Ireland Part 8

Thursday, we hiked Benbulben, starting from Paul and Berta's house.  What we thought was going to be a two or three hour hike turned into a six hour adventure.

 This is the view part way up the mountain.  Benbulben is a limestone plateau that reaches an elevation of about 1,700 feet.  The slopes near the top are strikingly vertical.

 The less vertical slopes have thick areas of peat.  Gail is crouching out of the damp wind.  We almost turned back due to light rain, wind, and fog.  Luckily we didn't because the fog lifted and the rain stopped.

 Getting closer to the top!

 Here we are at the western end of the top.

 The top is no place to be careless.  There were sinkholes, some full of water, and some bottomless pits as well as drop-offs everywhere.

 The sheep have no fear, and some pay the price.

 Two sheep.

 I spotted an egg on a very scant nest.  We think maybe skylarks were nesting on the ground, as they rose from the grass in alarm.

 We eventually decided to go down the other side of the mountain, past waterfalls, and make a loop around the western end and back to the house.

 We saw numerous Common Frogs.

 There was an area where people could still cut their own turf or peat for fuel.  Berta told how they did this back in the 70's and hauled it in their VW bug.  I think that was the first and last year of doing that.

 Up ahead we spotted a sheep skull.  It is shown here in situ.

 Gail was very excited, and brought it home in her carry on.

 There were numerous ruins on the slopes, some probably not ancient.

 Fossils littered the ground in one area.

 Note the fossils on the "table" rock.  The snail is for scale.

 Looking staight up the cliffs from the fossil rubble that tumbled down.

 Benbulben awesomeness.

 We finally connected with the hiking trail that led back to the southern side and the paved road home.