Today is my last day in Doolin. I took Tony’s advice from yesterday, and didn’t take the Cliff Walk tour. Instead, I slept in a bit, had a leisurely breakfast, and walked by the tourism information office and picked up a walking map of the area. Thus armed, I went for a walk around the area.
The fields around Doolin.The narrow roads leading up in the Doolin hills. Gotta keep an eye out for cars, because there’s really only one lane.Hills and rock fences.Tough walking in the hills, but great views.Looking down on Doolin village.The Aille River runs along Fisher Street in Doolin.Doonagore Castle overlooks the whole valley.You can see it from pretty much anywhere in the region.it’s on private land, so I couldn’t go right up to it. But still. Pretty cool.Looking down on the piers at Doolin. With the watchtower island, and Inisheer in the background.Looking down at Doolin and across Galway Bay at the Connemara coastline.An old stone house, with stone fences, and the Atlantic beyond.Wildflowers everywhere along the roads.Really everywhere.There were neat little streams running through the fields down towards the cliffs.I got a fair way along the cliff walk, but turned back at the sign that said not to use the rest of the trail.A ferry coming in.The cliffs were amazing.Very cool cliffs.
So, after walking about six miles or so through the hills, I realized I probably could have managed the cliff walk tour. But I saw a whole bunch of cool stuff, and had a good time.
It was an overcast day, but warm, with no breeze. Given the high humidity, I was very hot and sweaty after the walk, so I stopped to have lunch and a drink at O’Connor’s pub, then walked back to McGann’s to shower and rest for a bit. Eventually, I went down for supper at McGann’s, and to wait for the music to start. It was going to be an early session, and thus it was sort of empty for the first little bit.
I thought I had good seats at the pub last night. Tonight, I was right beside Geraldine. It was awesome.
I’m working on uploading a short video of one of the tunes. Look for a post about that in the next hour or so.