Saturday, Sept 21st was our last day in the Galway area. We decided to spend the day on Inishmore, the largest of the three Aran Islands. We knew we needed to take the Aran Ferry over to the island and that the first boat left at 10:30am. We finished breakfast and preparations for the day about 8:30 and looked up the Aran Island Ferry on Google Maps which pointed us to a place on Forster Street in downtown Galway. Our hostess at the B&B had indicated that the ferry was quite close and the map showed 16 minutes to get to the Aran Ferry. Off we went.

There was nothing there except a bunch of warehouses. No water, no ferries, not even a sign. After going around the block a second time we stopped at a tourist information center located down the block from where Google Maps said Aran Ferries was located.

Well, their offices were there on an upper floor of one of the buildings. The ferries, however, departed from the Ros a’ Mhil terminal about an hour west of Galway. It was now about 9am and we needed to strike a trot to make the 10:30 ferry. The next one was at 2pm in the afternoon. So west we went, right past the road to our B&B and arrived at the ferry terminal at 10am. We parked the car (7 euros per day) and bought our tickets (40 euros each round trip), and boarded the ferry. The weather was windy, overcast, and about 55 degrees. Rain was forecast for later in the day. The seas were choppy, the ferry was packed full with tour groups and school kids, and the ride over took about 45 minutes of rocking and rolling.

Inishmore is about 9 miles long and 3 miles wide. There are some 4,000 stone fences on this island alone.

This area once had seven churches and has the grave of a saint (I can’t remember the name). It continues to be used as a cemetery. Speaking of cemeteries, there are two non-cemeteries where babies who weren’t baptized are buried as unbabtized folks can’t be buried in a real cemetery.

The stone walls were made as the land was cleared of stones. The more wall you made, the more land you claimed (at least that was the case a couple thousand years ago). Grass grows well on the island in and among the rocks, so cattle and sheep are the main agricultural products. Tourism is the #1 money maker with fishing at #2. About 800 people live in the island.

One of the main attractions on the island is Dun Aengus, a pre-historic round fort perched on the 300 foot high cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The walk up to the fort was a little over a half mile but a significant climb. It took us 45 minutes to ascend and 30 minutes to come back down.

The fort consists of a couple of half circles protecting the fort with a central half-circle. The open side of the circle is the ocean. The fort was occupied by many different peoples over its history and was abandoned as a fort in the 1700’s. It’s now a historical site managed by Ireland’s Office of Public Works.

St. Ciaran, who founded Clonmacnoise monastic community and arranged the alliance with Glendalough monastic community first studied on Inishmore. The ruins of a church named for him remains. It was added upon and rebuilt several times before being abandoned in the mid-1800’s.

This was St. Ciaran’s church first church, or at least the first church named for him. Later another church was built in St. Ciaran’s name in the port city along with a Holy High Cross.

There are no Protestants on the island, according to our tour guide. When we arrived on the ferry, we had a couple of very important things to do. First was find a WC and second was to find an ATM as I had paid our B&B bill this morning and used up most of our cash. Meanwhile, everyone else headed either for the bicycle rental shops or to the tour busses (more like tour vans). When we went looking for a tour bus, one was available and he was looking for passengers. We signed on (15 euros each) as he waited to see if he could get more passengers. When they didn’t materialize, the two of us had our private tour guide.

The church fell into ruin when the last Protestant departed the island. Everyone is Catholic now, according to our tour guide, not that he attends services very often, mind you.

The last ferry back was at 4pm. The trip back on the ferry was just as rocking and rolling as the trip over and it started to rain as we headed back to shore. We redeemed the car and headed back to Barna for dinner. Other than a candy bar each, neither of us had eaten anything since breakfast.

We stopped at Donnelly’s in Barna, the same place we ate the night we arrived. I had a fillet of cod, Nina has the Chicken St. Elgar and we topped it off with a dish of apple strudel and ice cream as well as a piece of chocolate cake topped with a toffee sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream (we shared both dishes). Definitely one of the better meals we’ve had since arriving in Ireland.

So our time in the area of Galway is ending. Tomorrow we head for Belfast and will make a stop in Athlone to visit a castle. The Galway Branch doesn’t meet until 11am and is almost the opposite direction of where we need to go for Belfast. No Church for us tomorrow.