Friday, June 8 – Cemeteries, Cottages and a Castle

We walked to the Doolin church, and wandered through the graveyard there. I didn't see any graves older than the 1940s. Irish gravestones often include the name of the person who erected the stone, as well as the deceased, and often several generations of deceased. An example would be “Erected by William Flaherty, in memory of his wife Bridget Flaherty, and their daughter Mary Flaherty.” The next generation might add “and in memory of William Flaherty and son Charles Flaherty and his wife Annie .” The modern graves are in neat rows, and each plot (large enough to hold several graves) is covered with gravel. M of course noticed that one would not need to mow this particular cemetery.

Our next site to explore was a ruined church from the 15th century, surrounded by graves of more recent date – I didn't see anything older than the 1850s, and there were some from the last decade. Many of the stones were almost overgrown with the lush grass, weeds and blackberry vines. Some stones rattled as we walked over them. Several stones were apparently erected by the person they honored. They had inscriptions like "Erected by Charles O'Connor, for Himself and for Posterity." Next to the ruined church was the McNamara's vault. The McNamaras were the landholders around Doolin a couple hundred years ago.

We had lunch at the Doolin cafe, in the garden. I had a roasted eggplant sandwich and we both had a wonderful black tea in the flavor “Cafe Latte”. There was a music store behind the cafe, with bodrahns and cds and unusual jewelry. I bought a ring and earrings.

Then we walked up up up to Doonagore castle, admiring panoramic views of the ocean, Doolin, rolling hills, hedges with honeysuckle and wild roses, and the most charming cottage I've ever seen. The fragrance of that hillside was fresh and natural with the roses and the honeysuckle and the grass and the cows. The road was longer than we expected; there are hills in front of hills, and everytime you go around a corner, you find the road curves around or up and over yet another hill. (I used a photo of the charming cottage as the background behind the heading of this blog.)

The inside of the castle is not accessible to the public but we took lots of pictures of the outside. Built in the 1300s, it was restored in the 1900s by an American millionaire.

Back down down down the hill to Lane Lodge for a nap and then tea with Theresa. I used her computer to go online and buy bus tickets to Galway for the next day. (There is no ATM in Doolin, and our cash was running low). We wandered through the Doolin Music Cafe and then walked through most of Doolin to get to dinner at Bruach na hAille. We enjoyed another variation of the seafood chowder, salmon potato cakes, and lemon bars. (We highly recommend that restaurant to any future travellers.)

On the way home we stopped at O'Connor's to hear the nightly music session. People come from all over the world to hear the music at the Doolin Pubs. It was fun to sit beneath the small stained glass windows and the arched inner doorways, guessing the nationalities of those around us. The musicians started out with guitar, banjo, and accordion. Soon they were joined by a tin whistle and fiddle. We thought the later arrivals were members of the same band, but after playing a song together they introduced themselves to each other! The atmosphere was full of a contagious energy, an appreciation of talent, and a holiday spirit.