Archaeology

Rather sad to leave Clare Island this morning I felt very comfortable there. Headed north to Achill Island. I was here more than twenty five years ago but saw very little as it bucketed down the whole time. One crosses Achill sound by bridge and so it doesn't quite feel like an island. I climbed a steep cloud covered hill to see a megalithic tomb and noticed activity a few hundred yards to the west. It was an archaeological excavation of what they think is a late Bronze Age roundhouse. There is an an archaeological field school in the village of Dooagh where I'm staying must pay a visit!
Walked the long path through three villages abandoned during the famine, although the houses have been used as booley houses up until the 1940's. A bleak reminder of a tragic history in the west of Ireland.
Dooagh is a mix of old cottages usually in rows at right angles to the beach some derelict others renovated and many new homes of which many look like holiday homes. Spent a very relaxing couple of hours on the stunningly beautiful Keem strand.