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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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“What's a bog?” |
After leaving Clifden the roads and scenery became quiet, empty and peaceful. We drove through some spectacular areas, the Connemara was beautiful in it's bleakness and we also stopped at a few sights on the way to Donegal. Kylemore Abby, a 19th century castle/mansion that is now a convent boarding school was impressive more for it's setting than the house itself as it was on the side of a lake and at the bottom of a mountain. We also stopped at Ceide Fields, an expansive stone age town that was spread all over the hills and cliffs looking out over the Atlantic ocean. Unfortunately we got there too late for a guided tour so the site didn't look like much to us as it was all ruins and it was freezing cold and blowing a gale so it was not condusive to walking around! However the visitor centre did have a really good display on bogs and what they are and how they are formed which was very interesting as neither of us really knew what they were.
Essentially bogs are squidgy land that was once plant life that was unable to breakdown due to the wet climate and so just piled up over time. It's not like swamp though as it's kinda dried out and looks like dirt until you touch it. All over the bog areas of Ireland you see long furrows cut 2-5 metres deep in the land down to the stone where turf cutters dig out the bog in brick sized, but brown jelly like pieces that are then dried out and used later to burn in fireplaces at home.
We stayed the Friday night in Donegal at a B&B that we only booked late that afternoon and we suspect we ruined the man of the house's Friday night. He was a real 'lad' in his 40's and while very nice and hospitable he informed us that his wife was away for the weekend and he was left in charge. We think he might have had bit of a boys night planned, and the next morning when we got up for the usual full Irish cooked breakfast, he looked like he'd only got up a minute before us and was also in need of a fry-up...
From Donegal we headed towards Derry in Northern Ireland and on the way we saw easily the most impressive site in Ireland, Slieve League. These cliffs were tricky to find and involved very narrow winding roads with sheep, but it was worth it as these massive cliff hills that drop down hundreds of metres to the Atlantic ocean were so wild and brutal it was literally jaw-dropping. If you go to Ireland, you must go to Slieve League, it has none of the crowds, tour buses and tourist infrastructure of the Cliffs of Moher and is a hundred times more impressive. It is so remote and rural you have to open and close a paddock gate to get there. It's not completely untouched of course, there is a really good cafe about 5km down the road that does awesome coffee and has lovely locally made knitted items (i bought a beanie).
After Slieve League we drove through the Glen Gash pass, yet another stunning area and went to the Glenveagh national park were we did a guided tour of Glenveagh Castle which was also set in a lovely spot on a lake. The castle's interior was very over the top, but the gardens were pretty and the guided tour was interesting, at least what we could understand of it as the accent was beginning to be very 'northern' and while it sounded lovely, we only caught every few words!
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