Inishmore Aran Islands County Galway Republic of Ireland (Part 1)

It rained almost all day on Friday 6^th June, so instead of going off exploring we did admin. Very dull!

Kilronan Harbour

All the reports on Inishmore say that the prehistoric fort at Dun Aengus is ‘not to be missed’ and that THE way to get around is by (hire) bike, so on Saturday morning we prepared for a whole day’s outing and then headed ashore. Kilronan harbour has been fairly recently extended so that there is an outer breakwater, an inner pier and a number of slipways and a couple of pontoons. A lot of fast ferries visit Inishmore each day in season and most arrive and then stay on the outer end of the inner pier whilst their passengers go off to enjoy the island. We took the dinghy in at 1000hrs, which happened to be low tide and, happily, found a place to tie up on one of the ladders on the inside of the inner pier towards its root. There’s a huge, shallow-shelving beach just a little inshore of the ladder we tied to but we hadn’t put the wheels on the dinghy and didn’t fancy carrying it the distance required to prevent it floating off before we got back from exploring.

Views around Kilronan Harbour

We hired a couple of bikes from one of the many bike hire companies and set off up a very steep hill (at the walk!) towards the island’s Spar shop, which seemed remarkably large for the size of island. But we later found out that 800 people live on the island all year round, rising to 3000 in the summer, so the shop is sized for the summer peak. They were very friendly and happy to look after our purchases until we returned after sightseeing.

There were some seals on the rocks but you needed binoculars to get a proper glimpse of them

And then we were off, along the flatter more coastal path which would take us to Dun Aengus via a seal colony. Inevitably the seals were sunbathing as far from the main coastline as possible and, since we have had the luxury of seeing seals quite close up before, we carried on.

Kilmurvey Beach

Just before the road turns uphill towards the fort there is a beautiful sand beach, with a small quay and turquoise water. It would be a lovely anchorage in the right wind conditions, but with the wind from the northwest (as it was) it was rather exposed and open.

Dun Aengus visitors’ centre plus horse and cart taxis

And so up to the visitors’ centre for Dun Aengus fort…..which is in the process of a rebuild, meaning no interpretation centre and the toilets are in portacabins or are portaloos (we didn’t investigate!). But there are several Aran woollens outlets and a huge bicycle park, where we had to leave our bikes before the final 10min walk up to the fort. The horse-drawn trap rides are clearly a popular way of seeing the island as there were 5 standing waiting for their tourist clients to return from looking at the fort.

(Top) The path up to the fort from the visitors’ centre (Bottom) The inner (of 4) dry-stone ramparts

It is well worth the effort of getting to the fort as the views are fantastic and the setting is quite incredible. The fort is set RIGHT on the edge of a 100-metre-high limestone cliff. To either side the cliffs stretch out, with sheer drops to the sea. The weather was quite benign when we visited but it didn’t take a huge leap of imagination to visualise the cliff in a decent westerly wind.

This is a photo of a photograph of we saw on the wall at the Inishmore Tourist Information Centre. The lines
of the inner walls are very clear, having been partly reconstructed. Just outside the outer wall is an area
of ‘standing stones’, fairly large stones which were placed there by the fort’s builders as an obstacle to
make invasion by an enemy more difficult

The fort was the prehistoric  Irish version of a motte and bailey castle, with the ruling group living at the top, right on the cliff-edge, and the hoi-polloi in the lower part of the fort. The dry-stone ramparts enclosed an area of 11 acres. It’s a highly defensible position, but we couldn’t imagine how anyone could have brought up children in such a location with an unprotected 100 metre drop on one side!

The views across the island from the fort are amazing. In particular, the limestone geology and the network of small fields, all enclosed by a lacework of drystone walls, is quite incredible.

The Seven Churches graveyard with the ruins of seven churches on its grounds

We descended from the fort and then cycled further north to ‘Seven Churches’, a collection of ancient, ruined churches and graves.

A traditional island cottage still with a thatched roof

Our lunch stop views

Then we headed back to the beach to the east of Dun Aengus and sat near the quay, out of the wind, to eat our packed lunch and recover from all the cycling so far.

Then we were off again, up across the high ground ‘for experienced cyclists’ where we took in an old sentry tower but not the fort close by as the latter was ‘closed for refurbishment’. More great views from the top.

Killeany Harbour

Killeany sports pitch and airfield

From here it was mostly downhill all the way back into Kilronan, a most appreciated freewheel, before we went out on the flat to the southwest and the hamlet of Killeany, where there is a small harbour, a few houses, a Gaelic football / hurley pitch and a tiny airfield.

Trawmore

Going further on we found a HUGE beach, Trawmore, in an almost entirely enclosed bay and beyond that was the southwestern tip of the island. Here we had been going to walk to another beach but we met an elderly local man who advised us to walk right to the coast and then follow the cliffs to an ancient tower and a ‘puffing hole’, a hole in the limestone pavement down to the sea through which, in wild sea conditions, the waves would be forced to spray up into the sky above.

Nicky at the edge of the larger of the 2 puffing holes

Turmartin Round Tower and views across east towards Inishmann

It was a surprisingly long walk around and up onto the cliffs, and something of a scramble across the amazing limestone geology, but we found the 2 (quiescent) blow holes. We’ll just have to return in a storm to see them at their frenzied best!

Kilronan Harbour with Blue Velvet anchored off to the right

By this time, we had run out of energy for more exploring and, besides, we needed to return the bikes by 1700hrs, so we cycled back to Kilronan, disappointingly into an increasing breeze. However, we were back in good time and after depositing the bikes back at the shop, and collecting our shopping, retired to a nearby bar for a restorative Guinness. We needed it as we had covered 40km / 26miles on bike and on foot that day!

Inishmore, Aran Islands, County Galway, Republic of Ireland