Birding in Ireland April 26 to May 5, 2016

I flew into London where they took my picture at the gate when I arrived and at the gate when I left—keeping 
track of who enters the UK and who leaves.  I was surprised at how many seats were empty on the flight, how 
few people were in the airport and how light the security seemed to be on entering Europe from the US.

Eva was waiting for me at Shannon.  She had put charges on her credit card for a Bed and Breakfast and car 
rental with insurance.  (The car is a small four-door grey Nissan.)  And she had had time to do some birding 
in a marsh near the Shannon Airport while she waited for me.  WE WERE OFF!!!

The roads are narrow, one or two lanes, with no shoulders. So, when a car approaches, the driver is constantly 
hugging the side of the road where there is a stone wall usually covered with long, thorny blackberry vines or 
other plant life. Even though they trim the growth on these low stone walls bordering the lanes the car gets 
scratched because we have to pull way over to the left to make room for oncoming traffic.  And they always seem 
to be moving too fast.  (We got some new grey hair!!)  And the car's finish is soon covered with scratches!!

The one-lane roads are difficult because one of the drivers has to find a place to pull off the road so the 
other driver can get by.  I must say this is a problem for birdwatchers only.  The average Irishman drives on a 
two or three-lane highway and doesn't know anything about birds.  And he doesn't scratch up his car.

Eva wanted to see where her grandparents came from so we spent the first day looking for that.

Labasheeda, the first stop, is about two blocks long. It is side-by-side, very old, stone buildings in good repair.  
They have one store, Casey's, in their midst where you can buy groceries.  An open door, and a long empty hallway 
next to Casey's, all completely unidentified, is the town pub.

They have a nice, new Catholic Church with a low stone wall around a neat parking lot, a church tower and a 
more-than-life-size statue of Mary.  The rectory is a white, two story home unusual for rural Ireland where most of 
the natives live in a one-story house.

This one-block village has a school.  It is long and one-story with lots of curtained windows and surrounded by a 
low stone wall.  There is a macadam play area in front and a knot of brightly colored playground equipment for 
smaller children.  Behind the school is a green lawn at the bottom of which is a hedge, not yet in leaf.  They 
have taken a long branch and bent it to the ground making an arch to the pasture beyond.

We saw three people in addition to the owner of Casey's:  a friendly 33-year-old woman named Caroline who had 
walked some distance to buy a half-gallon of milk.  She had natural black hair, short and straight, white skin 
and blue eyes.

Another lady, was 40-ish and slender and walking briskly.  I asked her how many children were attending the school 
and she said “27.”  And there was a man painting a low stone wall along the main road.

We also went into a cemetery across the road from the church.  It was padlocked from the inside!  So we went around 
the post at the end of the wide gate.  It was very old.  People were buried there under a four-inch slab of stone 
the size of a bedroom door!  No headstone—they carved on the rock.  The cemetery was surrounded by a taller stone wall.

Following Labasheeda and still on narrow back roads, we went north and east to North Lakyle where Eva's grandfather 
grew up.  The area was on a very narrow dirt road leading down to the beautiful Shannon Estuary.

As far as we can imagine, an estuary is a very wide place in a river.  It is probably shallow and tidal waters move in 
from the ocean bringing salt water which mixes with the fresh river water.  There are usually lots of birds called 
shore birds or waders who have long legs and beaks.

The bird book describing this area told us to go north from Labasheeda 1.5km and “following a sharp turn in the road, 
take the next left.”  So we tried it and turned left after a different sharp curve and found a road that lead to a 
small area where three stunning fawn-colored cows were nursing calves.  They were all smartly tagged on the ears and 
responsive to our voices.  We continued down this road and found a long row of very old and handsome stone stables in 
disrepair and a caretaker whose name was something like Enna Ortis.  It was a startlingly unusual name.  He was a very 
pleasant, 40-something man.  He surprised me again when he excused himself because he got a call on his CELL PHONE.

We left there to try again with his advice and information to find that sharp turn in the road from Labasheeda.  It was 
a long, narrow, dirt road to the Estuary.  There was no standing home on the undeveloped piece of land.  Closer to the 
main road there were, however, several neatly cared-for farmhouses on lovely farms.

Kilmurray McMahon was our next stop.  This was the town Patrick Kilty, Eva's grandfather, said he had come from.  Eva 
took a picture of the Post Office and a small hardware store.

We then drove to Kilrush to find our Bed and Breakfast and went out to Crotty's Restaurant for a wonderful dinner.  
After dinner the owner sat down with us. Our table was next to a fireplace with a fire burning in it and he talked about 
money, the internet, credit cards, economics and Ireland.  He was probably in his mid forties and nicely educated.

