End Of The Cliffs Of Moher?

The creation of a "must visit" and "must pay for" destination

Irish newspapers and media have heavily reported the opening of the new "Cliffs Of Moher Experience" and you'll find most tour itineraries will list a visit to this site as "Cliffs Of Moher Experience" rather than "The Cliffs of Moher".

The Irish Times columnist, Fintan O'Toole, described this "landmark" edition to Irish tourism in words that I could echo from my own feelings almost word for word, but I will use my own words to express my own feelings along with his.

First, lets give you a factual introduction of what has happened by these cliffs.

The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Ireland's leader, formally opened the new €31.5 million "Cliffs Of Moher Experience" centre in Co. Clare on February 8th 2007.

The Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience includes an underground visitor centre and shopping centre close to the cliffs and Co. Clare has successfully been awarded a court order ending unlicensed busking, "street" trading and ceilis close to the Cliffs. The entire development was created through a vision of Co. Clare to make the Cliffs Of Moher a "must visit" tourist destination within Ireland.

The previous cozy tea room at the start of the mysterious natural cliff paths and the €5.00 parking fee have all gone. Cars are now charged €8.00 plus €4.00 a visitor. Other sites around Co. Clare do have admission charges, some also raising in line with Cliffs of Moher but offering discount if you visit several on one ticket. If I took my minibus there now it would cost us €60 plus €4 per person.


What's there for you now?

The "Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience" includes the underground "Atlantic Edge" exhibition, multimedia experience and shopping mall, various purpose built viewing platforms, the O'Brien's Viewing Tower, modern concourse replacing the cliff paths and frequent sitting and resting benches.

For €1 million donation you could have your name exclusively attached to a "Premium Viewing Platform", €500,000 donation buys you an exclusive naming on a secondary cliff edge viewing platform, €50,000 puts your name on a large seating area and €25,000 get your name onto the smaller concourse benches.

The last time I visited the Cliffs Of Moher it was the same adventurous and somewhat daring adventure that it has always been for 1000s of years. The sense of daring as you climbed the cliff paths near the cliff edge almost seemed to equal its unquestionable beauty as you stopped and viewed its geological, landscape and seascape wonders. You could leave the Cliffs with a sense of "I did that!" with a touch of the exhilaration of someone returning from a a South Pole expedition.

Today, it appears a visit to the Cliffs Of Moher would be entirely different, as different to a visit to Newgrange passage cairn is to visiting Loughcrew and Carrowkeel passage cairns in Ireland.


On the very virtual edge

To quote Fintan O'Toole of The Irish Times, "The Cliffs Of Moher are no more. They have been replaced by the Cliffs of Moher Experience. The elemental force has given way to entertainment value, the unknowable has been tamed by earnest education. Its centrepiece is a high tech exhibition area with interactive projections, touch screens, video games in which you can pretend to be a shark, and aerial films of Clare coastline. The climax is a multi-screen computer-generated film that, as the hand out puts it, allows visitors to stand on the very edge of the cliffs on a simulated summer day.

With the virtual reality cliffs and the simulated weather there is scarcely any need to step outside into unpredictable wind and disturbingly awesome sights. And if you dare there are customer service agents, rangers, maintenance operatives and a total of 100 staff to look after you.

Its all slick, polished, highly professional, impressively engineered ...... and utterly soulless.


The disappearing joy of vacationing on the edge

This busyness, this noise, this rich opportunity to buy stuff gives everything you could possibly want as a tourist, except what the cliffs have given people for 1000s of years ..... the feeling of confronting something beyond yourself, something that tempers your soul and helps you to feel alive.

You can be entertained, mildly educated, fed, bathroom relieved in comfort, and gently be parted from your money, but you can no longer be moved by the Cliffs like the way the Cliffs moved people before.

Maybe this is what we want now, or be told that this is what we want.


A good example ......

With the vacations, I serve through Celtic Ways, I feel that there is too much of a price to be paid, too much of a death enhancing numbing rather than healing, restoring and life refueling, by providing experiences where packaging, branding and physical security shuts out unexpected adventure and natural served mystery. I cannot see how our soul, psychic and even love and laughter needs can be fulfilled with touch screens, digital commentaries and cash machines.

