Wed, 25 Jun 2003

author Tim	location Doolin, Claire, Ireland
posted 10:17 BST 26/06/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Ireland/Ireland 1 ( all photos )

Kerry and Claire - Bunratty, Cliffs of Moher, Doolin ( 42 photos )
We headed off early, driving through the city of Limerick (many people had mentioned that you didn't want to waste your time there, and especially didn't want to park a camper van there - we didn't need to think hard about it).
Instead, after missing it totally the first time, we eventually made it to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, Bunratty. So many people had said this was worth seeing, that we didn't even mind paying the high fee to get in (as an aside, all prices in our Lonely Planet, published only in February, have gone up quite a lot, some by almost double), and we weren't disappointed.
We had come only for the castle, but actually enjoyed the folk park more. Think Old Sydney Town, but with lots of different types of dwellings, quaint shops, people you can watch make apple pie and the eat some next door, or some cake on the peat fire topped with butter made that morning. And somehow it avoided being totally tourist-tacky despite all this. You didn't feel there were thirty coach-loads plus a carpark full of cars worth of people there, even if there was.
We lunched on their replica main street before taking on the castle itself. Built in 1425, it is almost totally intact, and everything inside is at least two hundered years old. This is attributed to a great restoration project in the 1970's where huge amounts were spent by private owners then the whole thing bequeathed to the Irish people. Very generous of them. We wandered around the place, dodging up tiny spiral staircases between coach-loads of French tourists (we learnt "thankyou" and "excuse me" very quickly), before deciding that as great as it sounded, the Medieval Banquet they hold twice-nightly complete with serving whenches, mead and lots of carved-up animals would have to wait until next trip, when we were on better terms with the bank manager.
We drove through the county town of Claire, Ennis, which had almost nothing going for it, stopping instead at the little town of Ennistmon, which Lonely Planet had pointed out had free internet access in the library. We didn't need to be told twice, as Liz and I both sat there for an hour and a half catching up with the world's events. Unfortunately, we couldn't plug the laptop in so no website upload from there.
Next on the list was the spectacular Cliffs of Moher, which once again had been discovered by people from as far as Asia, and even some old ockers wearing John Farnham T-Shirts. There were local buskers of course, playing some sea shanties which managed to fit in rather well with the views.
And weren't they great. You are about 200m up from the sea, and if you get far enough away from every one else, you can just hear the faint crashes of waves below. Sea birds squark in the distance, circling and nesting on the rocks, almost as oblivious of the heights as those moronic people who choose to stand right on the edge and look over, despite the massive piles of broken rocks at the bottom where millions of years of erosion has seen the cliffs move further and further back.
The section you can officially walk along is actually rather small, and the rest is private property, but that didn't stop plenty of people moving in for a closer look. The views we got were plenty good enough to make us not think too badly of the four euro charge just to park your car. Guess the government has to get some money from it somehow.
Onwards to Doolin, a small town in three parts in the middle of nowhere, by the sea. Apparently people come from far and wide just to hear the traditional music in the pubs each night, so we had to check that out of course. This we did after dinner and walking ten minutes or so from the caravan park to where the pubs were.
We went into the most famous/popular pub, O'Connors, where our plan of arriving early to get a decent seat (around 7:30, music at 9:30) almost didn't work - the place was jammed. We grabbed two seats at the bar and relaxed, awaiting the band. A local turned up and sat next to us at the bar, who turned out to be a guitarist who plays there on the weekends, checking out the competition. We had a good chat, then he wandered off as the band started.
They played amazing well a combination of ballads, reels and jigs, and the spirits were high all night. Walking carefully back to the caravan park (we have a great little site, right beside the river), we retired after yet another full day in Ireland.

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