Aran Islands: Visiting Inishmor
After spending a day exploring Galway, I decided to get off "the rock" and took a 45 minute bus ride to catch a ferry, followed by a 40 minute boat trip to see the largest (albeit tiny) island of Inishmor, in the Aran Islands. The Aron Islands lie at the mouth of Galway Bay and form the largest archepelogo of islands off the west coast of Ireland. Inishmor was probably settled nearly 4000 years ago, possibly even pre-dating the ancient Celts. This place is set apart from time and space from the rest of Ireland, and indeed, the rest of Europe. It's a barren, stark, rock-filled place of mostly Irish (Gaelic) speaking people and beautifully different because of it's nature. It's full of incredibly atmospheric, dramatic, intense landscapes of small fields separated by innumerable stone walls (as in....they grow rocks out here!). According to my locally born and raised tour guide, Peter McDonagh, the island has a winter population of 800, (which grows to several thousand come summertime) and contains 6 pubs and 3 churches, begging the question, do they pray more now to St. Guinness? Inishmor is the home of Dun Aengus (or Dun Aonghasa, in Irish), one of the most ancient archeologic sites in Ireland. It's setting, a spectaluar limestone crescent at the edge of the seacliff, and whose origins are shrouded in mystery, date way back to the late bronze age....circa at least 500 BC., maybe earlier. It probably had ritual significance early on, but Dun Aengus was later settled by the conquering Normans, as a fort, but built much earlier in several stages over 1000 years. This site was probably chosen both for defensive and offensive reasons, on an elevated site, just above huge sea cliffs on the southern side of the island, with a huge Chevaux de frize (closely spaced upright stones) added, as an extra line of defense because the thick, rocky landscape couldn't support digging defensive trenches. To build just the inner wall, 6500 tons of stone were needed and it site abandoned until around the 10th century A.D. I had a great time hanging out with Carol (from Galway, going to spend the day with a friend Colm who runs a hostel there), Pablo, a theatre therapy teacher from Buenos Aires, and Jarick an archeologist specializing in the Inca period, who lives in Poland. Inishmor's character and charms are evident in it's pubs, where the fire places and the Guiness warm chilled bones, and in the sheep, goat and cow pastures all connected in a maze of stone-walls and thatch roofed houses. The tour took us to see the width and length of the island, which you could walk around in a few days, but i was only here for one, unfortunately. We also drove up to see another ancient fort called Dun Eochaill, which was at the highest point of Inishmor and had fantastic 360 degree views of the entire island along with the 2 neighboring Aran Islands. Aran wool sweaters and scarfs, along with stone carvings and celtic art make tourism the needed economic force here. A lovely spot, and worth anyone's visit! I hope to come back some day and stay several days here. Another great thing about the visit- the rain held off all day and didn't start until the ferry ride home. God is good.