Ireland 2026 - Back to the Wild Atlantic Way and the start of castlemania!

Tuesday 2nd June
 
We ummed and ahhed about what to do. Originally, we had wanted to do a boat trip to one of the Aran Islands, but at €94 we felt that it really needed to be a nice sunny day to do it. Second choice was an hour trip to see the Cliffs of Moher. That was €60 but with the wind and possibly rain was it worth it when I get seasick!  It was a head and heart thing!  Head one so we cast off and headed south.

You can visit the Cliffs of Moher from the top so we did that instead. It was really busy and I counted 20 coaches at one stage and that didn’t take in account all the cars.  The cliffs stretch for about 9 miles and rise to heights of over 700 feet.  I felt that I really needed to see them from the water to compare them with Slieve League Cliffs.  Moher was busy whereas Slieve was very quiet and that really made the difference to me.  Moher was very commercialised and there were green hatted staff everywhere.  We also had to queue up to get to the wall to really see the cliffs and take some photos.   I went into the gift shop and it was heaving with a very long queue for the tills. The cafe wasn’t much better.  What it must be like in the summer I hate to think. 
 

We stopped in Milltown Malbay for fuel for Kiwi and food for us. I went into a SuperValu supermarket and was very impressed. I had been putting off going in one because of the name 🤣🤣 SuperValu operates as a franchise. Each individual store is independently owned and operated by local families or business groups.  There was a large range of readymade meals, just what we like in the motorhome.
 
We passed the ruin of Dough Castle, which was built by the O’Connors, then lords of Corcomroe, in 1306.  In 1584 it was held by the family of Sir Donal O'Brien, one of whom, Daniel, gave "hospitable and humane" shelter to English settlers who were threatened by the Irish rebellion of their 1641. Legend has it that there is an underground passage leading from Dough Castle to Liscannor which contains much wealth and valuables belonging to the O'Brien family. As this castle stands amongst the sandhills which are still supposed to be haunted by "Donn of the Sandhills" the fairy king. It is he who is protecting the money and valuables in the underground passage, and anybody who attempts to explore this passage is sure to die within 7 days after.

We headed to Doughmore Bay to see its massive sand dunes, but Donald Trump had other ideas!  He owns a golf club there, and for some reason, we ended up at the gate and were turned away - I can’t think why!!
 

I had picked out two stop overs, one in Kilkee and the other just south of the town. The spot in the town was pretty awful so we continued on to the next one, which was a small parking area on the top of Kilkee Cliffs. When we arrived, there was no room so we drove on for a bit, turned round then went back, waited for a few minutes then jumped into a space as someone left. We just sat there looking at the amazing view. We have been so lucky with some of our park ups.

If you are interested in more about the Cliffs of Moher, then read on! 
 
Around 320 million years ago, the land that is now Ireland was located much closer to the equator, experiencing a warm, tropical climate.

A colossal, unnamed river system—comparable in scale to the modern Amazon or Mississippi—drained across this landscape and emptied into a deep marine basin. Over millions of years, this river dumped unimaginable quantities of sand, silt, and mud into the sea, forming a massive underwater river delta.  As the river's flow naturally fluctuated over millennia, it deposited different materials at different times. These settled to the sea floor and were compressed under immense pressure into solid rock layers, a process known as lithification.
This created a very distinct "layer cake" geology consisting of three primary sedimentary rock types: siltstone, shale and sandstone.  Because the youngest rock layers were continually piled directly on top of the older ones, the cliffs display perfect stratigraphy (horizontal rock layering).

Fast forward to the relatively recent geological past (the last two million years), and two major forces shaped the cliffs into what we see today: glaciers and marine erosion.  During successive Ice Ages, massive sheets of ice scoured the Irish landscape, grinding away upper layers of earth and carving out the broad shapes of the western coastline.  As the ice melted and sea levels rose, the Atlantic Ocean began its relentless assault on the coast. The waves constantly smash into the base of the cliffs. Because sandstone and shale have different hardness levels, the ocean undercuts the soft shale sections first. Eventually, the heavy sandstone layers above lose their support and collapse cleanly into the sea, maintaining the cliffs' signature, near-perfect vertical drop.
 
