The Wet Isle of Eire (2)

The highlight of our entire trip was the day-long excursion we took to the Island of Inis Mor, the largest of the Aran Islands, off the west coast of Ireland. The island is surrounded by rocky cliffs and battered by rough seas and dotted with ancient ringforts and old farmers' fields. To the left Cora sits on the cliffs near the neolithic ringfort at Dun Aonghasa.

No cars are permitted on Inis Mor other than for local residents so we all rented bikes for the day. We rode over rocks, hills, wind and rain and the only serious casualty was one of my tires which went flat 3km away from town. Cora and Owen both had some excellent mountain biking experiences as we rode over 2km of rocky trails back to port. We all had a great day.

The Wet Isle of Eire

Hello friends! We have made it back from our 11 day journey through Ireland a little wetter, a lot wiser, and very glad to be home. It was an excellent trip filled with visits to ruins of all kinds, a lot of driving and great encounters (generally) with folks from the McMahan homeland. Our major visits included Killarney, Dingle, Longford, Sligo, Derry, and Dublin. We will try to post several pictures here in order to document the trip and bring youb a bit closer to our experience there.

On Saturday in between showers we visited various spots along the coast of Northern Ireland including the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge which spans a 80 meter deep ravine along the coast. We all made it across and back without too much vertigo although Mom described it as "not my favorite stop on the trip".

On the same day we visited Londonderry (or Derry as it is known in Ireland and among Catholics) where in 1972 over a dozen protesters were killed by British soldiers, signalling the beginning of the Troubles. Just south of Derry in Bogside, shown here, there are several murals painted on terraced homes depicting events during the Troubles in the 1970's and 1980's. Derry has only recently recovered from these events.

Elizabeth takes the Field!

We had a historic re-enactment at Llandeilo, Wales this weekend. Elizabeth suited up and joined the battle as a water carrier during the battle on the second day. Elizabeth survived the battle unscathed but unfortunately may have suffered a mild case of de-hydration and car-sickness on the way home after the battle. She soldiered on, though, and we all made it home in a clean car. Jason was not so lucky as some unknown Royalist inflicted a bloody eye wound that knocked him out of the battle for health and safety reasons. While frustrating, this precluded further embarrassment as Birches pike block of generously 'lanky' Roundheads was regularly smothered by their more numerous and 'well-fed' Royalist opponents.