Part Three - A Gallop Through Galway - 2001

By Allan Jackson

When events conspired to cut my time in Ireland unexpectedly short I decided I needed to get out of Dublin and have a quick look at the rest of the country.
First on my agenda was a visit to Cork where I spent a memorable couple of days and then it was on to Galway for two nights with only the one complete day between them. In retrospect the allocation of time was a mistake because I liked Galway best of the three Irish cities I stayed in, perhaps because it is smaller than the others.
I'd enjoyed my bus trip to Cork so I had no hesitation in pitching up at the bus station in Parnell Street and booking a ticket on the next bus to Galway. After travelling through places with intriguing names such as Ballyhea, Rourke's Cross, Limerick and Bunratty, the bus dropped me off just over four hours later at the bus station in Galway.
On my arrival in Cork I'd walked from the station arriving at the B&B in an advanced state exhaustion and frayed temper so this time I took a taxi and arrived calm and rested. I now can't remember exactly where I stayed because my notes disappeared along with my laptop computer when it was stolen later in the UK. What I do know is that the very nice B&B where I stayed was in the suburb of Salthill and only a very short walk from town.
Having dumped my luggage I decided to have a look around so I found my way to the road which runs along the Salt Hill seafront and into town and there, standing looking out to sea, I had an extremely intense moment of realisation. There were still a couple of hours of light left but the sun was on its way to the horizon and there I was looking at Galway Bay.
I'll admit it took me a while for my mind to make the connection but suddenly something clicked and I realised I was watching the sun about to go down on Galway Bay. Double wow!! The last time I had had a moment like that was when standing at the ferry port in Dover and noticing some white cliffs when I looked over my shoulder. It took me a while to get that one as well.
Anyway, there I was in Salthill Road with an hour or so to wait before sundown, an arctic gale howling round my ears and no shelter in sight. The wind was too lazy to find a way round me so it blew straight through and it was so cold that it chilled my relatives back in South Africa as well.
My spirit was willing but my flesh was weak and, when frostbite stated attacking my extremities, I snatched a picture of the sun almost going down on Galway Bay and stumbled into town to take refuge in the first coffee shop I could find. Unfortunately, however, that was the last of the sun I saw in Galway but it does give me an excuse to go back.

The sun almost going down on Galway Bay.

Fortunately the double-decker bus tours of the city were still running, unlike those in Cork, so I took a ride on one which I remember enjoying very much. My notes on the trip are also missing but I think I remember being shown the church where Columbus prayed before setting out to discover America.
I also remember that one of the stops on the tour was labeled as Very High View but it turned out to be nothing of the kind - I've higher than that just standing on a billiard table. Anyway, that doesn't detract from the fact that the tour was very enjoyable.
With just one full day in Galway at my disposal and many activities to choose from I eventually plumbed for a tour of the area south of Galway and that turned out to be a fortunate choice. One of the great sights of the day was the Burren which is an area approximately 100 miles square in County Clare and is mostly bare rock with a few settlements here and there.
Oliver Cromwell is reputed to have said that there was not enough wood in the Burren to build a gallows to hang a man, enough water to drown him in or enough soil to bury him in. There are tiny farms in between the rocks for which, our guide told us, the locals had had to bring in soil.
In the midst of this rocky wasteland we stopped off at the Ailwee Caves which extend far under the Burren and where we enjoyed the opportunity to view underground waterfalls and dramatic formations of stalactites and stalagmites which are a feature of limestone caves and are formed out of calcium carbonate by the dripping of water over aeons of time.
Next stop was a stone age burial site marked by the 5000-year-old Poulnabrone dolmen and then it was on to the Cliffs of Moher which were the highlight of the trip for me. The cliffs are about 8km long and offer a spectacular view plunging as they do 200 metres straight down to the Atlantic ocean.

The Cliffs of Moher.

We were told that there is often mist in the area but we were lucky because weather was fine apart from the gale which was blowing at the time. High winds are apparently pretty common along the Cliffs of Moher because my Let's Go Ireland guide specifically warns one to stay on the landward-side of the guard walls because it can't recommend being blown off of the cliffs.
By this time we were running pretty late so we scooted along to the village of Doolin which is apparently the centre of Irish traditional music in spite of its small size. There was a bus-full of us and only a smallish pub to have lunch in so we were a bit worried we might be even later. The guide told us not to worry because the pub had had plenty of practice in feeding the multitudes and it must be admitted that they did crank out the 50 or so required meals in very short order.
Then it was back to Galway, a last night at my B&B and then the bus back to Dublin where I was to meet a friend who was going to give me a lift to Scotland via Belfast and the ferry to Stranraer. I must say that I have seldom liked a country more than I liked Ireland and I found the Irish people to be wonderful as well. I never found one who wasn't good for at least a cheery 'hiyah' which is in stark contrast to many of the people I encountered thereafter during my stay in mainland Britain.

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