Cleggan Local Travels
Inishbofin (Pronounced Inishbofin)
No trip to Cleggan would be complete without a visit to the island of Inishbofin. The name Inishbofin means “island of the white cow”, right. We didn’t see a single cow but there were quite a few ewes. The intrigue about this island is that it has a rich history, sometimes even a little sinister. Back in the 7th century, around the time the first US Social Security payments were made, an English Abbot named St. Colman built a monastery here. Today on this site is a graveyard, ruins of a medieval church and a holy well.
In the 16th century the Spanish pirate Don Bosco occupied the castle located at harbors edge. In 1653, Cromwell captured the castle and turned it into a prison / B&B for Catholic priests.
Our journey was mostly to explore the island on foot and have a bite of lunch before returning to Cleggan. We boarded the mighty Island Discoverer ferry around lunch time for the 45 minute ride to the island. If you’re wondering where they got the idea for Gilligan’s Island, I think we found it. Although the bay was “calm” during our trip, the North Atlantic can change in a heartbeat causing waves and swells that would put most land-lovers leaning over the side. Fortunately, we survived to tell the tale. Unfortunately this was the highlight of our adventure. Not much happening on the island in the off season, October, so walking was pretty much the call of the day. We saw lots of sheep, some ruins, beaches and ancient signal towers but mostly the road. It was a good day for a walk and we needed the exercise anyway.
Grabbed some lunch at the Beach Bar where they played complimentary Johnny Cash music the whole time. Do you have any idea how many songs that guy recorded! Usual selection of grub chicken goujons, chips and a tuna melt, then back on the ferry for the return to Cleggan. Not a bad day, good weather, nice walk and a fun ferry ride.
Oughterard Revisited
Off to the castle! Aughnanure castle sits past the Oughterard Golf Club a little south of the city. Wanting to continue to explore the nearby area this was a perfect choice for a short drive and to see a fairly complete six-story tower house. The present castle was built by the O’Flaherty clan on the site of one dating from 1256 AD. Seems like the O’Flaherty’s had a monopoly on construction projects at this time and reined over the area from the 13th to the 16th centuries. This particular castle was a strong hold against the British in the 16th century.
Parking was easy and the castle is just a short walk along the river Drimneen. According to the travel guide this castle is unusual in that it has a double bawn. You know, two bawns. It also has a couple murder holes which seem pretty obvious to us so not sure how effective they really were during a conflict. Getting someone to stand directly below a murder hole was probably more challenging than just running outside and stabbing them with your sword, who knows. Anyway, to continue on with our out-of-season touring, once at the castle we found out that it was closed for renovations. Funny, looked to be in pretty good shape considering its over 700 years old. There is a good side to this, there was no charge and we were free to walk the castle grounds but there are no picnics allowed and oh yeah, no restrooms available. Poor woman working the booth must have a special bush nearby.
We did find the grounds interesting and took several pictures of some of the detailed carvings in the windows and walls. The banquet room was a separate building adjacent to the tower house within the first bawn, you know-a bawn. The building has long since deteriorated but one wall remains with windows and a doorway. At the top of the windows are impressive carvings of grape vines and leaves whilst the centers are separated by stone carved crosses. Again, pretty nice work for being 700 years old.
Enough strolling around the grounds so back to Cleggan for a restful evening.
Dolmen Search
One of the patrons at Oliver’s told us of a dolmen, a megalithic burial site, that is just across the bay. I decided to take a drive and see if I could find this site but with roads not being marked, this proved to be a difficult task. Drove around for about 1 hour on some of the smallest roads I’ve seen but to no avail. I couldn’t find a road that would get anywhere near the site, and it seemed way too far to walk. Fortunately Collette took a picture of it from the back of Oliver’s pub which is about as close as we can get. Calling it done.
As an aside, there is also a Napoleonic Martello tower located at the top of Cleggan Hill on the same side of the bay as the tomb. When we asked about going to see this tower we were told that there are no roads, gotta hike if you want to see it. I’m up for the hike but I’m not sure the local farmers who own the land are up for me tramping around their grounds. I think we’re calling this one done as well.
Dolmen across the bay