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Our first stop was Galway, Ireland.
The sites we visited in and around Galway
are listed in pink at left.
Click on them for more information and
pictures. |
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On our last full day in the
Galway area we headed out to the Aran Islands. The
Aran Islands are made up of 3 islands, Inishmore, Inishmaan, and
Inisheer. We only went to the largest and most visited
island,
Inishmore. We ferried
across to the islands; if you are prone to motion sickness,
you should take some Dramamine before this 45 minute ride. Inishmore is only 8 miles long and 2 miles
wide, so we had no problem getting around to see most of the
island via one of the few mini-busses available. Another
more common way to explore the islands would be on bike. The islands have literary importance
because they were often visited by James Joyce and
playwright
John Millington Synge. Inishmore is also
the birthplace of Liam O' Flaherty who is famous for his short
stories about the islands. There is also an 109 year old
woman on the island who for her 100th birthday published a book of
her life on the island.
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You can see the Aran Islands
from the Cliffs of Moher, so Inishmore has an Atlantic Ocean coast
(as shown above) and a Galway Bay coast. The island
has ruins of seven ancient churches also pictured above. Inishmore is the site of a Gaelic teaching college as well. The island is mostly "Gaelic" or Irish speaking and home of the
well known
Aran sweaters. The landscape reminded me of
The Burren, as once again there is a lot of limestone, this time
mostly in the form of rock walls! They told us on our
tour that there is enough rock in the walls on this small island to
build a road to America! One very famous site on Inishmore
is Dun Aengus (Dun Aonghasa), which is a prehistoric fort. |
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As mentioned in a brochure
from the Aran's Heritage Centre on the island, "Dun Aonghasa
(Dun Aengus), a
massive stone structure almost 300 feet above the sea was named
after the mythical hero Aonghas. Dun Aonghasa is thought to
have been built around the time of the birth of Christ during the
Celtic Iron Age. Although Dun Aonghasa has the appearance of
a military fort, experts say it was used as a ceremonial theatre."
We heard many other stories about what the fort could have been
used for. Seeing that the fort is prehistoric, they really
don't have record of what it was exactly used for. |
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You have to hike up to Dun
Aengus, which takes about a half hour. There is a path to
follow and it offers views of the ocean, cliffs and island.
It's pretty chilly and windy once you get to the top, but you'll
be sweating from the hike up. The guide told us the
most interesting stories about the island and the fort.
One I especially liked is when he described the fort area as a
"thin place" which means a place that is close to "the other
world" or a place that makes you feel small in the world.
This thought is just perfect for explaining the feeling of
visiting the area of Dun Aengus.
- "The holy island that
sleeps like a great shark on the grey water of the Atlantic
Ocean."
- James Joyce, 1912 |
*** Information on this page
comes from the displays at the Information Center and also brochures
from the Information Center. ***
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