Mind the Midges on the Cliffs of Moher
Travel Location: Doolin,Ireland
After a 20 minute ferry ride over the Shannon River and a quick stop for petrol we headed into the small town of Kilkee – a seaside resort popular with locals and tourist alike that retains a great deal of its 18th Century Victorian charm. It was the perfect spot to start our Sunday.
The beachfront area centers on a very decent stretch of sandy beach sheltered by the encircling arms of breakwaters. When we arrived the weather was perfect and the bathing suits and bikinis were coming out in full force – strangely enough you see and hear more Russians and Eastern Europeans on the beach than Irish!
If you visit one natural wonder in Ireland it should be this one
We found a small vendor stand selling boiled winkles (small sea snails that you eat out of their shells with a pin) and dillisk (a type of slaty dried seaweed) so we gave them a try…for breakfast!! Denise loved the winkles and ate almost the whole bag (nice smoky flavour if you can get past the gag reflex!) – but neither of us cared for the dillisk. We drove along the coast a bit and found a perfect spot on a cliff overlooking the town where we stopped for a more traditional cereal breakfast (more to my taste!).
From there it was a short drive to the famous Cliffs of Moher. Imagine a place where the most dramatic green pastoral Irish cliffs you have ever seen plunge over 230 meters into the deep, clear blue of the Atlantic. 8km long, the Cliffs of Moher deserve their pride of place in the Irish tourism crown – they are exceptional and if you visit one natural wonder in Ireland it should be this one!
We parked and paid the 8 euro facility fee (which you can avoid entirely if you cycle to the cliffs since it is only for the parking not to get access). The complex is very professional with a modern visitors centre tastefully hidden inside the hill – worth a visit just to check out the ever-changing TV monitors covering a large wall with split-second images from all over the cliffs.
Your hike presents you with two options – left or right (facing the sea) – we chose left and it was the right choice. The weather was perfect (even a little too hot) and the lack of breeze (it can blow gales here) was a mixed blessing since the midges (see last blog entry about the Ring of Kerry for more info on midges) attacked in swarms. The left trail takes you about 800 meters up along the cliffs and gives you a spectacular first view of the coastline…but it ends quite soon at an ominous sign in many languages strictly forbidding you to walk on any further…a sign which EVERYONE ignores. By far the best walks are beyond the sign in the direction of Hag’s Head. Our 2 hour hike took us along superb cliff-top pastures on one side and amazing plunging cliff views on the other. The large herd of wild mountain goats en route were also noteworthy – as was our perfect picnic and Denise’s spotting of a huge shark in the waters below.
After returning to the visitor’s centre we took the right-hand path up to O’Brien’s Tower – a much shorter walk with not much to recommend it compared to the first.
On the advice of the tourist desk at the Cliffs we drove a little further into the tiny town of Doolin to find a B&B – we were very happy with the Dunroman House (see separate review). After a quick walk around town we drove to the nearby Stonecutter’s Kitchen restaurant and, sitting outside (whilst dodging midges) had a very good authentic Irish feast including Guinness Stew with mushy peas, a seafood bisque with salad and a great strawberry cheesecake. After dinner we hit the pub to catch some traditional Irish music and another Guinness.
