A bank holiday (simply a Monday off and the Irish do it the first Monday of June, July and August) encouraged me to go into County Clare to Ennis, Ennistymon (a really lovely village on a rapid river with an aging hotel, Falls River Hotel, offering memories of the King and Prince on St. Simon’s Island so many years ago). I stopped for breakfast at the hotel and had the full Irish breakfast: sausage, ham, eggs (scrambled or sunny side up), beans, mushrooms, fruit, rolls, juice, coffee with cream. Then I took the coast road to the Cliffs of Moher. Breathtaking. Moving on up the coast I stopped this side of Ballyvaughan and had tea at a garden tea house. They had a large farm type table at the front of the room laden with every imaginable cake and pastry and meringues. Ah…tea and crumpets, actually a lemon and coconut tart/cake thingy. Very good.
I meandered my way along the coast back to the cottage where I am staying. The roads are narrow, the buses are huge, the cars go too fast. I was ready to be off the road, and a saying I have learned from my landlady, I was happy to clap my eyes on the house.
The Burren:
An amazing outcrop of limestone and rock with flowers growing in every imaginable crevice. How people sustained a life from these rocks with sheep and cows is totally beyond me. The rocks towering like mountains over the sea are majestic and powerful. I understand the beauty.
Leara Rhodes 