Dave Byrnes

Round Ireland - 2016

Overview Planned Schedule Map Diary Pictures

Day:	047
Date:	Tuesday, 10 May 2016
Start:	Ennistimon
Finish:	Doolin
Daily Kilometres:	31
Total Kilometres:	1267
Weather:	Heavy overcast and haze all day with occasional light drizzle late in the afternoon
Accommodation:	Blackberry Lodge B&B
Nutrition:	Breakfast: Porridge, scrambled eggs & smoked salmon, toast & jam Lunch: Muesli bars and chocolate Dinner: Bangers & mash, berry crumble & ice-cream
Aches:	None really
Highlight:	The Cliffs of Moher, despite the heavy overcast and haze, were spectacular, dropping 200 metres vertically into a calm dark blue Atlantic Ocean with the Aran Islands just visible far offshore.
Lowlight:	None really
Pictures:	Here
GPS Track:	Here
Journal:	I was woken in the early morning by heavy rain which seemed to confirm the day's forecast for rain periods. However, by the time I left at 9:00am, the rain had stopped and the sky just looked threatening. I wore my rainjacket. The day's walk started badly when I misread a map and cost myself nearly 30 minutes of wasted effort before getting back on track. Curses, since the day was going to be long enough anyway. It was mild and humid and before long I decided to risk the rain and packed my jacket away. There was a new shared path (pedestrians and cyclists) from Ennistimon to Lahinch, so I didn't have to walk on the main road or find a back road as expected. Lahinch was a beachside village with a very attractive and well-patronised sand dune golf course, part of which abutted the ruins of Dough Castle. On another day, it would have been great to play 18 holes, though at €170 a round it was well out of my price-range. I crossed the River Inagh estuary and then walked on the road around to a little port village called Liscannor where I picked up the Burren Way, the first part of which used back roads to avoid the heavy Cliffs of Moher tourist traffic. I wended my way along quiet country lanes with the peaceful blue sea to my left until I reached one of the car parks used for tourists wanting to walk along the Cliffs of Moher. After another kilometre I reached the clifftop at Hag's Head which had a superb view northwards along the 200m high vertical cliffs. Despite the haze, it was spectacular. The Burren Way followed the clifftop northwards and I joined hundreds of other tourists walking along the path and admiring the views. Apparently it is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Ireland, drawing more than a million visitors a year. After 5km, I reached the Visitor Centre, which was cleverly and unobtrusively buried in a hillside, but there was no hiding the full carpark, flock of tour buses and hundreds of tourists of all shapes, sizes and ages. This was definitely the most-visited part of the cliffs, although I felt the southern section, from where I had just come, had better views. I took a break at a picnic table and watched the passing parade for a while before continuing my journey north along the clifftop. The crowds quickly dwindled and within a kilometre I was virtually on my own again. The Burren Way generally followed the descending clifftop almost all the way into Doolin, my destination for the day. I had had trouble finding a B&B online in Doolin, but it seemed nearly every building offered accommodation in the very touristy village and most had vacancy signs out. My booked B&B was a kilometre the other side of town, so as I walked through I kept an eye out for a shop where I could buy some food to take to the B&B and save a return trip later. However, there wasn't one, so I continued to the B&B and checked in at 5:00pm. It may have been further out of town than I like, but my room is new spacious and well-equipped at a reasonable price, so I shouldn't complain. I walked back to one of the pubs in the village recommended by the B&B owner for value meals and was quickly served. Although the staff was all Irish, I think everybody else in the pub was foreign and most of them were American. There was going to be traditional music later, as there is in many pubs, but I find it hard to get enthused. I'm just too cynical (and too much of a tight-wallet) in my old age and can't be bothered paying for over-priced drinks to participate in a "traditional" Irish pub evening, when it's all for the tourists. That apart, the meal was tasty and reasonably-priced and I walked back to my B&B with some blue sky visible for the first time in the day.