Ireland - narrow roads and tiny coves.

As we have a long travel day tomorrow, from Baltimore to Dublin, we took it easy today. With the Wild Atlantic Way Route Atlas in hand we decided to "potter" along the coast East of here. There were lots of "L" roads and some with the hatched lines that indicated they were Atlantic Way Scenic Routes. We were feeling adventurous (at the beginning of the trip we had decided "L" roads and those in grey (with no number) on the map were off limits. Well not today.)

First stop was Lough Hyde which is a salt water lake, partially fed by the sea. The walking trail said "terrain steep, rough uneven, path with steps and exposed drop to the side". It didn't sound appealing. We got back in the car.

On the way back to the main road we had to stop to let the cattle move to a new field.

This cove is Tragumna, nobody there but the public washrooms were open (with the only chain pull toilets I have see on this trip)

Nicola's navigation was in top form today. We were not put off by the roads with grass in the middle (often they were asphalt and the grass had broken through the centre and spread) and she had a general idea of the direction when we reached unmarked (most) intersections.

The "castle" at Toe Head. We actually decided to turn back, not continue on this road. It didn't even look like a track.

But the views along the coast were lovely and the old stone tower, like so many here, abandoned and in ruins.

Up and down, along windy, hedge and wall lined roads we finally stopped in Castletownsend

and had a coffee on the grounds of the "castle".

The peaceful inlet

invited photographs

of leisure and

working boats.

Wandering down another road we were stopped by a man and a small child who said we could go down the road but had to pull into a driveway as there was a large tractor coming. He was right, it was huge and we would have never been able to pass it on that road. Haying season was in full swing!

Worth the wait as Drombeg stone circle was on a peaceful hillside, surrounded by farmers fields.

There was also the remains of a couple of bronze age huts and a pit that when filled with water and hot stones  rolled into it, heated the water enough to cook meat.

The smoked salmon on menus always indicates that it comes from Unionhall so we were not surprised to find the village had a large commercial fishing harbour.

We stopped for Irish Coffee,

and lunch and watched 2 steeplechases on the TV (My horse came first in 1 and last in the other, good job I wasn't betting)

in a lovely little pub in Rosscarberry before heading home.

We packed and then finished off the craft projects we had bought with us to fill a rainy day (we only got one day like that and hadn't got them finished)