Over the course of the past ten days our group has had the opportunity to travel to the Aran Islands, then to Dublin. The Aran Islands are broken up into three islands: Inishmore, which is the one we visited, is the largest of the three, Inishmaan, and Inishere which is the smallest. The weather was not in our favor when we visited. We had a bicycle tour booked, but had to change at the last minute due to the wind and the rain. We toured the island via bus, and were lucky to have two wonderfully knowledgeable tour guides to show us around. Our first stop was a ruined christian monastery. They informed us that the monastery was a burial site for three Roman scholars who had traveled to the Island for scholarly purpose and then never left. When then visited Dun Aengus, a 3500 year old fortress. Dun Aengus is a large D-shaped fortress sitting on top of a 300 foot tall cliff, and was originally believed to have been constructed by early Christians to the island. We finished off our tour of the area with a 7 mile walk along the coast, and were able to experience the power of the Atlantic as it crashed into the cliffs below us. We were also lucky enough to see what is known as the "Wormhole". This is the site were Redbull hosted a cliff diving event.
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| Cliffs of Inishmore |
Upon our return to Park Lodge we had only one day of class, and then it was off to Dublin! On the way we made a stop at an old monastery known as Clonmicnoise. Today it is in ruin, but the government has made steps to help preserve the structures and the site, moving some of the older Celtic crosses into some buildings to prevent acid rain corrosion. That is something that I have noticed so far on this trip, the people of Ireland are very proactive when it comes to their heritage and their monuments. Its something that you see in the states, but it is more prevalent here in Ireland. This idea applies to the picture below. It is a picture of Kilmanham Geol (jail), that has not been in use since the early 1920s. It wasn't until the late 1950's when the Kilmanham Geol Restoration Society took matters into their own hands and began restoration on the jail.
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| Kilmainham Geol |
After our first day, we were given two free days to wonder about Dublin and familiarize ourselves with the city. We walked throughout the city streets during the day seeing things like Dublin Castle and Christ's Church, and had the opportunity to meet many of the locals and converse with them. On Friday, our last day in the city, we were given a tour of Parliament and also given a brief history on the different processes of how Irish politics works.
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| Trim Castle |
Our final stop on the way home was to Trim Castle. Famous for being the castle used in the movie Braveheart, the castle itself has a long history of battles, sieges, and modifications. We were given a full tour of the castle, and were allowed to walk the grounds to explore the other structures for ourselves!
Our next trip is Westport!
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