This weekend I was reminded of the difference of visiting Newgrange and the unexpected rewards of visiting our own local Carrowkeel passage cairns. The day before it had been snowing, quite rare for Ireland, and the following day was of blue sky and settle snow. I had a short notice booking from folks wanting to go to Carrowkeel.

The minibus could not reach the first car park due to sliding in the snow. With no other tyre tracks present we knew we were the first people to take this adventure during this snow. We alighted from the bus and decided to walk the rest. Some of the climbing road had snow to a depth of a foot, but we kept going. The sun and its warmth were wonderful. The final climb to the passage cairns involved us ploughing through some hillside snow drifts of up to five feet. As you can imagine, the entrances to the passage cairns looked like igloo entrances, a priceless sight, and our snow foot steps were the first.

As we returned, the minibus could barely move due to snow and sliding so with shovel and a bit of hand shoveling too we slowly made our way out of the Carrowkeel canyon and headed for a country town cafe for a snack, hot beverage and bathroom relief. As we pondered over our day one traveler spoke with joyful smile and rosy cheeks "that was the best day of my vacation, of many vacations", which was echoed with an "I agree". I wonder if I would have received the same spiritually charged compliment after a visit to Newgrange or the, 31 million euros invested, Cliffs of Moher Experiences on that same day?

If you would prefer a vacation in Ireland that still sustains mystery, unexpected delights and is delivered with an edge that dares and succeeds in restoring and re-charging your life please start at our home page and read on.

If you prefer the safety and comfort of the package and branded presentations of places like Newgrange, Cliffs Of Moher, and so forth we have some great people to serve those too from here.

The Historical Trail

This is not a difficult hike

One reason I love where I live is the seemingly endless places where I can go for a walk. Despite Ireland's reputation for rain the real truth is that there are very few days it rains all day and most days definitely have more sun that rain. Also its rarely too hot or too cold to walk.

If you enjoy hiking, Ireland is a paradise and just a couple of miles from me is a connection to the "Historical Way", by far my favourite hill walking trails in Ireland and possibly one of the easiest for walkers despite providing some of the most spectacular views.

The Historical Trail is 56kms(35miles) in length and, conveniently, it is a trail that is a circular route. To do all of it I suggest allowing a very comfortable 25 hours, 5 hours a day over 5 days to allow for rests, breaks, lunches and diversions to some spectacular ancient megalithic, bronze age, celtic and early Christian sites.

The starting point is usually Boyle, a lovely small traditional Irish town with its own abundance of ancient interests such as the Boyle Abbey with its intriguing sheela na gig and green man carvings.

Discovering Carrowkeel

I then suggest walking the trail in a clockwise direction and this will first take you up through the Curlew Mountains and the battlefield of 1599 that ended a nine year war between the Red Earl Hugh O'Donnell who has an alliance with the Irish clans of Connaught and Hugh O'Neil who had a strong alliance with the English. The O'Neil and O'Donnell friction had been around for several hundred years before, way back into dispute of the high kingship seat of Tara. In this skirmish the Connaught people won.

From the Curlew mountains the trail continues north and follows the old Red Earl Road then east and north east through a pleasant woodland path before opening up at the base of the Bricklieve Mountains. North and north east through canyons of the Bricklieve mountains will take you through some of the most stunning scenes of Ireland that cannot be seen from any road.

An essential diversion at the north of the Bricklieve Mountains is the famous townland of Carrowkeel home of 14 megalithic cairns, more than 5500 years old and many other ancient sites including many stone circle remains of both ancient ceremonial and domestic sites. Some say the cairns were positioned according to a solar system map, alignments are fascinating, and there is a "bottomless" pit within a fault in the rock. If the weather is good and views are clear you will want to spend a whole day exploring here. If the weather is not so good you can always arrange for me to return you here in my minibus during a later day in your hike. Approaching Carrowkeel along the historical trail from the south is, in my opinion, the most dramatic way to approach here.

