Dún Urlann - on foot, concluded

Thyme on the road.

Dún Urlann, 
Baile an Fheirtéaraight

As I write this we have been back from Ireland for over two weeks now, and this walk is a month old.   I don't want to abandon our travels at Dún an Óir, as from here both our walk and our trip continued.  But as time goes by it is harder (and maybe less relevant) rewriting my notes as a day-by-day journal.  And too, our trip develops a different rhythm as the days go by, where themes start to emerge. After this posting I will shift to some of these themes, but for now I continue with our walk.

In the distance, Tearacht Island (of the Blaskets).
Photo taken east of Ceann Sibeal Golf Club.

Dún Urlann church ruin; water font visible thru archway.

From our walk we can see the Blasket Islands, including Tearacht Island, the westernmost of the Blaskets, and thus the most western part of all of inhabited Europe.  Tearacht has on it a lighthouse nestled in the one part of the island that is marginally on the level, hidden from our walk, its slim grasp on the island and on European civilization.  The next day we will drive closer to the Blaskets, and yet somehow to realize how close we are on foot feels different; only later do I learn the exact identity of this sharp-edged barely seen island.

Western Dingle is full of historic sites.  The second site we visit in our walk is the relic church of  Dún Urlann.  A few days earlier, walking alone in blissful ignorance, I passed it by. 

Dún Urlann medival church ruin.  Ballyferriter in distance, (R).

Not so with our guide.  Built many centuries ago, it was in use from probably the 13th century until the beginning of the 17th century, when it fell into disuse and ruin.  The cemeteries that bound it continue to be used to this day; the oldest graves are marked only by plain stones, small slabs of rock placed carefully at the time and yet now to the untrained eye appearing to be little more than small field stones. I've posted a few more photos of the church and grounds on Flikr.

Dún Urlann entry.  Standing stones in grass are old grave markers.

We stay with Alice at An Spéice ("The Spike", a nearby hilltop feature) for eight days.  Here is where I learn to drive all over again, loosing much of my initial fear of the opposite side driving, on narrow roads bounded by hedgerows, stone walls, blind corners, slow walkers, fast drivers, buses, and farm equipment.

Janet's class progressed, and with it some opportunities for my participation, from stained glass in Dingle to pub singing in Ballyferriter.  The expected welcomed parcel of our wallets arrived as scheduled, and two days later, during the walk to Dún an Óir and Dún Urlann, I lose coin purse, card reader, and photo card, dropped from an open pocket.  When later in the day I discern its loss I make the first of several efforts to retrace its journey, but it is gone gone gone.  I memorize some roads, retake photos of some scenes of Ballyferriter and Dingle, and let go of the rest.  I will not mention it again.

Ballyferriter and Smerwick Harbor on foot

 Journal Ireland

Baile an Fheirtéaraigh (Ballyferriter)
Cuan Ard na Caithne Smerwick Harbor)
Dún an Óir (Fort del Oro)
15 to 19 July

On Monday 15 July, Janet's Irish class starts in Dingle.  I stay back, explore Ballyferriter on Monday, and again on Thursday.  Thursday the exploration is led by an Irish speaking guide, only there are but two of us being guided, neither of us native Irish, and so only the basics are Irish. 

Ballyferriter, from the west

I have learned this: Baile an Fheirtéaraighth means Ferriter's townland; its pronunciation in Irish is mind-bogglingly different from the English, with silent letters, gutturals, and odd rules; I did not learn to pronunce it, feeling triumphant just learning how to spell it, until leaving Ireland, (I listened, but...)  I now have listened to recordings and to my ear it sounds like ballla -h'nok t'air-ig; one source for this is this page of Irish place names.  Fh is silent.

There is more than a bit of debate, (and on Thursday I heard some of it) over why it is even called this in the first place: centuries ago Ferriter was a wealthy landowner a mile or two away.

Smerwich Harbor, looking to The Three Sisters

History appears in this area (and all of Ireland) in several ways.  It is heard in place names and spoken language.  It is seen and interpreted in ruins and memorials.  It appears in the plants.

