The Full Irish

What a day! Freespiral and Himself took the task of showing us what West Cork has to offer very seriously. We didn’t walk much, but we were wrecked by the end of the day.

The day was bookended by two holy wells. One I’ve visited before, where an Aussie BVM donated by a blipper still has pride of place among the statues, with accompanying koala and kangaroo. It’s a very well kept well, in striking contrast with the one we visited at the end of the day, thrashing through rainforest (see extra) to reach a tiny grotto almost hidden by ferns, with one tiny statue. You’d never find it if you didn’t know it was there. A stunning setting.

In between these two: standing stones, stone circles, hill forts, a castle or two, amazing stained glass and more, until we were begging for mercy (but still glad freespiral insisted on the final stop). I don’t have the mental energy or the extras to tell you about all of it. My blip is of the carved Kilnaruane High Cross shaft. The light was hitting it just right to show the worn carvings, which include the sheep now used as the logo for the Sheep’s Head Way, and a very early representation of a boat, dating to the eighth or ninth century. It’s very special. Another extra of the indomitable freespiral in the fort at Knockdrum.

At lunchtime, after finding the village of Union Hall basically closed, we went a couple of km to Glandore, which was buzzing. We had an excellent lunch outside a bar, with a view over the harbour. A horde of schoolchildren were being ferried out into the bay in inflatables and distributed among tiny white-sailed yachts before dispersing like birds across the sparkling water. A rather posh shop was visited and purchases were made by the more impulsive among us.

We’d left about ten and it must have been well after seven when we got back. Freespiral and Himself vanished into the kitchen and heroically produced more excellent food in what seemed like minutes. What a wonderful day, albeit not as restful as we were expecting :)

Backblipping this the next day … today’s blip will have to wait!