Ireland - The Fastnet Rock Lighthouse.

We sat at the restaurant for about half an hour, enjoying the food, wine, conversations flowing around us (love listening to the cadence of the Irish accent) and the warm weather. Not as warm as at home, where we understand there is another heat and humidity wave.

Sitting on the picnic tables outside,

we could take pictures of the jelly fish that are varied and like works of art

and see our boat come in.

We watched the essentials of island life being unloaded; 3 kegs of Guinness

and a bin full of ordered merchandise.

A ruined lookout tower as we left the harbour.

The wind had picked up a little and dark clouds were rolling in.

The wind was up enough that he just needed a reefed main sail to be moving along.

There were only 8 of us who paid the extra to go out to the Rock and we were all snapping  away like crazy.

As we approached and started to circle the rock the loud speakers started a commentary, most of which we had already heard at the heritage centre.

The base of the old lighthouse, on the top, remains, and is used to store fuel. The lighthouse was subsequently built on the Atlantic side of rock because the power and height of the waves is increased by breaking on the rock.

The granite was quarried in Cornwall and assembled there, the blocks numbered, taken apart and sent to Ireland. A boat was built that could handle the weight of the blocks and a cable and pulley system moved them from the boat to the rock.

The supervisor who over saw the placing of every rock, which took 7 years, died the year before it was lit. The scaffolding around the light now is due to the work being done to convert it to LED.

As we left the rock

the sun came out over our boat

ans shone beautifully as we made our way back to Cape Clear Island

We swung back into the Cape Clear harbour to pick up passengers. This little boat had come in.

The Sherkin Island lighthouse

and the Baltimore beacon, greeted us,

as did a seal in the harbour.

Instead of going to the pub overlooking the harbour, part of the hotel, we opted for the small pub. Just a pub, not a restaurant, and full of locals

not a tourist in sight (or sound). The ferry crew men came in for a cup of tea. I didn't have a Guinness, just loved the harp on the tap. We both had an Irish Coffee

I did decide to bring a bottle of the local Irish Whisky home, untested, untasted. We will see what the Scotch drinkers think.

Ireland - Cape Clear Island

The ferry to Cape Clear left at a very civilized hour, 10:30am, so there was no need for alarms and we had a leisurely (though light) breakfast.

We had booked our tickets on line after having checked the weather. Light winds. Low chance of rain. When we got to the pier they had our names on the list and issued us tickets.

The Sherkin Island ferry was rafted up to us on the pier and had to leave before we could.

Our skipper. He was all business as we left the harbour but out to sea he read his newspaper, just looking up occasionally to make course corrections.

Out past the pleasure craft,

the crab fisherman,

the Baltimore beacon and the rugged coastline of Sherkin Island.

Way out to sea, look closely, we spotted fins.

We're assuming dolphins. Its good feeding grounds so there are also a number of different whales that spend their summers here.

Plenty of fish for the cormorants too.

An unhappy passenger (though he did play it up a bit for the sympathy)

Ruined church and old gravestones next to the North Harbour (where the ferry docks).

When we talked to the woman in Baltimore who checked us in and gave us out tickets she said there was a shuttle from the dock to the Heritage Centre but that we should have no trouble walking up the hill to it in about 10mins. Ha!

Later I took this picture of that road. It took us at least half an hour.

Dates of the 2 different lighthouses, one on the island and one on the Fastnet rock.

"Crazy people, you know there's a shuttle right?"

The heritage centre had displays on the history of the island, farming, fishing, the great famine, the world wars

and lots of info and videos about the building of the Fastnet Lighthouse and the Fastnet Race that goes from the Isle of Wight to the Fastnet Rock and then to Plymouth. The 1979 race was tragic....

A worse-than-expected storm on the third day of the race wreaked havoc on over 306 yachts taking part in the biennial race, resulting in 18 fatalities (15 yachtsmen and 3 rescuers). Emergency services, naval forces, and civilian vessels from around the west side of the English Channel were summoned to aid what became the largest ever rescue operation in peace-time. This involved some 4,000 people including the entire Irish Naval Service's fleet, lifeboats, commercial boats, and helicopters.^[1][2]
 from Wikipedia.
 .. of the 306 yachts taking part, 5 were sunk, 100 suffered knock downs, and 77 rolled (that is turtled) at least once due to high winds and "mountainous seas ..
from Wikipedia

The young man (American) who ran the heritage centre assured us there was plenty of time to walk down to the South harbour before catching the ferry again.. "its a small island".

