Travels in Ireland

Weather: Mostly cloudy, warm ~13C or 55F, some slight showers

Cleggan (pronounced “Claygun”)

Our house is located in a small town called Cleggan that serves as the ferry harbor for those traveling to and from Inishbofin. This small town consists of 4 pubs, a grocery store quite like a 7 Eleven, a hotel and a few homes. There is also a school (scoil in Gealic) and huge fields of peat harvested this time of year to be used for fuel. A very friendly, laid back kind of town but most notably remembered for the Cleggan Disaster. In 1927, 25 local fishermen lost their lives when a sudden gale swept in and capsized their boats. 45 other souls were also lost from nearby villages.

We rented our home from Love Connemara vacation rentals in Clifden(founded ~1818 by John D’Arcy). The home is pretty much as advertised, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, family room with comfortable furniture and a peat fireplace, washer and dryer (a must!). This will be our base for the next month so we wanted to have a few extra comforts like the washer and dryer and comfortable furniture. The only negatives about this house are same ones typically found in rental properties, pots and pans that are burnt beyond use or dented so badly that you cook on the sides instead of the bottoms. For next to nothing you can keep usable pots and pans stocked in the house, why this is so difficult I don’t understand. One other issue is that this home doesn’t have internet, which we knew about, but it also does not have a landline telephone, which we didn’t know about. Not having a telephone is a real concern. With cell service somewhat hit-or-miss here, we really could use a means to contact the manager in an emergency. Other than that, the home is fine. Besides, we negotiated a discount of about 500EU which was pretty nice. We refer to our place as the “Shire”. pictures should explain…..

The Shire

Sunny Shire

House in the Shire

Just before arriving in Cleggan, we stopped to buy groceries in Clifden. The house manager recommended we shop at Aldi, a local chain that advertises itself as a “bulk” store. The selections offered were similar to those in the States, beef, pork, fish and lamb in good quantities, fresh produce, breads and vegetables were also in good quantities. What was missing was crackers. How can a country call itself civilized when they don’t have Ritz crackers??? Fortunately we found another store, SuprValu, that does have Ritz crackers and a larger selection than Aldi. Emergency averted. There was a good selection of wines and beers, mostly local beers and foreign wines, South Africa, Chile, and Australia. Prices a little less than Colorado, around $17 for an Australian cab / chardonnay. All together we spent about 200EU on groceries which is about $225.00 USD, and we have crackers!

Yes!!!!!

Oliver’s pub, located at the harbor in Cleggan, has become one of our favorite haunts. Owners Peter and Noreen are very friendly and always seem to have a smile to share with their customers. Our first lunch at Oliver’s was fish and chips, yeah I know, real adventurers. We quickly learned that most food orders could be shared. The fish fillet filled ½ of the plate while the chips (fries to you Yanks) covered the other half. Since then we’ve had several soups and chowders, Collette fancies the seafood chowder while I go for the soup of the day. Drinks are not the strongest but also not the most expensive either. Good atmosphere and pub grub, what more do you need.

Mussels at Oliver’s pub

Scampi and chips at Oliver’s pub

First full day in Ireland and trying to stay awake. Didn’t sleep on the plane, who does, and adjusting to the 7 hour difference takes a bit of time. Thank goodness for sleeping pills, better living through chemistry! The drive to Outherard takes about an hour through the Connemara countryside where we were introduced to Ireland’s national pastime. (Read that post if you’re curious). Known for their trout fishing and as the “gateway to Connemara”, Outherard has a small downtown area with arts and crafts shops and of course, pubs! We found free parking at the central park and headed over to the Topaz gas station to pay our toll. Forgot to mention the M50 from Dublin to Cleggan is a toll road and our rental car company doesn’t have a contract with the state so we had to pay the 3.10EU before 8pm on Saturday. Besides major gas stations license plate tolls can also be paid online, that is if you have internet access. Fun little things you find out once you’re there, huh.

Our stroll, yes now that we’re retired we stroll, took us through town where there are lots of shops selling everything from household items to tourist trinkets. And like most Irish towns, this one also included a fine selection of pubs serving good Irish pub grub and of course, an occasional beer. Since we don’t have internet access at the house, something we may not chose to do again, we needed to find a coffee shop or pub that offers it. Coffee shop, yeah right.

We found Flaherty’s pub with internet and decided to have lunch while catching up on emails. We both had vegetable soup and brown bread (~4EU each) a pint of “Smithys” for me and a gin and tonic for the misses. The soup was pureed so even Grandpa could have enjoyed it! Total cost was ~30EU. Yeah I know, we had 2 drinks each so a little more than usual but we didn’t want to seem like tourists.

Flaherty’s pub

A little more strolling and then back to Cleggan for cards and bed. Enough adventure for the first day.