The What3words for Tuesday were
https://w3w.co/tangy.curses.saying
 
 
Wednesday 3rd June
 
I was woken up at 5.30am by a gale raging around us. It was mainly the noise but poor Kiwi was shaking like mad!  I put on my Snoozeband and turned my story up a bit and drowned out the noise. 
 

Our first stop was the Bridges of Ross which should now be called the Bridge of Ross. Over the last century, the pounding of the Atlantic waves caused the outer two arches to become too weak to support their own weight and collapsed into the sea.  The site retains its plural name as a historical nod to the two lost arches.  The arch is about 700 yards from the car park and I guess we were about halfway when it started to drizzle, then light rain and finally heavy rain. I was determined not to turn back as we were so close. I did suggest that Richard go back but he continued too.  I got my photo and we walked back to Kiwi and changed out of our wet jeans - our rain jackets were dripping!  Rio had had a jumper on so went into his towelling bag to dry off.

Next stop was the Loop Head lighthouse.  The first recorded light was built around 1670. It wasn't a standard tower, but a stone-vaulted cottage lighthouse. The lightkeeper and his family lived on the ground floor, and an internal stone staircase led up to a flat platform on the roof. On this roof sat a massive, coal-burning iron brazier (a chauffer) that had to be manually stoked all night to warn ships.  In 1802, a proper stone tower was built to replace the cottage roof-fire, using 12 oil lamps and reflective glass lenses to throw the light further out to sea.  In 1854, the lighthouse was rebuilt into the prominent 75 foot white masonry tower that stands on the cliff edge today.  It transitioned from a fixed light to a flashing "character" light in 1869 using a weight-driven clockwork mechanism to rotate a screen around the lamp.  The lighthouse kept traditional lightkeepers on-site for over three centuries. It was converted to electric power in 1971, and eventually, in 1991, the station was fully automated, meaning the last permanent lightkeeper packed up and left. 

 

The name Loop Head comes from the Irish Ceann Léime, which translates to "Leap Head." According to Irish mythology, the warrior Cú Chulainn was being pursued across Ireland by a relentless hag named Mal. When he reached the absolute edge of the County Clare cliffs with nowhere left to turn, he gathered his strength and leaped across a roaring chasm to a sea stack (now known as the Lover's Leap). Mal tried to mimic his massive jump but missed, falling into the Atlantic. 
 
Yesterday I wrote about Dough Castle, at Carrigaholt there is a very similar castle but it is in very good condition.   It was built around 1480 by the MacMahons, who were the Gaelic chieftains ruling the peninsula at the time.   In 1588, seven ships from the fleeing Spanish Armada anchored right off Carrigaholt. The MacMahons refused to supply them, remaining loyal to the English crown.  The castle was besieged multiple times, most notably by Sir Conyers Clifford in 1599 and later by Oliver Cromwell’s forces in 1651.  It eventually passed to the O'Brien family. Daniel O’Brien (who also inhabited Dough Castle) the 3rd Viscount Clare, used it as a primary base and famously raised a regiment here for King James II during the Williamite War (known as the "Clare Dragoons"). After James II lost, the O’Briens were stripped of their lands, and the castle was sold to the Burton family, who inhabited it well into the 19th century. 

We then crossed the River Shannon from Killimer to Tarbert. It is only a 20 minute journey but we got stuck behind a lorry carrying something that smelt disgusting so it wasn’t a pleasant crossing.
 
A few miles west of Tarbert we stopped at Carrigafoyle Castle, our stop over for the night.
 
Carrigafoyle is another similar style of castle to both Dough and Carrigaholt.  Built by the O'Connor chieftain in the late 1490s, this massive five-story tower house was considered an architectural marvel. When the tide comes in, the castle is completely surrounded by water. It even featured an internal covered dock so boats could sail straight into the castle to unload goods safely. 

The castle's unique, damaged appearance today is the result of a single, brutal historic event. During the Desmond Rebellions in 1580, the O'Connors held the castle against English forces led by Sir William Pelham.

