Cliffs of Moher Daytrip

 With the move home to New Zealand from Ireland coming up fast, I went on a trip to the famous Cliffs of Moher as they were one of the sights I really didn't want to miss out on.

I was waiting till after winter to try and reduce the risk of crap weather (still quite hard to do even in summer in Ireland), but with only a few weeks left in the country I had to just go with fingers crossed. I picked a weekend day to be able to go with my friend Luana, and somehow we scored a whole day of sun and great weather! No wind or rain, and hardly even cold! So it ended up being a pretty great trip, and it was awesome to spend my final trip in Ireland in the sun and with a friend.

Typical pretty ruin on route

We went with Paddywagon tours, my third trip with them after the Ring of Kerry and Dingle Peninsula tours. They were all great value at 35 euros each given the price of bus tickets, and you get to see heaps. We had about 1.5 hours at the Cliffs themselves, with a couple of 20min rest/photo stops and lunch at a great pub in the tiny town of Doolin.

The Cliffs are on the west coast, on the way to Galway in an area called the Burren. This is a huge area that is covered in limestone and it was amazing to drive through such a rocky landscape. It's so different to the rest of the country and as we got closer to the cliffs and the sea it was crazy to see how the little farms were able to scratch out a living. It's a beautiful but weather beaten and barren area, and you can see the houses and villages had somehow been there for many years, just like up in the highlands and islands of Scotland.

Arran Islands in the distance

Road sign in Doolin opposite the pub we went to. One sign says that the town of Fanore is 19km, another says it's 16km!

Loved this mention of the wind - we were so lucky to be there on a day when it wasn't blowing a gale

The driver called this stop the 'mini cliffs' which we saw before the main cliffs so we'd still be impressed:

The main cliffs in the distance

Galway is in the distance further around the coast

And, finally, the Cliffs of Moher:

This bit was used in one of the Harry Potter films

 

This round tower is called O'Brien's Tower and was built by a tourism pioneer at the highest point (214m) as an observation point for all the Victorian tourists. I like the version of the story that says he just built it as a way to impress women better though ;)