The Cliffs of Moher

My plan was to get an early start to the Cliffs of Moher. Well, that didn’t quite happen. We were on the road at 9:45 a.m. Armed with a print out with directions from Google Maps we headed for the Cliffs. Driving through/around Galway City was a bit tricky because of all the roundabouts. We did pretty well, though, with only one wrong exit which we quickly discovered and got turned around.

The Cliffs of Moher, (pronounced “more”), are located in County Clare, southeast of Galway. The actual distance from Barna is not very far – maybe 60 miles – but it is very slow going because of driving through the city and then the really narrow roads. Interestingly enough, the speed limit on these roads is 100 km/hr (about 62 mph) but we could not imagine going that fast. Most of the time we drove 60 kph (35 mph) and it seemed a lot faster – especially to the passenger. There are quite a few tour buses heading to the Cliffs and they took up more than their lane. I had to close my eyes whenever we met one – fortunately, John kept his eyes open.. There are NO shoulders on these roads – very scary.

We passed through many quaint towns, lush green fields, sea views, castles in ruin and the unique burren landscape. Our drive took us along the south shore of Galway Bay and then down the coast of the Atlantic Ocean to the Cliffs. Just before arriving at the Cliffs we stopped for a brief look close up at the burren. This unique area is covered with limestone rocks of varying shapes and sizes, some with holes in them, varying amount of greenery in between the rocks and many species of wildflowers. In fact 75% of the plants in Ireland are represented in the Burren. The footing over the rocky areas is pretty tricky so we didn’t do a lot of walking there.

We arrived at the Cliffs and parked in the lot and paid the “facility fee”. There was a small visitor’s center but the main attraction was the cliffs. They were magnificent – a series of several cliffs towering over the Atlantic – 600 feet high. There were walks in both direction with stairs to get to the top to view the cliffs. The weather varied even while we were there from partly sunny to rain. After seeing all there was to be seen (except the shops which I was not allowed to visit), we headed back towards Galway.

At the town of Kinvarra nearly Galway, we stopped for lunch at Moran’s Oyster House on the Weir – recommended by my friend Thea whose parents had a cottage there for years. What a fabulous lunch! I had garlic broiled missels which were the best I have ever tasted – so very fresh. John had beer battered fried prawns and they were also delicious. We accompanied our meal with a half pint of Guinness. We sat outside with a view of the weir – a very pleasant late lunch and ending to a wonderful day in Ireland. The rest of the drive home was not bad and we got through all the roundabouts in fine style.