My days in Ireland are coming to an end, but I like to think
I made the most of it!
For my final trip in Ireland I pulled a solo mission to the
Cliffs of Moher on the west coast. With this trip under my belt I have
successfully been to every coast of the island of Ireland! To get to the Cliffs
of Moher I booked a day tour through Paddywagon, a super cheesy, touristy company.
Before the main attraction we had a couple of pit stops. I saw
4 castles that day but I will only tell you about the most interesting one:
Leamaneh Castle in county Clare. It was owned by Mary McMahon, a woman with a
fascinating reputation. Her nickname is Mary Rua (Red Mary) because of her
fiery red hair, but also because of the fact that she had 25 husbands...all of
which she outlived. Mary was left this castle by her first late husband, a modest Irish man. Under British Law of the time a widow could not own
property so Mary had to wed an English soldier to maintain the castle through a
loophole. That husband died in battle, then came and went the other 23 (!) men who
helped her earn her reputation. The castle itself is noteworthy because only
75% of it was lived in (the left part of the picture). The remaining 25% was a
refuge area for when the castle was under attack. The windows were wide on the
inside but closed to just a sliver on the outer walls so arrows could easily be deployed from the
inside, but could not be shot in (almost like a cheat on the stickman game Defend Ur Castle Porter and I used to play).The entrance to this part of the castle was lower than the main floor, which created what was called a ‘murder room’ where any
intruder could be showered with arrows upon entry. Mary sure did deserve her
nickname!
After seeing several other castles and stopping for lunch in
a sleepy town, with great seafood chowder, that I unfortunately cannot even remember the name of, we were off to some warm
up cliffs. The Baby Cliffs are only about 50 meters high, but the view was beautiful
and I could see the waves crashing almost right under my feet.
Following our stop at the Baby Cliffs, we were ready for the
real deal. The Cliffs of Moher are over 400 meters high! They extend for
several kilometers and are absolutely remarkable. Since I was there on a tour,
I was only allotted 1.5 hours to explore the cliffs-but don’t worry, I made the
most of it. I hiked to the very end of
the cliffs, past where any other tourist ventured, to get a full view. You
don’t know serenity until you are sitting on the edge of a 400 meter sea cliff,
alone, just watching the waves. I was awestruck. However, as you might
imagine, the trek to the end took a while. As a result I had to run back to
catch the tour bus and return to Cork. It wasn’t embarrassing though, because I
only ran the deserted part so nobody even saw me do it!
Aside form my day trip to the west coast I have been hanging
out with friends, embracing the final weeks we have together in this glorious
county. I only have half an essay and 2 days before I pack up my life in Cork and
move on to other things (I would say 'bigger and better' but I don’t know if it
CAN get much better). Soon I'll be off to travel through Spain, Portugal, and Paris where I get to meet up old and new friends! Until then, Goodbye! Adios! Adeus! Au revior!
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