The Slow Road
Two Women Wandering the World
We spent three nights on the little island of Inishmaan, the least visited of the three Aran Islands located in Galway Bay. The harshly beautiful landscape includes limestone terraces with a thin layer of soil, mazes of stone walls, and cliffs pounded by the sea.
The view from outside our B&B, Ard Alainn
Looking from one limestone terrace down to another at low tide
Rainwater pools on the terraces above the sea
The tall cliffs on the south side of Inishmaan
Plants grow wherever water has cracked the limestone pavements
These small stone towers are all around the island (we never found out why)
Many fields are more stone than grass . . .
. . . but they can keep sheep fat and happy
Not terrorists but us trying to keep the sun off our faces when we got lost on a rare sunny day and walked for four hours with no sunscreen or shade! (It mostly worked.)
Eventually we found a path that led us out of the maze of walled fields
One of Inishmaan's 200 inhabitants
Stained glass window in the church on Inishmaan
Saint Brecan is holding an Aran-style stone house
Inishmaan's small beach
The ferry to Inishmaan on a calm day. (The day we took it, the crossing was VERY rough.)
One of two old stone ringforts on Inishmaan
The interior of the fort, with the remains of circular huts
The inside walls have steps and firing platforms
The view from the ringfort of the church and the main village
A traditional thatched cottage
The thatch is rye grass held down with ropes and pegs
The cottage where Irish playwright J.M. Synge stayed is now a museum
Looking past stone walls to the 600-foot Cliffs of Moher on the mainland
The entrance to the other old ringfort
The island has a few donkeys, but mopeds are more common now
Looking over Gallway Bay to the hills of Connemara at sunset
A traditional house near our B&B (with Connemara in the distance)
A rainbow going into the sea
