Cliffs of Dooneen

A very profitable morning working away and getting embroiled in the rather gloomy and desperate proceedings of the Bantry workhouse. If you remember, I'm trying to write something based on my walk around the Sheep's Head Peninsula. All going surprisingly smoothly and I've reached Durrus in my rough draft and was trying to find out a bit more about this old grainstore. Built originally to transport grain to Cork it was later used as an auxillary workhouse during the Famine, when the main house at Bantry was over-flowing. Heartbreakingly, this was used for children under 15 and had a master, a matron, a physican and a porter.

Wild, wild weather is forecast for tonight so Himself and I rushed out in a patch of blueness to have a walk around Dooneen. It is a magical, windswept spot but we were amazed at the damage from recent storms. The road down to the little quay had been ripped up, and huge boulders were strewn along the fields having been blasted up from the cliffs below. Worth biggifying to see the little quay - once there was a thriving fishing industry here, pilchards I believe.

TJ is just coming round for a bun, and a card meeting. Catch up later.

And here's a rather sweaty Christy Moore singing about Dooneen, sadly the cliffs in Clare not Cork. Nice though.