Day 4

Ballynahinch Castle Hotel is one of the finest castle hotels in Ireland. Set in a private 450 acre estate of woodland, by the river and in the heart of Connemara region. Behind it one the the peaks of Twelve Pins mountain range.

A story behind: And yet again very early morning wake-up. And yet again sunrise-time meeting with a Killarney National Park. But I love it: me alone, nature and a camera.

After breakfast and we hit the road again. This time driving north N69 from Tralee to a small port of Tarbert, embarked on the ferry to cross the Shannon river and soon landed in a lower Shannon region. The surrounding changed quite dramatically. This was a flat, wind-beaten, half deserted area and definitely a poor one. Our aim was to reach famous Cliffs of Moher: a primary tourist Irish attraction by mid-day.
When we finally got there the sky was dull-gray and it rained. The cliffs were big and majestic, but not THAT BIG not THAT MAJESTIC as I had imagined. They were just OK.
So we walked along the cliffs edge up and back but my experience was probably somehow biased by the awful rainy weather conditions.
So after a while we got back to the car and pressed on. Soon we were crossing the Burren plateau. This is a vast limestone plateau area in northwest Clare County and really a no-men, no-tree, savage land. The limestone has a white-gray colour so from some distance it looks quite interesting. We crossed the deserted area and later on the Kinvarra Dunguaire Castle ( all the time in pouring rain ) and arrived in Galway - a busy city and a capital of Western Ireland.
After Galway we turned west on N59 and entered the Lar Connaght and later on the Connemara region. And this is where all the fun begins. Connemara is wonderful: a spacious plane with rolling meadows and glittering streams and on the horizon the majestic Twelve Pins mountain range. This is a land of incredible natural beauty. We crossed the plane westward until we reached our destination: the Ballynahinch castle and hotel where we stayed 2 nights.


Maciek.