Day 4, October 5, 2010

All of us up late to a beautiful morning after a late night. Tim cooking bangers (solid meat, no fat, very pink) and over brekky we planned our day: a trip to Dysert O’Dea north of Ennis, where there is an old (small) castle with church ruin, both from the 12th century. Archeology center in the castle was not open but we wandered around. I found a bush with thorns that was covered with blue berries that looked exactly like blueberries, but they were bitter. Hmm. Gay looking them up. Moved on toward the Perfumery in Carran where the Burren dominates the landscape so that we felt as if we were part of it. Wandered down a very narrow lane to the Perfumery, a beautiful collection of buildings with big shade trees, a constrast to the barren Burren. Unfortunately, the tea room closed on Sept. 30 so we’ll have to find another place for lunch. There was a big show room filled with tins of salves and candles and bottles of perfumes and sprays and acres of bars of herbal soaps, all a bit pricey. We watched a movie about the Burren and all the flora and fauna (including a snake, putting a damper on Tim’s theory that St. Pat did away with all the snakes).

Chip and Tim and I wandered around the overgrown gardens where flowers and herbs grew in tangled profusion – in an old brass bed (a flower bed . . .), a claw-foot bathtub (soapwort still in bloom), a pair of boots, around an old bicycle. Tubs of bright orange and yellow calendulas in bloom drooped over the edge of big clay pots set on gravel paths, and here and there were big round stone tablets with designs in swirls of small stones. As we were checking out at the counter, the clerk recommended a tube road to get to the Dolmen (stone burial place) that shoots off to the right up a hill at Cassidy’s pub, so narrow that we couldn’t believe it didn’t dead-end at a farm. And a café on the way.

It took us to the top of the world where we had a panoramic view of the Burren, a landscape of contrasts – the gray and brown of the folds and ledges on the Burren itself, the deep rich green of the pastures where long-haired cattle browsed. Came out to a main road where we came to a tourist-y area in the middle of nowhere (it seemed), where flags of the US, Germany, Ireland, and France flew at the entrance. Had a surprisingly good lunch of fresh vegetable potage and soda bread at a cafeteria-style restaurant, and then off again to see the stone formations – the poulnabrone Dolmen, a megalithic tomb, constructed in 3,000 BC which sat cordoned off in the middle of a stone field. We wandered around taking pictures and Gay & Leila got chatted up by a very nice Irish National Guardsman on duty 7 days a week, probably starved for conversation. He was full of interesting stories of his life on duty -- trying to keep legions of visitors from defacing or climbing on the dolmen. Most of the visitors (1,000 today alone) have respect for antiquity, but about 10 % jump barriers, break rocks, play golf on top of the Dolemn and otherwise thumb their noses at the rules. He said the summer is insane with thousands every day, the roads choked with traffic.

Gay asked for the best route back to Lisdoonvarna and he directed us to another tube road (since we had so much fun driving through the narrow, remote back roads) that took us down into a little valley, through the peat bogs, and up again to a crossroads. Here we kept taking wrong turns, found our way eventually to Lisdoonvarna to do some food shopping (had to go to a butcher for meat) and continued to get turned around as we made our way back home, the long way through Doolin.

Wildlife we’ve encountered: lots of crows, magpies, and jackdaws in the fields, a badger that we almost hit on the way to Doolin for music, two cats, a couple of dogs. Otherwise, few critters.

Everyone napped when we got home around 5 and then I made dinner – leftover rice mélange, port tenderloin (“steak” over here) medallions marinated in soy sauce, oil, garlic and sautéed, wine to lift the browned bits. Gay made a beautiful salad (nice bibb lettuce) and fruit bowl of raspberries, blueberries, and kiwi. Talked around the table until it was time to go to hear the music. Started at O’Connors where there was a fiddler, a guy on flute, and one on squeeze box. A little too much of the same thing, tune after tune. Met a nice Australian couple on a 7-week vacation. Left for McGann’s after about half an hour to hear Ted McCormac again. The place was packed to the gills and the mandolin player replaced by a guy on uillian pipes (uillian means “elbow”). Fabulous. Left about 11:30 so Chip and Tim could get a good rest before golf tomorrow. Got stopped by a police check for drunken drivers. Made Chip and Tim use a breathalizer and both passed. Phew. Home and to bed. (HvL)

Chip and Tim hit a few balls off the back yard into the adjoining farm field as a warmup to the Old Course at Lahinch, which they were poised to play in the morning. (THG)