On both Monday and Thursday I walked down a narrow farm road to Smerwick beach.  On Monday, by myself, I particularly noticed plants, for I recognized almost all of them and yet many seemed incongruous.  Their story will come in a later post, except to note that Smerwick is an old English word for Arbutus, the European strawberry tree related to the Madronas of the Western USA.  Of them I saw none.

On Thursday our guide takes us across the beach and up a road, and revealed stories hidden in the ground.  At a jagged promentory jutting into the western part of Smerwick bay is Dún an Óir, (Fort of Gold), the remains of a small fort, but to my eyes it is just an uneven sheep field. A stone monument stands by the field, carved with many faces, an Irish (only) inscription on the back.

Northeast view of Smerwick bay

The story is this.  Over 400 years ago one of the rebellions of Catholics in Ireland against Protestant England included invasion and counterinvasion at this harbor.  The defeated Spanish and Irish soldiers -- several hundred of them and some of their families -- were beheaded by the English victors, their bodies cast into the sea. The story was reported, not always believed.  But as the 400 year anniversary neared, archeologists unearthed a field of skulls, and in time this monument was erected.

Our guide led us through the field to view the headlands.  It is a spectacular setting to a grim tale.  Those interested in reading further are directed to the link that follows.

Field of Heads, Dun an Oir - geograph.org.uk - 17015.jpg

Read further:
Dún an Óir -- Voices of the Dawn

Daingean Uí Chúis (Dingle town)

Ireland Journal

Days 5-6-7-8

St. Mary's Church, Dingle

Dingle

Having explored Ballyferriter on Monday, for Tuesday and Wednesday I drive Janet into Dingle, (Daingean Uí Chúis, or An Daingean) and stay to explore; by Wednesday I am confident enough driving that we bring along fellow students. During my time here I find: (4) grocers, (2) hostels, post office, (small) thrift store, hardware, library, park, free parking, internet cafe, (2) chemists (pharmacies), tourist office, (2) laundries, the language school class, the secondary school, the former hospital. Pubs, restaurants, and gift shops are too many to count or care.

A few places are memorable -- Foxy Johns is a cluttered bike repair and tool shop during the day, and a small pub at night. The movie theater also sells and rents dvd movies. A small stream runs through town, supporting unexpected plants and a couple of B&B's.

The Friday farmers market is small but vibrant, tasty, diverse with baked goods and cheeses and French pates and sausage sandwiches; surprisingly though, in mid July fresh produce is little more than carrots, onions, and potatoes.

Early on I buy a small leather coinpurse from a impoverished small thrift store that for a few days I will like greatly and then loose. In many places I stop and ponder, frame, point, click the camera, click again. I can't claim to take these pictures, for on Thursday the images I capture will, with the coinpurse, free themselves: scenes of the town -- the streets, the water, the churches; and of plants -- small ferns growing out of old walls and fuschias growing over them, invasive stands of Japanese knotweed and butterfly bush that crowd the stream flowing through town. No matter. I also locate maps to digest and make my own, as well as to give away.

Over the next two days and a third one Friday, (these photos all from then), I will learn the basics of Dingle, but it is harder to like it, a tourist mob scene of people wandering in and out of stores that are hawking wares, and merchants aiming to make some Euros off us and be pleasant about it. Occasionally I get a look behind the mirror -- the thrift store, the weary old men, the hot harried laundress, the stone walls that are facade on cinder block. Dingle is a town overrun by the tourist trade at its worst, everchanging mobs of people and the constant jockeying of traffic and parking that interferes with the commerce it is supposed to help.

To be fair, there are scenes in Dingle I like a great deal -- out of the way places away from the craziness of tourist commerce. An almost hidden walkway near Janet's school leads me to a Madonna whose back is turned away from the din as well, the end of a dead-end street by a unassuming green-space.

