After a quick breakfast, we took a taxi to the Grand Canal Hotel to meet up with our 5-day Vagabond tour group. Our guide was Jason. The group was Dave, Laura, Alex, Christian from Detroit; Brandis (B) from Detroit; Ken and Susan from Cleveland; Jonalyn, Emily, Kevin, Shannon from MA; and us.

Our first stop was Galway, about a 2¼ hour drive from Dublin. It was raining but eventually cleared. We walked with B up to Eyre Square, passing the famous Claddach Ring shop, then back down to M. Fitzgerald’s for soup, then to the river to see the Spanish Arch.

The Spanish Arch was built in 1584 by the mayor of Galway, but is an extension of the 12^th century Norman-built town wall. Though not originally known as the Spanish Arch, it is thought to be a reference to the merchant trade with Spain.

Heading south, we stopped at Dunguaire Tower (Castle). Dunguaire Castle (Irish: Dún Guaire) is a 16^th-century tower house on the southeastern shore of Galway Bay in County Galway, Ireland, near Kinvara. The name derives from the dun (fort) of King Guaire, the legendary king of Connacht. Four course dinners are offered at the castle from April to October.

Next was the Burren, about 15 minutes southwest of the castle. The word ‘Burren’ finds its origins in its Irish name Boireann, which means ‘rocky place’. The area is famous for its karst limestone landscape, one of the largest of its kind in Europe. It is also habitat to an eclectic group of plants, which would usually grow in very different habitats, as well as many important archaeological sites. Of the twenty-seven orchid species that are native to Ireland, twenty-five of them are found in the Burren. There are a remarkable group of Mediterranean plants and Arctic-Alpine plants, both rare to Ireland, that co-exist in this exceptional botanical environment. Examples of Arctic-Alpine plants include mountain avens, etc. [From the AskAboutIreland website]

We walked out and back to the stone remnants of the oratory of St. Colman. The weather held out for the walk and we even saw a little sun (and sprinkles at the same time)

Driving through some pouring rain, we went on to The Cliffs of Moher (portrayed in Princess Bride as The Cliffs of Insanity). But happily, the rain stopped, the fog lifted, and the view cleared, and we spent about an hour and a half walking up to the O’Brien Tower to view the cliffs, and then over to the Cliffs themselves.

Galway
Dunguaire Castle website
Wiki for the castle
Burren
More on the Burren
Burren Botanist
St. Colman Mac Duagh
Cliffs of Moher
Armada Hotel