The defenders believed the castle was impregnable because of its water defences. However, Pelham brought up heavy naval artillery and battered the walls from the water. The experimental stone-vaulted construction couldn't withstand the bombardment. A massive section of the castle's side wall split away and collapsed, instantly rendering the fortress defenceless.
 

The castle at high tide

I’m quite amazed that the castle has remained in the same state for 446 years.   You can stand inside the base and look straight up through the exposed, skeleton-like cross-sections of the old living quarters, grand halls, and massive stone fireplaces.
The magnificent stone spiral staircase is still completely intact and safely enclosed within the standing corner tower and you can climb all the way to the top battlements. From the roof, you get spectacular panoramic views over the Shannon Estuary, looking directly back toward the Loop Head Peninsula.  The fact that people can walk all over it makes it doubly, or even trebly, amazing!
 
The What3words for Wednesday were

https://w3w.co/unhappily.scraping.building

Thursday 4th June

A nice quiet night though Rio thought otherwise!  He had three sessions of growling (not nasty growls), we were double locked all round and there were three vans, so I wasn’t worried.
 
Our first stop was Ballybunion where there are two beaches, known locally as Ladies Beach (North Beach) and Men's Beach (South Beach), which sit on either side of the castle promontory.  The Ladies Beach features shallow rock pools and a smooth sandy shore right next to the town’s seaweed baths, while Men's Beach is slightly longer and opens up to spectacular, rugged cliffs and caves that are perfect for exploring at low tide.

County Kerry has a no dogs on the beach rule of after June 1st dogs are not allowed between 11am and 6pm. We arrived at 10.45am so gave Rio a wonderful, but short off lead run. As we were leaving other people were arriving with dogs, so the rule can’t be policed this early on in the season.
 

Without running the risk of becoming a castle bore, there were the ruins of yet another castle at Ballybunion.  Built around 1500 by the Fitzmaurice family (the Lords of Kerry) on the site of an ancient Iron Age promontory fort, the castle was managed by the Bunyan family, from whom the town of Ballybunion derives its name. Today, all that remains is its iconic, 40 feet east wall. The structure has withstood centuries of coastal weather, battles, and a notable lightning strike in 1998, leaving behind a hauntingly beautiful facade popular with photographers and walkers alike.

The WAW took us round Kerry Head where it was a bit bleak looking out to sea with lots of small rocky islands to Ballyheige Beach which is very motorhome unfriendly with large notices saying no motorhomes, no campervan and no caravans.  That really spells it out!  The beach is 6 miles long and looked amazing. 
 
Guess what?  There is a castle, but we didn't see it! 
 
We tried Banna Beach, which is at the end of Ballyheige Bay, but they don't like motorhomes either with all three of their beaches having height barriers.
 
Then it was Fenit Harbour which looked really nice, but, again, there were no parking signs for motorhomes everywhere.
 
There is a statue in Fenit Harbour of Saint Brendan the Navigator (c. 484 – c. 577 AD).  Brendan’s fame explodes due to a Latin text written around the 9th century called Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis (The Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot). Part religious allegory and part maritime travelogue, it describes Brendan and a crew of up to 60 monks setting off in a currach (a traditional wood-framed boat wrapped in leather hides) to find the "Promised Land of the Saints.  According to the text, they spent seven years wandering the Atlantic. The descriptions of their encounters are legendary, though modern historians suggest they might be highly imaginative interpretations of real geographic features.
 
Jasconius the Sea Monster: The crew lands on a barren island to cook a meal, only for the "island" to wake up and swim away. It turned out to be a massive whale.
 
The Island of Sheep & The Paradise of Birds: Islands filled with exceptionally large white sheep and talking birds that sang psalms.
 
Pillars of Crystal: Columns of bright light floating in the water, which modern readers often interpret as early descriptions of Atlantic icebergs.
 
The Mountain of Fire: An island raining burning rocks down on the monks, often thought to describe an active volcano in Iceland.
 
I have borrowed this photo from the internet.

We were going to a camp site tonight, as we needed fresh water and to empty the grey water and toilet.  I had found one in Tralee but first we filled up with LPG and I did a quick shop in Dunnes, which was a bit like Asda really.  The site was very nice indeed and pretty empty.
 
The What3words for Thursday were
https://w3w.co/tailing.invents.fears