For Janet Dingle is different. Her class of 8 beginners are all non- Irish -- German, French, Russian, American. They meet in a large room with old covered sofas, a long teaching table, a sink, some computers. On Tuesday Janet and I meet for lunch at the Dingle school, place chairs outside. In the time it takes me to go buy a lunch she eats hers. She does not mind eating alone -- her brain is full and the quiet is good. In the afternoon I again meet her and the class, and walk to a nearby church and chapel. The chapel is filled with stained glass paintings by Harry Clarke, a well known glass artist of the early and mid twentieth century. While I retrieve the car Janet waits in the church; together we fuel it, pick up the laundry, and return to Ballyferriter for dinner and evening activities.

On Wednesday Janet and I again meet for lunch, only this time I have mine. A simple lunch is so easy, because every small grocer sells wonderful cheese and excellent brown bread. We walk a couple of blocks to a choice park hidden behind a gate and wall and visited only by a few locals, (and rare curious tourists who boldly explore around at the same church we visited yesterday, or watch a child play on the swing with her parent. Janet and I return to her class, and then I visit the library, make an effort to look at and transfer photos from the camera. The effort fails, so instead I look at email. In hindsight I would instead have spent a bit of time and money at the internet cafe, but I did not. Again after class we opt out of the Dingle hubbub and return to Ballyferriter.

The Road to Ballyferriter, (first days)

Glen's Ireland Travel Journal
Days 3 - 4

First days in Ballyferriter

13 July
We continue improvising because of our neglect -- our credit cards being shipped express to Ballyferriter, our next home.  We have a pleasant breakfast, and then I venture down the busy highway to catch a bus into downtown Limerick.  Everything is backwards, unsettling.  People are kind and helpful but my brain is slow.  I locate the Post / Western Union office, sign for and collect the Euros sent by Nancy.  It seems like a lot but they will spend quickly.  I ask directions but the accents and the assumptions on top of my disorientations and my anxieties -- my head is spinning.  I pause.  I see a map. 
I find the travel office.  Maps maps maps I find one, I find another.  I am accompanied out the door in the correct direction.  I have time.  I find a bookstore.  I find the right bus stop at the right time to travel on to Shannon Airport.  But from here I get no further.
Did the bus come and I not see it, was it late and I impatient?  No matter.  I have a phone.  It is unfamilar, but I have a phone.  The phone will not defeat me.  I will triumph.  I call the hotel.  Janet is in the lobby.  Small victories.  I get a taxi back to the hotel.  Success is in sight.
Hurriedly we complete our packing, say goodbyes and continue our lift to the airport.  This driver also is helpful, enjoyable.  He leaves us at Hertz and Janet waits with our luggage while I find one of the guys from yesterday.  (Only yesterday?? much has happened).  We pay the full insurance in cash (400 Euro) and -- a day late -- get the car.
I am grateful for the delay, for now I am rested and better oriented. 

Birdwatching near Dingle

For the next three weeks our car will be a Black Renault "Fluence" 4 door manual diesel.  As soon as possible we pull over to orient to the car.  It seems huge, fancy, with lots of electronics.  It is also 20 years newer than what we drive.
For now, only two things matter.

ONE: The steering wheel is on the right, the gearshift is on the left, and the roads are reversed.

TWO: the car has A/C.

We take the M7 (a "divided motorway"), through a tunnel under the Shannon River and then take the regional road through many towns towards Ballyferriter.
Stop at a cemetery to regroup, take some photos (lost -- sigh).
Another stop for a light meal -- cheese and fruit.

Roads are fast, narrow, winding.  Janet is reading the maps, watching the road.  Watch the curb, you need to shift, please not so fast, turn coming, stay to the left, we'd better pull over.  Now it sounds like backseat driving, but in these first hours I need all her advice.  It is all I can do to look in front, check the left mirror the right mirror, the lines, the clutch, continue.  Fun this is not, mild terror is more like it.

On the road to Annuscaul  (Panoramio photo)

We negotiate through towns, hit a few curbs, find most of our turns the first time.
In Tralee we drive in circles, find food and toilets, call our host -- two hours to go.
Winding narrow roads, we barely see the landscape except in a map and mirrors.

