We drove north out of Donegal yesterday to see the Slieve League Cliffs that we’d heard about from our travel agent. They are about 2,000 feet high above the Atlantic Ocean which is nearly 3 times the height of the Cliffs of Moher. They’re only about half the height of the Na Pali coast in Hawaii, but we never got to stand at the top there and only saw them from the comfort of our cruise ship balcony.
The wind was blowing and the scale of the cliffs are hard to capture in photographs. Just to give you an idea, I have included a ship in the 3rd picture below (it’s a dot – look hard) and a close up of it in a later picture below. In the pictures of the path up the mountain I’ve included closer shots showing the people that aren’t obvious from the first one. It was an amazing place.
Then it was on to the Belleek Pottery factory in Belleek, Northern Ireland. Since we’re near the border this was only about 30 miles from Donegal. It is Laura’s favorite china brand and she owns a few pieces of it. She owns a few more after this trip now as we enjoyed our tour and the outstanding craftsmanship of the workers we were able to meet. In those last two pictures, Laura is dipping a piece of china in a glazing liquid and I’m smashing the rejects that didn’t pass final inspection. Fun, fun.
We found a place along the coast on the way back to Donegal overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and a surfing beach. Even though the surfers were in wet suits and quite a distance below us it did appear to be a surfing lesson for a large group of people. The Smugglers Creek Inn had refreshing beverages and a wonderful seafood chowder and mussels for our luner. The vacation cottages below also appeared to be quite popular with those who had ventured this far north. We’re finding it much less crowded in this part of Ireland as the weather is brisker and the towns are smaller.
We drove back to Donegal Town and stopped to take some pictures of the town and the castle there on our way back to our hotel.
Returning to our Solis Lough Eske Castle, I couldn’t resist taking some pictures of the statues and entry. It is a wonderful place out in the country and we once again thank our travel agent, Marian, and this time Bea also who helped us in Marian’s absence with a scheduling glitch.
We’re off to see a national park before we depart for Northern Ireland later today.
We’re also starting to wonder if our flight back to Orlando on Tuesday will take off as scheduled. Things are becoming a bit dicey in Florida as we are hearing about the approach of the category 5 hurricane, Irma. It will hopefully be past Orlando by that time, but we’re not sure what it will have left in its wake and how soon flights can resume. We might be forced to stay in Dublin for more than one night at the end of our trip. I can think of worse things that could happen. Stay safe, neighbors and friends.PR
evertstouring 