day 06

Day 06

In my last day in Galway, I decided going to the Aran Islands, three limestone islands not far from here. There are ferries quite frequently, and I wanted to see the famous Dún Aengus, or Dún Aonghasa, an iron age fort on the top of a cliff in the bigger of the Aran Islands, Inishmore.

There are other pre historical sites in Inishmore, including other forts and megalithic tombs. It's raining everyday now, so I had my new umbrella and rain clothes.






Getting to Inishmore is not difficult, you get tickets in town and at 9:00 you get a bus to the port. It takes about an hour to get there and there is still some time until the boat takes off and then some 40 minute in the sea.
After get there I went for information bureau and found in to the map places I wanted to go. Dún Aengus is very famous, so I though it would be not that hard to get there. There was a megalithic tomb that I find in the map and went after that.

The weather was very, very bad. The wind just destroyed my umbrella and in minutes I got soaked. So I continue anyway.
I took one of the roads and start walking. I had the map in my head, so I choose one of the possible roads, the one that runs by the sea. I've found the right way to walk up to the ruins of a former lighthouse.

the area seem from above, the Dun, the tomb and the lighthouse

lighthouse

ruins of the lighthouse

There is possible to see a round fort like the one in the Burren, called Dún Eochla fort which is not very different from the images of Dún Aengus. Dún Eochla was built between 500 and 800 AD, dating from the early Medieval period, and is located in the highest point of the island. It was repaired in the 19^th century.
It was a good experience to be there, because it give me shelter from the rain as it may have done to the original settlers before me.

Dún Eochla fort

Just beside the Dún, there is a small wedge tomb, which not much information anywhere. Even in the turistic information they did not know about it. it has the same style from the Poulabrone, and in fact are somewhat alike, with thin and rectangular stones. It was in bad shape, actually like it was intended to be restored in a bad way. It made me think if it was really a tomb for a while.

wedge tomb

The weather was really hard so followed the trail looking for the other tomb, but as I could not find it though I found some beautiful cliffs, I took the way to Dún Aengus. But the rain did not allow me to get there, although I was not far from it.

Dún Aengus is a iron age fort that stands in the border of a cliff, and it produces a dramatic view, when seem from the top. It is been used since then and reconstructed some times. The actual fort was not built in the edge of the cliff, but some hundred meters from it. The cliff fell and parts of the fort fell with it. Today there is half of it remains.

this is Dún Aengus on a nice day

Tomorrow I must spend most of the day going back to London. I had good experiences here in Ireland, but bad weather all along. I think it’s been raining everyday for 12 days now. I could not explore so much as I wanted, but I could see some especial things here. Hope I can come back with more time.