From An Spéice looking north shortly after our arrival

Am I in the lines?  Can I keep pace?  Any photos taken are now lost, but when we can look the views are breathtaking.  Here is someone else's Panoramio photo.

Dingle town is crazy to drive through.  We will be back in Dingle, much more than expected.  But for now, it is a final hurdle.
We find Ballyferriter and An Spéice. Close to 8 p.m., we are greeted by Alice Hannafin, our host, with tea and muffins.  This and our room and the view all are splendid.

 Home.

Janet sleeps soundly, and I sleep as I will each night: a split shift.  My early morning wakeful time is devoted to writing postcards or for the blog; the common room has a cozy corner with a reading lamp and is a perfect retreat.

14 July  (Sunday)
Our first B&B breakfast, Janet has bacon and eggs, (and will almost every day), I have "a mini Irish': fried egg, bacon, (Canadian style), three types of sausage, (two are called puddings, because cereal is in the blend), along with o.j., canned citrus, cereal, and several types of dark and tasty toasted bread.  My capacity is appalling.

Today we will stay nearby, recover.  We have a spare bed and onto it we disgorge brochures and maps, trinkets and cash, electronics and optics, to inventory our posessions and devine our purpose.  Midday we visit the museum.  Janet being an upcoming student, we are admitted free.  It is modest -- one room --  but includes remarkable artifacts, bits of history and geology.  Reflecting later, what struck me most was not the actual museum contents, but the bilingual nature of the display, with everything in English and Irish. 

 

From the West Kerry Museum webpage

We sit with the displays then buy sparkling water and move outside in the warm, relieved to be away from Limerick.  The little adjoining cafe includes an alluring well-stocked wall of books, but access is blocked by a large woman seated in the entry at the carrel of post cards, slowly spinning the display so that she may examine each and every card for sale, quite unaware of her position.  In time I cannot contain myself and excuse myself past her, and only then do she and the clerk consider her placement and move chair and cardrack out of the way.  The way clear, I draw Janet in, and she and I examine the selection.  For now Janet selects a chart of grammar rules in Irish; I temporarily resist a bilingual book on plants of the Dingle Peninsula, instead buy cards.

Across from the museum is the church which we also visit, and nearby is one of Bf's three pubs.
Murphy's.  It is busy, noisy with an important football game, the fish and chips and burger adequate, the mushroom soup wonderful.

Hardy fushia, Dingle Peninsula

Once home Janet nests and I venture further on foot to the western edge of town. I'm surprised by unexpected plant life more familiar than not. There are many well established foreign invaders -- dense hedgerows of hardy fushias flowering everywhere, and massive stands of New Zealand flax in full bloom have me dumbstruck.

Soon I will loose most all the photos (my photo journal) from our first few days in Bf.

Fushia hedge, Ballyferriter

But as I am ignorant of their future fate, I keep clicking, Janet also takes a few with her phone and these we still have.

In the evening another week-long guest arrives, another language student.  This begins a nice little friendship. 

Days one and two -- Egad

Glen's travel diary

Near Disaster!

11 July SeaTac and Chicago

Somehow neither of us brought our billfolds.
Every credit card and Glen's drivers license are at home! We have our passports.
We have photocopies(!!) of our credit cards and Glen's drivers license,
(and passports ...).
Janet has her license, but probably won't drive.
Glen has his international drivers license only.
We have in cash $30 and €100. We have travel food.
We have phones.
We have Janet's sister Nancy.
We have plane reservations.
We have a (new) plan.
Off we go as far as we can get.
Egad.

Our inauspicious start continues: someone is sitting in my seat.
His ticket and mine both match the seat he is seated in.
They find him another seat but a whole lotta drama is going with us it seems.
One more phone call just before take-off.
The flight is fine.

First stop Chicago O'Hare, about 2:30 pm Central Time.
Here we are on the phone again with Nancy and I traverse the airport trying to find solutions.
Also on the phone with the bank. Is there a bank in the airport and will it cash a check?
(Although I left behind the plastic, I DID bring my nearly useless checkbook. Reason to hope?)  The answer (No) takes at least 30 minutes and many distant stops to learn.

