Inishmore Island and Cliffs of Moher

Today, I took an “Aran Islands and Cliffs of Moher Day Cruise,” which stopped at the largest Aran Island, Inishmore. On the tour booking app I use (Viator), the company that runs the “tour” promoted it as:

The guidebook I use in Ireland highly recommends both the Aran Islands and the Cliffs of Moher. Inishmore is the largest of the Aran Islands. So, this sounded perfect.

There are bus tours that go to the Cliffs of Moher. The cliffs plunge steeply into the sea from the mainland. But, between the all-day bus tour of the Ring of Kerry and my bus trip from Waterford to Cork, I had more than enough buses for this trip. It was time for a boat.

Besides, the bus tours take you to the top of the cliffs. They let you walk to the edge of them. They may let you, but with my acrophobia, that wasn’t going to happen. At all. Nope, nope, nope, nope; nope.

And, being at the top, I don’t imagine you get to see much of the face of the cliffs. I don’t know, but I figure that’s probably the most dramatic view of them. (Note that I said “dramatic,” not terrifying.)

So, viewing the cliffs from the sea sounded like a far better option to and for me. If you’re the sort of person who enjoys standing at the edge of tall cliffs, then, by all means, do your thing. I won’t call you crazy for doing so. I’ll think it, but I won’t say it aloud. At least not in your presence. Unless it’s a day ending in “y.”

With that introduction out of the way, my inner curmudgeon, which is by far the bulk of me, feels the need to say that the advertising bumf for the “cruise” created a somewhat false impression in my mind.

It’s not a guided day cruise with shore time. For the most part, it’s a ferry ride of almost an hour and a half to Inishmore. A longer ferry ride back in the afternoon passes by the Cliffs of Moher with some commentary. I had more than four hours on the island entirely on my own in between.

It’s the same ferry that people take to get to and from Inishmore for whatever reason, with absolutely nothing added to what non-tour passengers get. If you book a return ferry trip from Galway to Inishmore you get exactly the same experience as the tour. I didn’t check, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the round-trip ticket is less expensive.

Oh, and the, “Cruise in waters where puffins, dolphins, and seals are sometimes seen” bullet in the “cruise” description? “Sometimes” did an awful lot of work there. Today wasn’t one of those times.

And, “See one of Ireland’s largest seabird colonies as you pass the Cliffs of Moher?” A disembodied voice on the ferry’s speakers said where the birds flock, but I think the birds grew tired of being colonists and fled in rebellion.

The ferry has two decks. The top is open but was full when I boarded. The bottom is enclosed, with tinted windows partially obscured by sea spray during the trip.

The day started with considerable sun. Shortly after setting out to sea, it quickly changed to mostly cloudy. Nevertheless, the forecasted, threatened rain held off until about the time the ferry was scheduled to return to Galway. And the sky even provided the occasional patch of blue for my viewing pleasure. 

On the rolling and rocking outbound ferry ride, the views out the windows were of the sea with some nondescript hilly shores in the background.

Inishmore

On the island, I took a minibus tour of the main sights. Yes, another bus. But it included some stops to get out and see the sights. Renting a bike or taking a horse-and-buggy tour were the only other options available to see the attractions on the island.

None of those modes of transportation, or anything else on the island, was included with the Inishmore “cruise.”

It’s a hilly island and I’m not a cyclist, so that was out.

I didn’t see any horse-and-buggies available near the dock when I arrived, so I didn’t take one. I did see some while travelling around the island. However, I likely wouldn’t have taken one even if one was available because I don’t think they cover as much ground as the minibuses do.

Walking was, of course, a free possibility, but it would have taken too long to get to and see the major sights. I don’t think I would have been able to make it back in time to catch the ferry back to Galway.

Near the start of the minibus tour, the driver pointed out what he described as the financial district of Inishmore. He was joking. It was a single bank. The bank opens one day a week. The driver also pointed out other facilities, such as primary and secondary schools, which are appropriately sized for the island’s small population.

A lot of cows live on the island until they meet the untimely end that befalls many cattle. I saw a number of them. The only thing I ate on Inishmore was a chicken salad sandwich, so I didn’t enjoy any of them in their afterlives.

The driver said that, while they have cows on the island, they have no sheep. According to him, the soil on the rocky island is very thin. Sheep eat grass, roots and all, and it would take too long to grow back. So, no sheep. Cows don’t eat the roots.

I also saw some horses grazing in the fields. As I mentioned, horse and buggy rides are another option for tours on the island. I don’t know if the grazing horses I saw were just on a day off or if they live lives of leisure. 

Ruins of Seven Catholic Churches

“Seven churches” is misleading. I expected the ruins of seven large churches. Instead, it is the ruins of seven chapels—small rooms—in a compound. Some of those rooms share walls.

