is one of the most historic sites in Ireland. Its ruins date back to the late medieval period. The Rock stands 46m tall in the heart of what is otherwise a flat plain, and was ideal as a defensive position with its view right up to the Slieve Bloom Mountains.
Excavations in the 1990s demonstrated that the Rock was first settled in the 9th century when a fort or dún was constructed on the site. In 845 the Vikings of Dublin attacked the site and the abbot of Terryglass was killed there. There is no clear evidence of 10th–11th century occupation. Here is another Website telling all about the old Castle.
Here is a picture of how they think the castle must have looked before it was ruined.
Climbing around the old walls and imagining how the whole thing must've looked was a blast. So much so that we wanted to head down to see a completely intact castle at Kilkenny which, surprisingly, paled in comparison to this old garrison.
We stayed at Murphys in Killarney. It was a great hotel/pub that offered one of my favorite microbrews: Tom Crean Lager.
Both Lynne and I woke up early the next day. It was nerves, I suppose. I wasn't exactly sure how long it would take for us to do half of the Ring of Kerry and another half of the Skellig Ring and the boats were supposed to leave at 10. Plus we really had no idea about any of it. Was the trip going to be rocky? (I have terrible motion sickness). Were the 670 stairs going to be do-able? Would we feel like we were going to fall off the island? Would we be terrified of the heights?
We rolled into Portmagee just before 10, I gave Sheila a quick call, and we headed out to the Pier.
I was aghast.
We went up to him and I told him who I was, that I had talked to him the day before etc. etc.
He had, indeed, given up our slot!
Michael, our new skipper gladly took us aboard and we weren't two minutes on board before we headed out of the harbor and to the open sea.
Johnny would have been jealous. We've seen these ladders on to the boats below and he has always wanted to climb on one.
The ride was a bit choppy. We sat near a French couple and started chatting it up with a young Dubliner with her new (perhaps) boyfriend (she clarified later that they had known each other for a while but had just experienced a "spark" and were testing the waters before he headed back to San Francisco where he is currently working). She overheard our concerns about the water and the stairs etc. etc. She assured us that it was sure to be worse on the way back (!) and that she, too, was afraid of the island. She mimicked an Irish Times headline: Attractive thirtysomething Irish lass falls off cliff into ocean. I added: and her man follows in after her!
It took quite a while to travel the six kilometers in the open Atlantic out to the Islands. But you can see we had just fabulous weather. I guess that none of the trips had been able to make the trip for the previous four days the water was so bad. I even got a sunburn!
When we got near to the islands, the skipper took us around "Little Skellig" the bird sanctuary. There are around 30,000 pairs of gannets on the island.
I'm going to post some pictures of this island here and wait for the second island blog and videos for tomorrow.
You can see a glimpse of Skellig Michael in the back right.
The Gannets
Leaving Little Skellig, heading to Skellig Michael.
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