I do take some cool photos, (a full Brachiosarus, Wm O'Hare's WWII plane); these will be lost next week, but other people post photos from O'Hare too.

Brachiosaurus at O'Hare, from Wikimedia commons

Nancy gives Janet details for our arrival in Ireland: she is wiring money and express mailing our cards.

I have located the departure gate a loong ways from our arrival. We have time, (one thing in our favor),
and they have transport -- oversized electric golf carts.
We use two freight elevators and travel in a pedestrian tunnel (like everyone else) under a runway.

Ohare pedestrian tunnel, from Wikimedia commons

We depart for Shannon after 70 minute tarmac delays.
For takeoff I have to change chairs, because my chair won't stay upright and locked.
I return after takeoff, and keep my mouth shut for landing. The computer screen also doesn't work.
Read write sleep eat fidget. Again. 7 hours.
We watch (on Janet's screen) a map that updates the trip -- Newfoundland, Greenland, Atlantic, Ireland.
We also watch distance and speed. The pilot makes up time, full out over 600 mph. Arrive next day.

12 July -- Shannon Airport and Limerick about 8:00 am Ireland, midnight Olympia.
How did we get here and where do we go next? Entry is smooth enough -- we have passports.
But Hertz, though kind and fairly sympathetic, is also flabbergasted that we can arrive with photocopies only. Ultimately it is agreed that the if we pay the supplemental insurance in cash (the part of the agreement not paid in advance) we can get the car. This will not be today.

So we sit, collect ourselves and take a Taxi to Castletroy hotel.
Our driver is funny, informative, takes us through Limerick to show us sights on our way to our hotel on the far other side of town (the location seemed a good choice WHEN we had a rental car).

Here again we have to charm ourselves through our self-imposed mini-disaster.
The hotel staff (Travelodge Castletroy) is very kind, helpful in our predicament. First they agree to accept our payment without an actual card, only our copies and previous online reservations.
On top of this the VERY kind manager drives me to the nearest Western Union / Post and waits while we get the cash through Nancy. Thank You Paul!!

The staff give us our room WAY early - 10 am or so. Because I slept on the plane I am doing ok.
But, we are disoriented. Ireland is 8 hours ahead and so it is the wee hours back home.
Electricity, water spigots, phone, money, measurements, terminology, accents: all different here.
Ground floor is 0 (zero) floor but in the states we call it 1st floor, (and so on).
And ... there is this money thing.

Janet crashes. I last until afternoon getting money, buying a phone, etc. then I also crash for 2 hrs.
are loaned one of the last portable fans in the hotel (NO a.c. in Ireland).
The fan barely holds on, but it saves us:
The fan and a window that opens, a hall door we prop ajar, and a very pleasant fairly cool ground floor cafe with ice and tasty light fare.

Come night we watch Irish tv, sleep on separate beds in our street clothes, under a sheet if that.

The hotel is almost new and yet barely holding on -- above us are two unfinished floors and apparently an unused conference center that crowns this building, in an area abandoned mid-boom.

A small shopping mall nearby is dwarfed by an abandoned new intention rusting and rotting before halfway built -- a modern relic, an Irish shopping cathedral lacking only ivy, moss, and tour guides.

I wrote that the area needs a rebel artist with a purpose and a sense of humor. What do you know, turns out there are some visionary artists.

The first photo is of the abandoned mall project. The second photo is one of several photos which show off the billboard's vision of something better.

Urban Tree Project

Billboard of alternative vision, with beneficiaries.

(Reimagining Broken Land)

Both photos from http://reimaginingbrokenland.blogspot.ie/

Some views of Ireland

Perhaps it should not surprise me that it has been harder than hoped to transmit our adventures.  At this point we have figured out how to put iPhone photos into email and on Flickr.  If you have not been emailed sorry but one finger writing is very slooow.  MAYBE a computer with full keyboard will appear before our return.

We are halfway through our trip, (!), and only now have we experienced some rain. For we Puget Sound mossbacks, it is actually very welcome.  Ireland doesn't do heat.  