The buildings are now only ruins in part because they are very old, dating from the eighth to the eleventh century CE, and in part because Oliver Cromwell destroyed them for the offence of being Catholic.

A graveyard in the compound includes modern graves of some of the late residents of Inishmore. That’s something for which you don’t want to be early. 

Dun Aengus

Dun Aengus is the ruins of an old fortress. The driver left us there for almost an hour and a half so we could visit the fort and have some lunch on our own.

The fort is about a ten to fifteen-minute uphill walk from the road. The driver warned us that when we go there we have to be careful because the fortress perches on a cliff, the top of which is an uphill walk from the drop-off point, and the steps up to it are rough-hewn and have no railings.

(Before you ask, the approach to the fortress is from the slope side, not the cliff side.)

Oh, joy. Oh, bliss. A cliff.

The fortress, which dates back 2,000 years, today consists of stone walls surrounding three sides of a large, sloping, grass and rock field. The wall on one side is fairly high. The others are currently low, but I imagine they were higher back in the fortress’ operational days.

The fourth side of the field is a sheer, high cliff beside the sea. Unsurprisingly, I did not approach close to its edge.

Climbing some well-hewn wood stairs and walking through a doorway in the taller wall brought me to a slightly higher, slightly smaller three-walled, cliffside yard.

The views of the rugged island and the sea beyond the fortress and the way up to it are beguiling.

After going back down and having a sandwich, a short walk from the entrance to Dun Aegus took me to a beach with white sand and water of gradations of aquamarine.

Inishmore Seal Colony Look Out Point

The bus stopped at a lookout. A sign there read “Seal Colony Look Out Point.” It said “Look Out,” not “Lookout.” I assumed that was a typo, but I was cautious and on the lookout for dangerous seals nonetheless.

I didn’t have to look out for seals. There were only a couple bobbing about well offshore.

I didn’t see them until I asked the driver if seals are normally found around here. He pointed out to the bay and said, “See those two little back things bobbing way out in the water there? They’re heads of seals.”

Even with the maximum zoom on my trusty old iPhone camera, they weren’t discernible as seals. Maybe they are shy. Or maybe they are decoys that the locals put out there to fool tourists.

Inishmore, Overall

Overall, Inishmore is generally a rugged island, with bucolic beauty. Low stone walls with gates form (mostly small) enclosures pretty well everywhere throughout the island where the minibus drove. Some of those enclosures held cattle when I was there. Many were empty.

Few trees grow on the island, although there are clumps of trees in its main, but still small town of Cill Rónáin (Kilronan).

There are no big towns on Inishmore. The population of the whole island is 820. Tourists increase that number very significantly, though.

Back to Galway

On the ferry back to Galway from Inishmore Island I got a seat on the open upper deck. Then, before the ferry left the dock, it started to pour. If you read and remembered my weather paragraph above, you already knew about the precipitation, just not the pouring part. I quickly moved downstairs and found one of the few seats still available there.

On the way back to Galway, someone got on the speaker system of the ferry and provided commentary. That commentary was, until the Cliffs of Moher, very scant, but almost infinitely more than the ferry provided on the way out.

The return voyage passed by the smaller Aran Islands of Inishmaan, population 120, and Inisheer, the smallest of the three islands. Despite being smaller than Inishmaaan, Inisheer has a larger population, 340. A cargo shipwreck sits pushed up against the shore of Inisheer Island. 

Because I sat one seat away from the sea spray- and rain-splattered windows, I didn’t take any pictures of those other islands.

As the ferry approached the imposing Cliffs of Moher, the rain stopped. Convenient, that. I clambered upstairs for a standing-room-only view of them. I managed to get some pictures of the cliffs through the light haze. Their dark, craggy barren walls probably look gloomy in any weather, but particularly in today’s dreariness.

During its intentionally slow pass along the lengths of the Cliffs of Moher (offshore, of course; it wasn’t an amphibious ship), the ferry played a recorded commentary providing information about them. It started by saying the cliffs are 8 kilometres (5 miles) long and 214 metres (700 feet) high at its highest point.

After that, the commentary delivered considerable information about the geology of the cliffs, the human history that went on on top of them, the couple of towers built on them, and the movies filmed there. I didn’t take notes on any of those details, so they’re lost to me now.

After leaving the Cliffs of Moher behind, the ferry returned to Galway, staying relatively close to the coast for much of the way.

About a half-hour before docking back in Galway, a rainbow grew from one of the clouds, with some blue sky beside the clouds. It was gorgeous. A nice way to end the journey, I’d say.

I had returned downstairs by that time. But I asked the person between the window and me to take a picture of it for me. The picture is through the window, so it’s not perfect, but I hope some of its beauty shows.