Wednesday, April 27

We left before breakfast to birdwatch in Kilrush looking at the Estuary birds.  Eva heard a Cuckoo.  We saw some Magpies 
and Eva took some pictures of shore birds Whimbrels, Curlews, Oystercatchers, and Bar-tailed Godwits.  Went back for 
breakfast before taking a boat ride past the Cliffs of Moher which are 700 feet high at the highest point above the water.  
They are sheer, black rock and run about 8 miles along the coast of Ireland.  The water was very choppy and we had to hang 
on to the railing to stay standing.  There were about 20,000 circling birds and birds nesting in the rock face.  A separate 
very tall rock structure stood alone in the water.  It had horizontal ledges about every 15 inches and there were Razorbills 
and Guillomets standing shoulder to shoulder up all four faces of this tower looking like Napoleons army on dress parade.

We had a great dinner at McGann's Pub where musicians played guitar and harp.

Thursday, April 28

Slept in and had a nice conversation with another traveler, a beautiful woman from Brussels who is vacationing alone.  

We drove to The Burren, a vast area covered by all sizes of flat limestone deeply carved by weathering and huge boulders 
deposited at the end of the Ice Age.  Between these slabs of limestone grow a great number of trees and flowers and 
vegetation native to the Mediterranean and Alpine and Arctic areas.  It is believed that these, too, were deposited in the 
Ice Age.  You can also find some very ancient tombs.
We ate an interesting lunch there and Eva got some pictures of beautifully colored birds.  Then we headed back toward  Doolin 
along the narrowest roads we could find.  Eva got pictures of chaffinch, blue tit, European robin, grey heron, jackdaws, an 
unusual swallow and a dozen oystercatchers.  We were surprised on the road by a red fox carrying a recent kill back to his nest.

We planned to stop and walk up to the top of the Cliffs of Moher but the wind was blowing so severely that it blew me six feet 
across the parking lot.  And, I'm heavy!!!  So we drove, instead, by a fascinating back road along the shoreline and saw many 
old homes and pastures and an ancient tower. It is large, round and tall and made of ancient stone and had been used by the 
Black and Tan in their hey day.   It had been purchased by a man from New York who restored it and made it into a vacation home.  
Tomorrow we drive to Sligo.

Friday, April 29

Up before breakfast and walked for 1-3/4 hours along the road we had driven the night before.  It is a three-mile paved road 
along the Atlantic on the side of a sloping hill.  On the uphill side are occasional homes but on the downhill slope are two 
rows of rectangular pastures carefully separated by stone walls and small traditional Irish farmhouses, all so peaceful, green 
and neat.

We didn't see any barns although they have a kind of pre-fab metal structure with a curved roof that could give the cows some 
protection from the weather.  These cows are probably not dairy cows.  And there are tracks in the damp ground at the pasture 
gates that would seem to indicate that, because the pastures are small, they truck the cows to alternate pastures when they need 
fresh grazing.

We drove a considerable distance to Skreen in County Sligo to the Holy Hill Hermitage and Retreat Center where a classmate of 
Mary Dan's is Superior in an order called Friends of Carmel.  This Sister, Ceil McGowan, is a charming, gracious, hard-working 
woman and the property is stunning.  (On the way we had lunch in a pizzeria run by a foreign couple—they may have been middle 
Eastern—who were lovely to us.  They made me a hamberger-like sandwich which took me two days to finish!)

Saturday, April 30

I will just take a minute to describe moving their flocks.  Because pastures are small they must move flocks frequently.  They 
get them all in the road and drive a car behind them to move them to new pasture.  They sometimes do the same with cows although 
cows can be moved by truck.  It is always a pleasure to watch.

We woke early at Holy Hill Hermitage.  Eva went birding and I helped Sr Ceil make beef stew for Sunday Dinner for the staff.  At 
that time they were hosting a group of women from Limerick  who were there for a retreat led by Carmelite Father Matt Blake from 
Oxford.  I believe he talked with them about the work done by St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross to reform the Carmelite 
orders. 

 To get back to the stew—I peeled vegetables in a magnificent restored kitchen with a great table in the middle of it.  Sister 
brazed diced beef with onion, salt and pepper then added the vegetables with a large can of Irish Ale and some water.  (Normally 
she uses Guinness's Stout but could not find any that day.)  It simmered for hours.

At 11am there was a truly wonderful mass offered by the Carmelite Retreat Master who arrived wearing a long, tan, woolen cape.  
Put me back to the 15th Century!!  We got to the chapel early and later were surprised to find everyone was in their stocking feet.  
I asked an attendee and he said they did not want to get mud on the Chapel carpet.  It was a particularly wet time of year.  When 
we got to the entrance there were everyone's shoes lined up at the door.