Palm trees and fuchsia.

Brilliant hydrangeas.

Horse in the gorse.

The fuchsia love this island.

The north harbour was a small, stone beach cove. The hostel had their laundry out.

The other option there was glamping.

The bar at the south harbour wasn't open but stated "no food served, only serious drinks"

Between the two harbours, a memorial to those who died in the '79 Fastnet. We learned later that our ferry was one of the boats that went out to help with the rescue.

The restaurant/bar at the North harbour was open. When I saw "warm apple pie and hot custard" I couldn't resist.

Nic went for the open faced smoked salmon on gluten free bread. We learned here that Ireland has a high percentage of people with coeliac disease and that is why Nicola is having no problem finding gluten free meals in the restaurants. Looking it up on-line, the theory is that the Irish diet, before the famine, had very little gluten in it, the only cereal was oats, and now the diet is the same as everywhere else and they have an intolerance for the gluten.

Ireland - Baltimore and Skibbereen

Having done a lot of driving yesterday we stayed closer to home today. Drove the 3km into Baltimore and tried to find a ticket office for the Fastnet and ferry tours. No such thing. Has to be booked by phone or internet.

Fishing boat on the commercial dock with its nets spread out and being repaired.

We went into Dun Na Sead Castle, which dominates the village of Baltimore.

Built in 1215 and lovingly restored by private owners (who now live in part of it) it is quite small, dominated by a great room furnished with 13th century pieces.

It had been in ruins since occupied by Oliver Cromwell.

There was some interesting historical information and artifacts

and great views

from the rooftop,

shared with a young Jackdaw.

Next we walked through the village

following the trail to the Beacon.

Past "The Cove" where in 1631 Barbary pirates had landed and taken 107 Baltimore residents captive and sold them into slavery. None were ransomed, none returned.

I don't think I have posted a picture of this yet but it has been absolutely amazing to us that Fuchsia grows wild in the hedgerows here, lining the roads with red flowering bushes, often hemmed with orange Monbretia and sometimes bright yellow Gorse. We were expecting the green but not the other brilliant colours.

In a short time we were out on to moor land on a stone wall bordered narrow (goes without saying really) road.

The Beacon, which marks one side of the Baltimore harbour entrance, is not particularly inspiring, but gave us a destination for  a walk.

The views across the entrance and out along the coast are lovely though.

I watched a couple of little sailboats having fun in the shifty, gusty winds in the bay.

We walked back into the village

and, with permission, I snapped a picture of this Austin Healey,

participating in a tour.

Nicola and I headed back to the cottage for lunch and shared a bottle of local cider.

We spent the afternoon wandering the streets of Skibbereen, just enjoying the shops. We went into a display of art work depicting the Great Famine and subsequent emigration to the U.S. and Canada. It was so depressing we had to go into a wool shop to cheer ourselves up. We then found a gallery of local artists and saw some lovely paintings, woodworks, pottery and jewelry.

For dinner we walked to the local pub. "There's always a pub within walking distance in Ireland" was a quote from someone we talked to. I would add that it depends how far you are prepared to walk. This one is about 15minutes, part of it on a very busy road. I felt I should try a Guinness. I did. I didn't care for it! Bring on the red wine.

"An Sibin" is a "gastro pub" and the meal was fabulous. We have been surprised by the caliber of the cooking here. Every meal we have had has been made with fresh, local ingredients and often creatively prepared with subtle flavours, never bland but never over spiced. We both had grilled sea bass which was served over a lightly spiced "stew" of cherry tomatoes and black and green olives.

It was dark when we left the pub but our landlady had provided reflective vests for just such an occasion so we wore them on the way home.

Tomorrow we take the ferry out to Cape Clear Island, spend some time there and then continue out to the Fastnet Rock Lighthouse.