Take a break at the donkey sanctuary

Leaving Carrowkeel and the Brickleive Mountains the Trail heads north east towards the village of Castlebaldwin. Well before you descend into the village you will pass a very remote donkey sanctuary where the owner welcomes passers by to visit the donkeys, show some love, stroke their ears etc. The donkeys and small ponies do appreciate the attention plus its a wonderful chance to get to know donkeys a bit closer. Sue Paling is the owner of this "Sathya Sai" Sanctuary. If you are carrying some spare loot, please leave some with Sue as a donation for her work.

At this point my may like a diversion to Ceis Corran mountains and the legendary Keash Caves and Morrigan's cairn. As a hiking adventure this requires either another day or I could provide a tour with my minibus. While in the area you should always include some time around this remarkable mountain that was once surrounded by seven early Christian monastic sites.

Castlebaldwin is a small but fast growing village. Cleverley Mill provides lovely dining in the evening and holds an interesting history of its own. I'm not sure if they do lunches in summer. Worth checking. The petrol station in the village has a very adequate store, toilets and cafe, though, as well as friendly service and help.

Following the Tuatha De Dannan

The Trail then heads north east beside the north end of the beautiful Lough Arrow that you should have seen a complete aerial view of from Carrowkeel. You will cross the historical and legend packed River Unshin and head towards the legendary Moytura Plain, full of legends of the Tuatha De Dannan's second battle of Moytura. At this north end you should divert from the trail to Heapstown Cairn and to Lough na Sool, lake of the eye, where the evil eye of Balor was knocked out of his head by Lugh's spear, some say slingshot, and burned a hole in the earth. This later filled with water, but sometimes, like during this year of 2006, the lake dissapears to reveal the burned hole.

Back on the trail you will head south east and pass many ancient sites connected to the Tuatha De Dannan such as Labby Rock, a portal cairn where the De Dannan king Nuada was laid to rest, Lugh's seat, a broken cairn on top of Seleweeney Hill with remarkable views and "The Stones Of Samhain" a remarkable line of mysterious tall teeth like stones and rectangle pillars that are also called "Balor's Teeth". Within this is the remains of a very ancient megalithic court cairn. If you detour from the Trail there are several more cairns, mounds and stones of several ancient sacred sites. However, if possible, its best to time your hike across Seleweeney Hill, looking over the Moytura Plain, around sunset to capture not only a dramatic sunset that shadows Carrowkeel, Ceis Corran and Lough Arrow but to be immersed in the pastel pinks, mauves, greens and greys that surround the event.

Leaving Moytura south of Highwood, you may be pleased to know that the rest of the Trail does not include any more hillwalking, but you are nowhere near the end of beautiful scenery. The Trail heads east to the lively village of Ballyfarnon, good for any refreshment. You will then head south east again towards Keadue.

Lough Meelagh

On the way to Keadue, the Trail follows the northern shore of the beautiful Lough Meelagh where you will pass the Holy Well of St. Lassier, a lady who became a saint through her abilities to heal blind people to see again. Across the road at the foot of the Kilronan Mountain, where legends speak of the Tuatha De Dannan arriving in Ireland on clouds that burst into mists on the mountain, the famous blind harper and composer Turlough O'Carolan is buried. Quite a paradox to be buried across the road of the saint who healed blind people. Turlough's first composition was called Sidhe Beg, Sidhe Mor dedicated to the fairy legends that followed the Tuatha De Dannan tales.

The Trail continues around Lough Meelagh and into the village of Keedue at least to visit the O'Carolan memorial park and a wonderful example of an ancient sweat house which were the hospitals of ancient times. There is a wonderful display of how these sweat houses were used.

Back to the Trail at Lough Meelagh you pass by some beautiful crannogs, man made islands for homes as a protection from visitors with the plague. A small diversion will lead you to substantial remains of a court cairn, and then once you are west of the lough the Trail turns more than ninety degrees south through several woodland trails to the village of Knockvicar. At Knockvicar ask locals how to get to the "Bishop's Seat" an interesting ruin beside a lock on the Boyle waterway. This was said to have been one of only two early Christian Bishop's Palaces in Ireland. It was destroyed by the reigning bishop during the time of the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland as he did not want the site ruled by their incoming Christian religion. There's also some later dark history, but I'll let the locals tell you that.

