Leaving Rathmullin in Ireland, we headed into Northern Ireland toward Rushmill, where will be spending another couple of nights. Almost immediately upon entering Northern Ireland, the difference between this and The Republic of Ireland was apparent. While acknowledging that we were for the most part driving through a rural environment, the changes could not be missed. Everything looked so “English”. Houses in the villages and surrounds were rarely stand alon...

Leaving Rathmullin in Ireland, we headed into Northern Ireland toward Rushmill, where will be spending another couple of nights. Almost immediately upon entering Northern Ireland, the difference between this and The Republic of Ireland was apparent. While acknowledging that we were for the most part driving through a rural environment, the changes could not be missed. Everything looked so “English”. Houses in the villages and surrounds were rarely stand alon...

Following the coast from Westport, we drove north around the Nephin Ben Range. This country was very different to what we have experienced so far and impossible to capture in a single photo, so I took a video instead - see my fb feed. For 70kms, the road took us across a tundra like plain, with the land running almost flat to the Atlantic coast to the west and massive treeless rock faced mountains to the east, rising in a sweeping uniform arc from the plain, 600...

Leaving Ennis, it was a very enjoyable 70km of 4 lane motorway driving to Galway, where after a brief stop, we continued on our way to Clifden for a couple of nights. Galway was only ever intended to be a quick coffee break and then to move on, but as always, a chance meeting with a local kept us better informed and staying longer than intended. Winding our way through the back streets and lanes from the car park, we chanced to stop and look at some ancient ruin...

Our starting point for the days excursion is Kenmare, in County Kerry, a town whose origins date from the Bronze Age, evidence of which lies nearby in a Druid Stone Circle, one of the largest in southern Ireland. Like so many other places we have seen, the local Irish population and their land holdings were displaced by English settlers after the Cromwellian invasion in the mid 1600s and were also subjected to the destructions of the Irish Civil War in the early ...