Tynanwoods Day Seven

October 20, 2006
Day Seven: A walk on The Burren, a walk through the woods; The Castle Dan

Today we drove up to the place where we first got lost in Ireland, high up on The Burren near the Parknabinnia burial tomb. We parked the car and walked to what we thought was possibly some kind of Celtic burial mound on a hill. We were surrounded by mile upon mile of ancient stone walls, fields, exposed limestone puzzle pieces interspersed with dense turf, and cattle. It felt like we'd landed on some alien lunar landscape populated by an race of super-intelligent cows.

When we made it to the top of the hill we discovered that the Celtic burial mound was in fact an Irish trash mound -- someone had apparently demolished an old stone house and left a large heap of rubble behind. But just beyond the mound was a valley that had been carved out by a glacier 10,000 years ago. We had a spectacular view of farmlands, Inniquin Lough, and a terraced cliff composed entirely of limestone. It would have been the perfect place for our picnic, had I remembered to bring the picnic materials. Instead we trudged back down the hill under the watchful eyes of our bovine alien overlords and picnic'd on the limestone near our car.

In the late afternoon we drove to Ruan, about 5 km from Corofin, just to see what was there. Answer: not much. Just one short street with a couple of pubs and stores and a number of recently built housing developments. So we headed east to the Dromare Nature Reserve 3 km down the road. A gorgeous wooded park surrounding a lake, a landscape 180 degrees different than The Burren not five miles away. We went for a couple of walks in the woods, on the lookout for leprechauns and bunnies (we saw neither). We found the remains of yet another castle, really just one wall left standing, but on the inside of that wall we found the letters DAN carved into the stone. (And by 'carved' I mean scratched into the surface with a sharp rock.) Finally, I had found my castle in Ireland.

That night we came home, exhausted, and turned on Irish Telly. Our choices on a friday evening: a total of four channels, two of them showing soccer matches, one was showing local news, and the 4th station featured a two-hour special report on the sinister world of unethical dentistry. No, I am not joking.