Little lambs eat ivy

Today, we threw out our scheduled plans, because we decided that a rainy cold day wasn't the day to do a 20 km coastal bike ride. Instead we followed more of the "Wild Atlantic Way," a relatively newly marketed set of roadways that follows the western coast of Ireland.

This stretch of roads took us to Achill Island, pretty close to our B&B in Westport. Even though the weather was a bit poor, it was great to be out and about where there weren't loads of other people. As a whole, Ireland is pretty sparsely populated, and I've decided that is one of my favorite things about the place.

We saw lots of sheep, and Carrie enjoyed conversing with each.and.every.one.of.them. :) We came upon a tower house that belonged to notorious pirate queen Grace O'Malley. Since she shares Emma's middle name, Emma has a particular fondness for her (maybe her pirating deeds as well, knowing her :).

We stopped at a nice craft store/coffee shop, which Carrie declared "has the best restrooms in Ireland." I enjoyed a coffee there while we browsed. We took a brief but treacherous drive to the end of the island where there was a small, but nice, beach. I don't know if the fact that you couldn't see more than 10 feet down the ledge while we were at the top of the pass made it better or worse, since I know if the weather was clear, then Carrie would have been freaking right out.

Back through town we walked through the Deserted Village, a

mysterious collection of stone houses that have been unoccupied in living memory. There is an active archeological investigation there. We just found sheep. And, yes, Carrie did converse with them as well.

Back in the car, we drove on to Ballycroy national park for a bit of a nature walk (suggested by our Westport hosts). It was great to stretch legs for a while, and the top of the hill had some awesome views.

Onward, we drove to Ceide Fields. The largest stone age farming community site in the entire world. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable, and really enjoyed discussing the history of the site. It was preserved under a peat bog, and was only discovered by farmers cutting peat for fuel. Due to this method of preservation, there is a lot of interesting stuff to be learned there. It also had impressive coastal views, as it sits on a high sea-cliff.

After getting some pictures, we drove on to our B&B. After nearly giving up on finding it, we finally arrived. It overlooks a large lake, and Parke's Castle is right down the hill. We're planning on checking that out later. First, though, we need to unload and head out for dinner, since there isn't anything right nearby.

Dinner was very good, and we were all pretty ready to get back and relax to end the day. It was impressive how much we packed in for today. I am tired :)