Day 12 - Galway to Dublin

We awoke to the sounds of high wind and rain. This was not good. Today we were scheduled to fly from Connemara Airfield to the Aran Island of Inis Mór. Despite the bad weather, there was still a glimmer of hope. The islands are 10 miles off the coast of Galway and sometimes it can be stormy in Galway, but out on the islands it can be the exact opposite weather.  The islands are completely exposed to the elements, so a good day of weather is required in order to enjoy your time out there. Otherwise it is a miserable and inhospitable place. We had prepaid our flight, but if it was too dangerous, we had agreed not to go. As we pulled into the tiny airport, Matt spotted the wind sock. “That is bad. Very bad…a full wind sock. I would never fly in these conditions.” Inside the small office, a clerk seemed to be frazzled. She was trying to locate her pilots who were late for work. 

Outside, the wind was picking up even more at around 40mph. The rain was coming down. Her weather report said it was the same on the islands. She thought we might be able to get out there, but she could not guarantee our return since the storms strength would be even stronger in the late afternoon, preventing any take-offs. So that was that. We were not going to the Aran Islands today. Fortunately, they refunded our flight fares.

Now, what to do in Galway in an all-day storm? The answer is Nothing. Everything in Galway is an outdoor activity, other than shopping. I could not see spending the day in our cramped little room, so we decided to leave the B&B early and get our driving for the East coast done today. This did result in us forfeiting 65 euro for the room due to their cancellation policy. 

With the storm blanketing the entire country, our drive to the east coast was very wet and the wind gusts were nuts. I decided to detour us to the Boyne Valley where Matt could learn about Newgrange and Knowth. These are Neolithic burial and settlement structures. When I was here in the 90’s, we could just drive right up to them and get out of the car for a look. There might be a docent who could share some fun facts along with a donation of 3 euros at a little table, but that was all. Now they are both Heritage Sites and have a full visitor’s center and shuttles to take the tourists out to each archeological site. No more free for all at the cairns. 

First we went to Knowth. What a difference! When I was last there in 1997, they were still excavating. All that was there were a bunch of grassy mounds and some diagrams as to what they think they had begun to find. The project finished in 2010. While on the site, the storm kicked it up a notch. The rain was coming in so hard that it stung my face. Other people were learning that an umbrella in gale force winds serves no purpose.

Newgrange was pretty much the same only now inside the chamber, they simulated how the sunlight fills the middle chamber with a ray of light on the Winter Solstice. Newgrange is the best known Irish passage tomb and dates to 3200BC. The large mound is approximately 80m in diameter and is surrounded at its base by a kerb of 97 stones. The most impressive of these stones is the highly decorated Entrance Stone. It was a nice reprieve from the wind and rain while inside the tomb. However, when we emerged, the winds were at full force (50+ mph) and the temperature had dropped again. I could literally lean into the wind and still stay upright. There was so much rain that after taking my phone out for a photo, Matt said, “It’s a good thing you have Apple Care.”

After visiting both sites, we sat in the car trying to figure out where we were going to stay that night. Unfortunately, the hotel I booked in Dublin was full and they could not take us tonight in addition to tomorrow night. We ended up finding a little place just North of the airport. It was literally our shelter from the storm with clean beds and hot showers.



When I asked Matt at the end of the day, what he had thought about Ireland, he said, ”I’ve seen a lot of rocks.”