Lough Key

From Knockvicar the Trail heads west along the beautiful wooded coastline of the very historical Lough Key and through the fairy like Lough Key Park. This is near the end of the Historical Trail and worth spending some quality time in. Suggestions are to rent a boat or go on one of the Lough Key boat cruises if they are running. If you rent a boat try taking it up the park's "hidden" canal system built by the Rockingham family in the 18th century, I believe. There is the beautiful gothic "Fairy Bridge" and several ancient "fairy rings". A new visitor's centre will shortly issue information literature as well as provide welcome beverages and snacks.

Leaving Lough Key Park is a mere 30 minute hike back into Boyle town, passing a very symbolic gate arch as you leave the park and enter the boundary of the town.

As you will know you can cover many miles around Ireland in a hired car but you may never see even half or even experience a quarter of "Ireland" as you could by hiking the "Historical Trail".

This is something you could do any time of the year, either do the whole Trail in a week, or come back for two short breaks. I can assist you with accommodation and minibus transportation to and from your accommodation and the Trail as well as transportation to and from evening ceilis, theatre and performances, so you do not have to worry about how much Guinness and Irish whisky you may drink.

Some folks like to end a day's hike with a spa, health massage, or meditation, which can be arranged

Getting from Dublin to Boyle is very easy, fast, comfortable and low cost by train. If you arrive or leave Ireland to or from Knock and Shannon airports I can make transport arrangements for you.

You can do this with a budget of € 60 to € 160 a day, € 80 to €100 being average, to cover your accommodation, meals and extra transport depending what level of accommodation, meals and extra activities you go for.

This is a wonderful healthy green vacation or short break idea for any time of the year.

Please get in touch with me to make arrangements

Carrowkeel Cairns

One of the most spectacular megalithic sites in Ireland

It is almost in my back yard.
It is spectacular on three levels.

Amongst the fourteen 5500 year old cairns are three cairns in good condition than can be entered for curiosity and remarkable individual spiritual experiences.

The landscape surrounding the cairns has an unexpected remarkable wild beauty that almost seems oriental.

The views on a clear day are probably the best you can have in Ireland. Over a third of Ireland can be seen ranging from the Mourne mountains of Co. Down in the north east, Donegal's mountains in the north west, Connemara and Clare mountains in the south west and Wicklow mountains in the south east. It also shows you how the centre of Ireland is incredibly flat for miles.

I visit Carrowkeel often, usually trying out different approaches that vary from the popular signposted route that approaches from the south west. Each new approach certainly provides a new vista and vision of the area.

The "Seize The Day" effect

When I approached Carrowkeel from the north east, not long ago, I could not help thinking of that wonderful movie, one of my all time favourites, "Dead Poets Society". Carpe Dium - Seize The Day or its literal translation "Pluck the day while it is ripe". It was a warm sunny day causing me to drop my work and head for the hills.

"'Tis only in their dreams that men truly be free,
'Twas always thus, and always thus will be" - Keating

Most have seen the "Dead Poet's Society" movie but how about the book the film was made from?

I believe that its the poet, writer, and painter in us all that becomes the ultimate prayer that truly connects us together with God, but sometimes it takes a mentor to show or take us to this. I have met some wonderful church priests, ministers and clerics who do this well, but also family members and even tour guides that take us into experiences that release our creativity. I've seen visits to Carrowkeel have this affect on many, perhaps more than visits to wonderful places like Tara, Loughcrew, Kildare and so forth.

We have to thank the scribing of songs, poetry and stories by the earliest of Christian monk scribes for our main source of any vision of the Celts, druids, Tuatha De Dannan and the ancient races before them.

Along the Red Earl's road

I approached from the north east, instead of the popular south west route with the intent of finding a low lying cairn at the side of the ancient and now barely visible Red Earl's Road.

