Ireland Day 3 - Valentia to Dingle

Fascinating, and simultaneously
totally ho-hum. (Mom)

We woke up super early to try to finagle a ride to Skellig Michael! And found out that they actually are closing the island today due to the weather. So we wandered around waiting for things to open, found some breakfast (and digestive biscuits) at a grocery store, and killed time. Eventually, we made our way out to Valentia island to visit the Tetrapod tracks! The entire island is two miles long by a mile wide (if we're being generous), and the whole thing is adorable. On the north side of the island we hiked down to the rocks right above the water where they'd found some footprints from some of the first animals to drag themselves out of the ocean.

Nerd stuff: These first Tetrapods were in the Devonian

"Is this a good idea?"
"Probably not"

era, 380ish million years ago.  That means that Tyrannosaurus Rex (60ma) is closer to us than the Tetrapods. Even Stegosauruses (150ma) - more than twice as old as the T-rex, are still closer to us than the Tetrapods.  After spending days trying to understand the actual age of all the prehistoric ruins that surrounded us (the analogies that made it the most tactile were "130 generations" and "40x longer than I could ever hope to live") it was even more humbling to then come face to face with evidence that that's only .001%  of terrestrial life... (.001% is the length ratio between an aphid and a football pitch).  When you see me staring off into the distance... it's usually this sort of thing running through my head.

So while what the fossils represent is enjoyably mind-boggling, the fossils themselves are pretty lackluster. After admiring them (briefly) we jumped the back fence, and climbed down to the water itself to check out the rest of the cool rocks (which are lower and therefor  even older?) before hiking back up to the carpark.

(Ethan) scrambled up the opposite hill.

While we were on the north coast of Valentia, we stopped by the local quarry. It was much cooler than we expected! A brief stop, but definitively neat to look into the massive cave that they are excavating (large enough to drive large front-end loaders and dump trucks through), see all the water trickling down, and play on the shattered slate discarded around the periphery of the site.

Even their quarries are beautiful

Finally, it was 10am and the Skellig Experience was finally open. This visitor center had a few brief films and a number of exhibits on the Skellig islands, the marine life, the monastic life, and the lighthouses that were there. It was realllly a remote place back in the day. You had to go to the end of the known empire (the British Isles), then go to the furthest isle (Ireland), head to the furthest corner of the island, and then row to the furthest rock sticking out of the ocean - the edge of the known universe at the time. It's really fitting that that's where Luke goes to run away in episode 7.  And you bet they play up the StarWars connection.

(Sheep Hustler)

After the Skellig Experience, we headed across the ferry to see a castle! The castle was closed. There were numerous numerous signs telling you to piss off and go somewhere else if you want to get close to ruins. So we did! The Cahergall Fort is a huge stone ring built around year 500, much like the last ring fort we saw. This one was thicker and taller, and had some stonework inside. But before we got to the fort we were accosted by a man who basically threw his sheep in our arms. After passing the lamb around, taking some pictures, and forking over our (minimal) spare change for the privilege, we finally hiked up to the fort.

 It was great! Amazing views (including of the closed castle and the next fort), and enough wind that you had to be cognizant not to get blown off the top. So it was of course great fun. While we were there, we also hiked a half-mile up to the Leacanabuile fort, another 1500yo ring... stopping every 100ft to grab a handful of blackberries that grow wild all over southern Ireland. This ring was shorter and it had the foundations of a number of interior buildings inside, and a creepy secret passage! Souterrains were a spot to hide when you got invaded, and a common feature in Irish forts and castles. I really wanted to wriggle down it, but more than that I wanted not to spend a day in muddy clothes, so I gave that one a pass - I must be getting old. And just now as I'm writing this I  realize I had clean clothes in the car. I was going to link to pictures of the insides online... but I can't find any. Time to go back!

(Dad)

Finally having gotten our fill of castles (and berries), we headed off to Dingle. We stopped at a super market for lunch, and drove some amazing cliff roads admiring the views and the multitudes of sheep. We stopped at the dingle distillery to try their whiskey, but their tours were all booked and they had no samples, so we headed on to our AirBNB directly. The roads got narrower, the views better, the cliffs steeper, and the weather worse(r) as we made our way out. It had just started spitting rain when we got to the house. The whole property is pretty sweet. An old stone fisherman's cottage, it has stonework throughout the house and grounds (including a patio, shed, fireplaces, and fake prehistoric "beehive" cottage in the back yard). We're a quarter mile from (Coumeenoole / Slea Head)
beach where the waves violently attack the coast, and Dunmoore Head is just past that - the very tip of the dingle peninsula (and used in Star Wars when they needed a stand-in for Skellig Michael - in case, you know, all the boats shut down). Truly astounding views everywhere, even just out the windows. We'll have to hike to some of those tomorrow.

We headed back towards civilization for dinner, and after striking out a few times ended up at Páidí Ó Sé's, which had a great stew, great sandwiches, and great beer. Adam and Ethan played billiards, I played with the peltier-effect fireplace fan, and mom kept an eye on the TV for the weather. By the time we'd finished dinner it was properly raining and we headed back home to play cards... but we're all pretty tired. I'm either coming down with something or jetlag is hitting hard... I guess we'll know tomorrow morning!

Cahergall Fort and Ballycarbery Castle as seen from Leacanabuile Fort