Inishmor

Cliffs near Dun Aengus on the Aran Islands

Inishmor (I've seen about four different spellings) is the largest of the Aran Islands and Kilronan is the biggest town there. The population is about 2,000 people and the island is two miles by nine miles. The only way you can get there is by ferry; one is at 10 am and the other is at 6 pm. I also know from experience that everyone you pass on the street says hello to you. It has been my favorite place that I have visited in Ireland and I got to share it with Kristina and Carolyn.

We woke up and headed down to breakfast at the Pier House Bed & Breakfast. The man of the house told us that he had lived on this tiny island his whole life, something that I don't think I could do. After a hearty breakfast we went across the street to Aran Bike Rental to rent bikes for the day. Each bike only cost ten euro and it is for sure the best way to tour the island. Inishmor is so rustic that I think being in a car would spoil it. The bike rental guy showed us the best trails to take and we were off! Enjoy our bike tour:

Kristina and Carolyn beginning the ride

The Landscape

Horses, which we met up with later.

Dun Aengus, a Late Bronze Age fort on the cliff. As the cliff erodes chunks of it continue to fall in the ocean.

We spent the longest time just taking pictures at the top of the cliffs. We had nowhere to be and there is a great possibility that we will never be back so we snapped away. Also we were right on the cliffs; we could just look down and see the ocean beneath us. This is Kristina and me in our matching Delta Sigma Pi sweatershirts. Precious.

Waves crashing against the cliffs. Being up there is humbling because the ocean seems so powerful. Not to mention one misstep and you're falling 100 feet.

Loving every minute of it!

Carolyn cheating death on the edge of the cliff.

Cows grazing. Those stone walls have no mortar so they can easily be moved when the animals need somewhere else to eat.

Seals! We headed over to Seal Cove on our second time around the island (we got back from our first round at 2 and the ferry didn't leave until 6 so we decided it to take advantage of our time on Inishmor).

Many seals. They are kinda funny looking things, but I bet they think the same thing about humans.

Carolyn was very excited about the seals so we went to great lengths (literally) to get close to them. I'm glad that Kristina, who can be kind of a klutz, made it safely over the seaweed covered rocks.

Carolyn petting a horse in the distance.

We had a lot of fun petting the horses. There were three adults and a colt.

Stonewalls that were all over the island. I love the patterns the rocks make.

After looking through all of my pictures I was kind of disappointed because none of them capture what the island was really like. One of my guidebooks described it as "moody, heart-stopping beauty that can be interpreted as starkly romantic or monotonously bleak." I really like this description. Riding around here it looked like a movie set for rustic Ireland.