Afterwards, we went birding with Sr Ceil covering several beach sites where we saw another dozen Oystercatchers and a flock of Brent 
geese.  We also looked for interesting rocks that have fossils and different-looking shells.  We saw mounds of what Sr Ceil called 
seaweed.  It looked like strips of lightweight rubber.  She occasionally brings a work crew down to the beach where  they pack 
seaweed into plastic bags and lay it in the Retreat House gardens where it keeps down the weeds and degrades into soil nutrients.  
Sister said, in the early days, potato farmers piled seaweed on their rocky soil to provide a soil base for growing their vegetables.

We had a restaurant lunch of vegetable stew, salad and dessert.  Eva had vegetable soup.  It was good to get back after a long day.  
It's harder on Eva because she is driving on the wrong side of the road!!

Sunday, May 1

Before mass we drove to Leitrim, where some Gunshenan forefather came from, and took some pictures.
Went birding and found a few species of snails and got a few shots of birds.  Mass at noon.  Beautiful mass, chapel was full.  We 
sat next to their sheep farmer neighbor.  Fr Blake delivered a wonderful homily on the Book of Revelations.  Jerusalem had been 
destroyed and what John, or one of his disciples, said is we don't need a temple (God is our temple), we don't need a city with 
walls (God is protecting us), we don't need the sun or the moon (God is our light).  

After mass there was tea and cookies and we were invited to a staff dinner at 2:30pm where we had beef stew, two kinds of wonderful 
bread, butter, salad, two kinds of cake and spectacular ice cream.  The entire staff  (5) and the priest went back for seconds.  
Then we sat around a big table and talked.  After dinner the “hermits” went into solitude for 24 hours so we said good bye and 
thanked them for their hospitality.  

Off, then, to wait by a stream where Betty, a local birder, insisted we would see a dipper.  Which we never found.

I wanted to take a minute to write about rain in Ireland.  There is an occasional grey, sometimes rainy day with intermittent 
sunshine but usually the days are bright and sunny.  On a normal day a grey rain cloud will blow over us, leave some rain (often 
light rain), and pass by after a few minutes, leaving us with bright sunshine again.

Monday May 2

Our last morning at Holy Hill and a national holiday.  Very early we met Betty and went to a local beach, the Atlantic is about 
three miles away.  It was cold and windy but Eva got some pictures. We saw flocks of Lapwings, Skylarks, and Sand Martins.
After breakfast we tidied up and drove to Birr in Co. Offaly.  It was a long and lovely drive.  We checked into our new B & B and 
left immediately to visit Slieve Bloom Mountain.  We saw one bird.  The mountain was heavily forested with very tall trees and high 
winds, not really amenable to birds.  Home to shower and sleep.  Ireland is peaceful and beautiful.

Tuesday, May 3

It is a long drive from Birr to Skibbereen.  After stopping for soft ice cream cones we went in the wrong direction but quickly 
corrected.  We made a stop at a small local Post Office because I thought I'd left binoculars at the last B & B.  It was an 
interesting experience.  A lady had to show me how to use the automatic door opener to get in.  In the meantime Eva had found the 
binoculars in the car and came to rescue me.

We had a wonderful lunch experience in Firbane at a place called Coffee Haven.  They had beautiful desserts!

Wednesday, May 4

The trip to Skibbereen was so we could take a boat to Cape Clear Island—listed as a great place for birding.  I loved the boat ride 
and the Captain of the boat.  He talked with us about American politics.  He liked Donald Trump.

Cape Clear Island is a spectacular place all atop of high cliffs where there are neat and tidy homes and farms.  They were rebuilding 
the harbor.  Everyone on the island apparently had an old second-hand car sturdy enough to get them up the steep hills to the plateau.  
And some of the men working on building the harbor had to have cars, too.

We took the boat back to Skibbereen and saw a seal in the waters on the way.  It was time to gather ourselves together and get to our 
last B & B in order to be in Shannon to meet our planes.  

Shannon had a regular security check and then everyone going to America had to go to another large space and undergo two more security checks to meet American regulations.  They are looking for terrorists in Ireland while the UN and a muslim organization are shipping millions of muslims directly to the States without any security.  Go figure!

I was particularly enchanted all during this trip by the fact that almost all of the homes looked as though they had been recently 
painted.  And they had lovely gardens beautifully cared for.  Ireland had a temporary economic boom in 2008 or so, but why work so 
hard in 2016?  Perhaps they all wanted to be at their “Sunday Best” for all the travelers who would come to their country this summer.

top of ireland.html


Eva's Home Page 

 
 This page has been accessed  times since June 14, 2016  
   
Last revised: June 14, 2016