![[Map of the West of Ireland]](images/pmurphy/ireland_west_map.png)
Hmm... this is taking a lot longer to create than I thought it would. This page may be the last I get to write on this topic for a while. Anyway...
... Where were we? Ah yes, staying over at The Three Arches Bed & Breakfast. We enjoyed this so much, we stayed an extra night (the original plan was to find another B&B on Achill Island). Even though it's been over two months, I can still remember the wonderful view south towards Mweelrea (that's a mountain for those of you who've never been there). Bryan thoroughly enjoyed visiting the beach whenever he could, and on this fourth day, he got to visit plenty of them.
We set off due East towards Westport, zipping past Lecanvey where I stayed on holidays back in ninteen sixty something; we rented a house from the Stauntons back then (pronounced "Stawn-Tun", unlike the town of Staunton, VA near here which is pronounced "Stan-Tun"; go figure). It's still there but I don't know if they are, or if they'd remember the kids who liked to play on the rocks three fields down on the beach back then. That (196?) was the year of the jellyfish; I remember the beach at Black Head being crowded with the darn things; about one per square meter (yard). No-one wanted to go in the water! There weren't nearly as many this year (or any other year from what my relatives tell me).
Apart from the ocean and the many islands in Clew Bay, the biggest feature along this stretch of road is of course Croagh Patrick (another mountain). It may not be overly big, at around 2510 feet, but it's a considerable climb from the base at close to sea level. It's also the mountain where legend has it that Saint Patrick threw the snakes from, thereby casting them out of Ireland forever. The only problem with this is that they were never there to begin with! Nowadays, the popular theory among historians seems to be that the "snakes" represented pagan beliefs.
We went around Clew Bay, through Westport, Newport and on towards Mulraney (Malraney? The anglicisation of the Irish words for the town is definitely inconsistent). At that point, we took the lesser, southern coast road around the peninsula (whassits name? Map is at work, I'm at home!) and on past Achill Sound to Achill Island. It was here that it really struck us how things have improved in the past 9 years since we last visited the area. There was a lot of refurbishing, reconstruction, new house building, etc. going on, and there were very few if any run-down houses that we could see anywhere. Everything looked clean, and either new or spruced up with a fresh coat of whitewash. This was a pleasant contrast to what we remembered from last time.
I wish I had a photo of them, but the rhododendron bushes were really impressive when we drove onto Achill Island. Bushes? Heck, they are as big as small trees, towering up to about 20 feet on both sides of the road. Plus, they were in bloom at that time of year (June). It was really beautiful.
We drove to the very end of the Island, at Keem Strand. Or, at least as far as the road went. That road didn't do much for the wary-of-heights nerves of some family members (and I remember the same thing happening back 30 years ago!)... That same summer in sixty-something, it was such a relief swimming there as there were no jellyfish to be found then. We found a couple of small ones when we walked on the beach this time, but their presence wasn't deterring the present-day bathers. Personally, I think Keem Strand is one of the nicest beaches in Ireland. The water there, and on most beaches in the West, is usually several degrees warmer than any beach on the East; that's due to the Gulf Stream directly impacting the West Coast of Ireland.
On the way back, we stopped at what for us was probably the highlight of the visit to Achill Island: the Deserted Village. Nine years ago, we saw this from the road, but the access was difficult. Now, there's a road right up to it, and it's a regular tourist attraction for the Tour busses. In a way that's a shame, as too many people don't respect what is an archaeological treasure, and climb on the ruins or (worse) steal a rock or something else as a souvenir. Grr. I wish tour operators would supervise the people in their care a little better.
Anyway, it wasn't clear from what we read when the village was actually deserted. I gathered that it diminished hugely in population during and after the Famine (caused, among other things, by failure of the Potato crop in the 1840's due to a blight; they were the only food available to the native population), but apparently it was populated at some level several decades thereafter. It would be appropriate, once the historians figure out what really happened, to make more information available to visitors in the form of a plaque, a leaflet or something. I was personally humbled by trying to imagine what life was like for the inhabitants, as I climbed over some of the rocks in the fields they used for crops and gazed up at the looming bulk of the mountain to the North.
When we finally tore ourselves away from this site, we made a stop at another beach (darnit, whassa name of that town on the North shore of the Island?) facing towards the Belmullet Peninsula, much to Bryan's delight. Apparently there are seals that inhabit caves on the North shore of the Island, and local operators offer boat cruises (with life jackets!), but we did not try that and couldn't see any seals from the beach.
Back at the B&B, Bryan got an offer he couldn't refuse: to go watch the cows being milked. He and the Proprieter's young son hit it off (for a while anyway!) and they both went to watch (or help!). That, plus a quick climb of the hill behind the house tired Bryan out for the night.
The following day, we drove via a somewhat indirect route to Dublin to spend some time with my Family (yes, I was born and educated there, and my parents and brother still live there). On the way, we stopped at Roscommon to look at the ruined Castle in the town centre. This is one of many ruins in Ireland that are off the beaten path, usually overlooked by the main tours, but yet well worth seeing. IMHO of course.
I wonder if I could get the whole vacation covered in pages like these before it would be time to visit again! Christmas has come and gone, as has a major disruption in my on-line existence (I made it on the infamous "blue list"; a Google Groups search on "thee bluelist murphy" shows this; I'm right there with Paul Vixie and Tom Christiansen!). I had a fourth page in preparation, but as it's now 2008 and that was 1996... well... what can I say! I also need to add pictures to this page; I have some scanned, some on my bulletin board waiting to be scanned, and some at home...