Ireland #21 PJ answers a couple questions, a couple places that were a bust and then something great.

Dave and I have never been shy about asking people

 questions or for help when we are traveling.

There were a couple things we saw that we 

wondered about, so I took pictures and planned to ask

at the B&B,

PJ was more than happy to help out.

In this picture above there are buoys and lines in the water.

They actually looked like racing lanes for swimmers,

but we knew that wasn't what they were.

Turns out they are farms. 

Some kind of fish or shellfish.

PJ said there is a lot of shellfish sold to Europe from

their area and this may be one of the farms.

Interesting.

Off in the distance, right in the middle of this picture,

there are a couple tall tower like structures.

They reminded me of the big "robot walkers"

from Star Wars. 

We were guessing at what these might be,

and we were right.

They are water towers.
PJ said most water towers don't look as

"futuristic" as these do, so he 

figures they must be fairly new ones.

This is a picture I took just because I loved the 

name of the place.

O'Gradys Victuallers

Quality Meats

The Oxford Dictionary defines a vicutaller as
"A person providing or selling food or other provisions."

Not a word we are probably going to come across too

often in the US.

Now that we've gotten our trivia out of the way,

let's move on to what we did for the day.

We left Dun Mhurie with a sad farewell

to PJ and Marion.

We really enjoyed this B&B.

We were off to see some sights, among them

a beautiful light house.  Jane looked up 

pictures online and it was gorgeous.

But first we wanted to see the very cool castle that

we'd heard about.

We could see it in the distance at the top of a hill.

When we got closer we found that it was now a private

residence and we couldn't really see much of it

except from a great distance.

That was a bust! 

On to the lighthouse!

We drove some pretty awful roads to get there.

The road into the lighthouse area was pretty much

a couple ruts.

There were some very pretty coastal areas.

With a little rock climbing and stair climbing

we could see some lovely ocean views.

But the lighthouse?  Not what was in the pictures.

Up close it was pretty dismal.

It was no longer painted the way it showed in the pictures

and a lot of the area around it was pretty run down.

Another bust!

And there were no restrooms anywhere around, 

so you know what that means!

Let me just say that I will be very careful

if I ever have to "use the facilities" on the side

of a cliff again.  The wind is not helpful!

That being said, next we were off to find

a very old Celtic cross.
Guess what?

Another bust!

We drove some pretty difficult roads 

and never did find the cross.

And to make matters even worse,

I was starting to get hives.

My arms were a mess and the itching was awful.

Luckily Ed had some melt on your tongue 

Claritin with him and gave me one.

Our luck changed when we stopped for lunch.

We saw this sign and decided to check it out.

And we were so glad we did.

One of the things I love that I hadn't had to eat

this trip are "jacket potatoes"

It's simply a baked potato

split open and smothered in topping.

I'm not talking butter and/or sour cream,

I'm talking things that make it a whole meal.

I had a huge baked potato

covered with tuna, onions and corn.

It was amazing!

I really should think of making this for our dinner

sometimes here at home.  So simple and so tasty!

And even better, that Claritin really kicked in and

by the time we were back on the road

the hives were getting to be under control.

We did see some pretty cute sheep along the drive.

See that blue, it's their way of "branding" the sheep,

they are sprayed after they are sheered and then 

they can be identified by their color and marking.

Jane and Roxie were on a quest to get some good 

sheep pictures and I think they did this day.

We did more driving and finally came to Slieve League

and some beautiful vistas and beaches.

The parking was way above the beach.

There was a stairway down to the beach,

but it was incredibly long and none of us

were up for climbing down and then up again.

In the picture above, you can see the stairs,

the people going up and down are so small you can't 

hardly see them.  

There were literally hundreds of steps!

But the views from the top of the cliffs was just gorgeous!

It was pretty cold out there on those cliffs 

and a couple of us were ready to go sit in the car

while Dave wandered around.

Then he motioned for us to come over where 

he was, so off we went!

We were glad we did as the views were incredible!

Here's another one of the panoramic shots that didn't

quite turn out.  It was so hard to hold the camera steady

long enough in all that wind, but it gives you an idea of the 

vastness and beauty.  Those are a couple of the

Celtic Adventurers over at the far right.

We walked along a path around to the other side of some 

fields and there were sheep grazing right at the 

top of the cliffs.  

One wrong step and off the cliff they could go,

but the sheep were smart enough that they didn't

get too close to the edge.

I can never get over how high the cliffs in Ireland are!

The cliffs at Slieve League are some of the highest 

in Ireland.  The Cliffs of Moher are not as high,

but they are a bigger tourist spot.

After a good long time and taking a lot of 

pictures, we were off to see more sights.

If you go here, you can see one of the shots

that Dave brought out from this spot.

There were more cliffs, more ocean views 

and more sheep.

We were on another adventure.

We had no idea where we were headed, except 

in the general direction of our next B&B.

As we drove the shoreline changed.

We were traveling down at sea level rather 

than up on the cliffs.

We found a little harbor,

with some small boats, tide pools and lots of rocks.

Then we were off to find our way to our next B&B

"Teach Eamainn"

Thanks for visiting Ireland with me again.
Next post a very different B&B and Parke Castle.