During our week here in Killorglin, (Co. Kerry) we are delving into family history. Some is more general, such as the Kerry Bog Village museum; I've added a link and a few photos.  The authentic small cottages sparely and genuinely furnished including their stockpile of peat conveys their meager life stories  in ways words do not.

The other part of our stay in Killorglin has been surprising beyond expectation.  Janet's goal of learning what she could of  old family ties here has already lead to meeting several folk including one cousin and more contacts expected.

Again, here are a few Ireland Flickr photos (And a few bee photos that I haven't figured out how to separate out.)

Images without photographs

We are in Ireland, or perhaps more acurately, we are ON Ireland.  While I have used our camera for taking MANY PHOTOS, their capture is not complete and as images they are not going willingly, are  in the grips of electronic limbo, defeating my pre-travel assumptions that I could upload, edit, and publish them in relative ease.  Alas, dear reader, this is not the current case.  You can trust that the setting is amazing and the getting here has been at times unnerving.  For one thing, the roads of this country are not made for ignorant foreigners and oversized cars.  Not only are these narrow fast roads, we are driving right hand drive cars with a left hand stick shift.  And THIS is a complication we at least in part were expecting.

When I started this post, from the library in Dingle, Janet's Irish class was closing for the day.  Now, hours later in the wee hours, unable to sleep because of unusually warm weather and a restless mind, I write without photos aside from knowing that I pointed a camera, framed an image and clicked. For now I will continue to try to figure out how to share many photos, in time I may content myself with just a few.

Glen and Janet
Ballyferriter on the Dingle Peninsula,
County Kerry, Ireland.

Photo Sharing

Ahh, the life of a wanna-be blogger.  Managed to delete an entire post, complete with some links.  We leave soon, and the intent of this blog is to reduce computer time IN Ireland, send back some photos.  Each of the following links has a few photos I've already uploaded.  (Now as long as I keep track of passwords...)

I am still wavering between three photo sharing systems, (four, counting the blog itself).  Opinions??

Flickr

Picasa

Panoramio

Cheers,

Glen

Our travel schedule to Ireland

We leave on
   11 July 2013

Fly to Shannon Ireland (near Limerick) by way of Chicago.

Take off 8:30 am Seattle -- SEA  (4:30 pm Ireland)
Switch planes in Chicago, mid-day  O'Hare International Airport  -- ORD

   12 July 

Arrive Shannon airport, (near Limerick) Ireland 7:35 a.m  (11:35 pm Olympia)

View Larger Map

July 12 -13

  Shannon International Airport, 

Customs, Car Rental, drive to Limerick,
     Orient to everything - time, driving, phone, electricity, currency, language, food, terminology....
  Stay first night at Travelodge Limerick Castletroy

July 13 - 20
   Drive 2 hours southwest to Ballyferriter, Dingle peninsula, County Kerry (via Tralee)
Stay at An Speice Bed and Breakfast
Janet in Irish classes during day Monday until Saturday; Glen ...?

July 20 - 27
  Move inland from Dingle but still in County Kerry, to:
Dromin Farmhouse, Killorglin, County Kerry
   Day trips and family history.  Destinations include Cork, Killarney, and Clonmel

July 27 - Aug 2 
Head north to County Clare, stay outskirts of Ennis at:
  Oakley B&B, Ennis, County Clare
   Visits include the Burren and Cliffs of Moher, and plenty of music.

August 2 
Fly from Shannon to Olympia by way of New York, (Newark NJ --  EWR)
Arrive SeaTac airport about 6:05 pm, (2:05 a.m Ireland)


the technicals:

SEAORD 8:30 a.m. PDT / 2:25 p.m. CDT  (8:30 a.m. Oly = 4:30 pm Ireland)
ORDSNN 6:05 p.m. CDT / 7:35 a.m. IST  (11:35 p.m Oly time)

SNNEWR 9:05 a.m. IST / 11:20 a.m. EDT (5:20 pm Ireland)
EWRSEA 3:15 p.m EDT / 6:05 p.m PDT (2:05 a.m Ireland)

Enjoy our photos.