The Red Earl was an Anglo-Norman, Richard de Burgo, 2nd Earl of Ulster around 1300 AD who successfully briefly added Co. Sligo to Ulster away from the Irish Normans. Yes, the North-South divide goes way way back even beyond Tuatha De Dannan times of around 1300 BC. The Red Earl built a boundary road from Boyle to Ballymote Castle. Ballymote castle was built on "The Ford Of Corran" indicating the site goes way back into Tuatha De Dannan times. The "Book Of Ballymote" was written by the monks there, one of the best ancient account of the Tuatha De Dannan.

I did find the cairn, beside this Red Earl road, but it did look more like a Celtic cist burial site from 1000 BC or much younger. Perfect condition, untouched and slabs closing the tomb still intact. Usually these are by stone circles of the same era. Sure enough there seemed to be the remains of a circle nearby, but instead of singular stones these were rock piles of small cairns and these usually date back to between 300 BC to 400 AD so nothing made sense really, other then the beautiful remote views over Lough Arrow and Leitrim.

Up onto the "keel" of Carrowkeel

Next stop was a dense "hut site" region involving quite a steep climb onto a plateau. Last time I visited I did not make sense of this very rocky region, but this time I found the kerb stone formations of many "huts", the round living quarters of the megalithic ancients of about 4000 BC until 3000 BC.

The biggest surprise was what seemed to be the remains of a large central court cairn like at Deerpark, Co. Sligo. This was in the centre of these hut sites. If this was not a ceremonial area then I wonder if it was a megalithic equivalent of a semi-detached residence,or what the USA calls "duplex". Maybe it was the home of the "chief". earby this hut site plateau is, a beautiful "fairy tale" small mountain that is home to what is known as cairns "O" and "P". Rarely anybody visits these as the mountain seems too tough to cimb.There is an easy route, though. My next task was to go "backwards" and take photos of each section of the "easy route" to create a pictorial direction guide video for people carrying iPods, smart mobile and portable media players with them. This took me back through a beautiful canyon still full of patrolling hawks and buzzards,.

My backwards photographic trek ended at the highest car park below the now incredibly popular passage cairns "G" and "K" Not only was this car park packed, and it's "off season" now, but cars were struggling to park while others getting stuck trying to pass each other on the narrow unsurfaced track to the car park.

Where they say the fairies are

I climbed to cairn "G", just a few minutes walk and was surprised to see several people in, on and around it. The population had obviously "seized the day". There were musicians and singers there and people with books. Inside the larger complete passage cairn was like the inside of the Indian Cave where the Dead Poet's Society met.

Perhaps I should have joined in. Well I did hang around and share stories awhile and then moved on to two more cairns I had never visited before, that most visitors ignored. Luckily by cairn "G", one local adventurer described to me an easy route to get to them, which I greatly appreciated. This was to cairns "C" and "D".

Both of these cairns fascinated me because I heard "C" was part of a boundary war and "D" is the only cairn given a name by local people, the common name of "Fairy Ring".

Visiting these cairns was a joy, but getting there beware. There is a hidden bottomless hole, I spotted it in time, threw a stone, and never heard it land.

Cairn "C" did have a fence that went over it rather than around. It is largely derelict but two passages are very distinct. The main is unusual because it is curved. These passages are commonly west to east.The back stone is definitely due east but the curve makes the entrance face north west and in perfect alignment to Morrigan's cairn on Ceis Corran mountain. The other passage faces due south and in perfect alignment with the incredibly interesting cairn "E" which is a fusion of passage cairn, barrow and court cairn.

Cairn "D" is a total mess, a totally broken up cairn, yet it is understandable why it is called the "Fairy Circle". Nature has taken over to give a uniqueness where on a sunny day the imagination runs wild. Its the sort of place that brings a wide grin to me as it stirs endless amounts of Alice In Wonderland boundryless imagery. It caused me to explore and explore every part of the site with each turning empowering even more entertaining yet powerful imagery.

Visit Carrowkeel yourself

If you are in Co. Sligo or wish to visit do let me know and I would enjoy guiding you around Carrowkeel for as long as you feel comfortable there. Most visitors like 1 - 3 hours there which is a good time to visit "the best of". Some folks then like to return on their own at a later day and stay a day or even two days if they bring a tent or stay at a local guest house.