Traveling to the Cliffs of Moher, Ennis, and Adare

This is on the way to the cliffs. It is their local golf course. I took it because of know many of you play. They are hilly and rocky...anyone for golf?

The famous Cliffs of Moher..They rise up vertically at a height of 710 feet and stretch over about  5 miles.
You can see in this picture the five different rock formations.  This day  is rainy and cold and half way through our trip, the fog came rolling in and we could hardly see the cliffs. But the wind is unbelievable here and at times we could hardly stand up.

The last time I was here which was in June 2009, there were hundreds of birds but today there were very few seen. I had even brought my binoculars along from home in anticipation of showing David all the kinds of birds in one area. The castle below is called O'Brien's Tower which was built in 1835 by Cornelius O'Brien. It was built to encourage tourism even back then. One of the walls has Liscannor flagstones noted for their imprints of prehistoric eels..

We moved onto Ennis but stopped in Doolin long enough to turn around.  I couldn't resist taking this picture of "The Ritz"I have been known to go a long way in Boston just to use the bathrooms in the Ritz!

These are the streets in Ennis which is a very cute town.  It is known for fiddle playing and step dancing. May is the time to come visit this town for the festival.  We walked by the abby which is being renovated. It should be wonderful when it is done.

We stopped to talk to the man that was replacing the thatch on this roof. He had me guess how long it would take him to do the whole roof.  I said a couple of days which made him laugh, David guessed two weeks but the answer is a week.  He said he had to take off the old thatch first before he could put on the new.  If you look you can see it is done in sections and each sections takes up to 4 hours.You can see how the bands hold it. 

 We then moved onto the town of Adare.  Here most buildings are stone with thatched roofs..and peat briquettes along the side walk.

Here is the Trinitarian Monastary which should be open the next time we visit. My pictures have twisted and I can't get them to move. The night one was taken as we left after a fabulous dinner at the Arches.  We were hoping to take our family there for dinner but it closes on Nov 1st as do many of the attractions and restaurants here.   cheerio:)