Ireland Fifth Week - Achill - Malin Head

By the time we left Achill the big high pressure system that was going to give Ireland as well as the rest of Europe a heatwave over the next couple of weeks was anchored in place. We stopped for lunch at a nice beach halfway to Belmullet and were about to leave when a woman appeared, introduced herself as Hillary and invited us up for lunch in The Sod House we had seen from the water. Unfortunately not only had we just eaten but the tide was coming in quickly on the very flat beach so we would have had to unload some gear from the kayak and put the trolley together to get the boat above the high water mark. 

No problem says Hilary I brought you down these cakes! Later that day near Ballyglass we stopped for afternoon tea and ate Hilary's wonderful iced carrot cake.

Hillary the Cakemaker's Sod House and her website. 

'Severn Class' Lifeboat at Ballyglass. We seemed to see one of these lifeboats every few days tucked away in sheltered harbours. Amazing vessels, self righting, max speed 25knots and the ability to carry 124 survivors.

Heading out from our campsite at Rinroe Point towards a group of offshore rocks called The Stags of Broad Haven.

In amongst The Stags of Broad Haven.

Puffins, so cute.

Yet another slipway and one of the best times of day - lunch.

Speccy sea stacks off Downpatrick Head.

Natural rock 'slipway' and easy landing on Kilcummin Point. 

  

The glorious settled weather was wonderful but with flat calm seas and no wind it sometimes felt as though our paddles were made of lead and the sea of treacle as there was so little sense of progress. 

We waited on this beach at Cloonagh for about 4 hours until about an hour before high tide as we wanted to land on Inishmurray which is about 7km offshore at high tide

The landing at Inishmurray was much easier than we anticipated but we were very happy to get there at high tide.

Looking SE across to the mainland from Inishmurray.

Swallows nesting in the beehive huts on Inishmurray.

Filling our water bottles from a stream trickling down the cliffs at Port, Co. Donegal.

The Donegal coastline was one of the most spectacular of the whole trip.

Grey seal, these and the Common seals we saw almost on a daily basis. 

Sea stacks, Donegal coast.

Sunset from Roan Inish. The location of some of the filming of 'The Secret of Roan Inish'.

The next morning we navigated in 200-300m visibility for 2 or more hours to Burtonport. 

Gola Island lunch on granite slabs almost too hot to lie on.

These two local fellas on Inishbofin were intrigued by our kayak as well as giving us a lot of local tidal information. They came down to see us off early in the morning. 

Malin Head, it was a lot more jobbly than it looks. 

Ireland Fourth Week - Doolin to Achill

The Cliffs of Moher. This was our best view of this iconic section of Irish coast as we headed straight for Innisheer from Liscannor. The cliffs attract thousands of tourists from all over the world and I am sure they are impressive but we saw many sections of coastline that we thought were more spectacular. 

For us the familiar lunchtime view, soda bread, cheese, tomato and coffee. 

Our first landfall after crossing from Inishmore was Golam Island and another Napoleonic lookout tower.

Looking back down towards the kayak from the top of Golam Island - typical of the Connemara granite coast. 

16th Century Church on St Macdara Island.

Dogs Bay, Connemara, south of Slyne Head. We had two nights here due to strong winds. 

Crossing to Innishturk.

Inishturk Harbour

Inishturk Harbour.

Grace O'Malley's castle on Clare Island, she was Queen of Umaill, chieftain of the Ó Máille clan and a pirate in 16th-century Ireland. More info on this amazing character here.

First lunch stop in Co. Mayo

Lunch on Achill Beg Co.Mayo.

In Achill Sound with a very decent tailwind. Yeeha! 

We were a bit early for the tide at Achill, so with the kayak grounded and the flood only just beginning we left it and went exploring. 

Wheeling the kayak about 200m from the slipway at Achill to the hostel for the night. The trolley was a life saver with the kayak being far too heavy for us to pick up let alone carry anywhere. 

A couple of life's little luxuries in Achill hostel, cardboard tube hifi system (try it, it works) and a bottle of red muscle relaxant. 

Ireland Third Week - Portmagee to Doolin

Waterfront Portmagee.

Battling the wind and drizzle on Valentia Bridge.

North side of Beginish Island, our jumping off point for the 23km crossing of Dingle Bay to Great Blasket Island.

Seals on Great Blasket Island

Lunch on Great Blasket Island.

Basking shark Blasket Sound.

Spectacular headland at the northern end of Blasket Sound. We were travelling very fast with both wind and tide.

Long section of fantastic coastline between the Blasket Islands and Brandon. 

Although we saw many traditional skin on wooden frame curraghs, there were a lot that were reinforced with fibreglass. 

Tricky slipway landing at this very small harbour at Meenogahane tucked away in amongst the offshore rocks. It wasn't very sheltered and the swell was surging powerfully in all sorts of directions but we managed to land without embarrassing ourselves. 

We were given a very generous feed of crab claws. Our campsite was on the front lawn of a little cottage near the harbour, the land owner's cousin had kayaked around Ireland starting and finishing at this harbour. The family has lived in the area for 700 years. 

Yummo!

Some of harbour walls were works of dry stone art. 

The day from near Kilkee to Liscannor was a dreary very low visibility day, we were only a few kms off shore for most of the day but couldn't see it. The compass and quick checks on the GPS got us to Mutton Island for a quick break. 

On cold wet days fruit cake with lashings of butter went down very well.  

We were off the water for four nights at Liscannor, a couple of them we spent in the pubs enjoying the music at Doolin.