Travel Tuesday: County Clare, Ireland

In 2005 we celebrated our 11th anniversary by taking a trip to Ireland.   I chose to share Ireland today for Bonnie's Travel Tuesday since we're headed back there the end of this week. This time we're taking Jerry's parents and our kids and we couldn't be more excited!

What inspired the trip in 2005 was seeing the Cliffs of Moher in a commercial I'd seen.  Funny sometimes what will inspire you and make you say "I must go there now!!!"

I did a whole lot of searching for a place to stay and found a nice little family run B&B that also runs a taxi service from their home.   It's located in the little fishing village of Liscannor in County Clare.  

Part of our package stay was an airport pick up in the town of Shannon.  He also offered to pick us up if we were out and about, to just to give him a call.  Another day he was on a work trip north of town and offered to take us to Galway and would pick us up on the way back.  I can't say enough about the Irish and their hospitality! This may have changed in the 8 years since we've been there, but cash machines were hard to find! The closest was in the neighboring town of Lahinch.  We fell in love with this little town on our trips to get cash and eat at the restaurants.  

Lahinch had several restaurants and shops with a lovely board walk along the sea where you can watch the local surfing schools train their students.  

The Cliffs of Moher (pronounced like Mohair, accent on the Mo) are a site that cannot be missed!  We had a rare treat to walk along the cliff's edge!  Public access is just about completely cut off due to the dangers of the winds.  We were given access by another B&B owner who's farmland extended to the cliff's edge.  I'm glad that we had this rare opportunity as access has been tightened in recent years. Now you must have a ticket to even walk to the designated visitor area of the cliffs.

A foggy morning at the cliffs.

The bus we were on had to wait while the farmers moved the cattle to another field.

You can tell by this tree that the winds blows a lot and comes from one direction.

The town of Doolin, referred to as the capital of Irish Traditional Music.

Ruins or what our taxi driver called famine houses, dot the countryside.

It was such a great and memorable trip.

I may not be around much while we're traipsing through Ireland and will be eager to share more photos with you when we return!


Have you ever been to Ireland?  If so, which part?

County Clare on Dwellable