Rossan Point

The last walk we took from Oideas Gael was around the coast to Rossan Point. We were mostly looking for wildlife. Tony pointed out a stream the otters use to wash the salt water out of their fur. Sadly, none of them showed up while we were crossing the stream. Mostly what we saw were nesting sea birds and a lone seal. But we did see something on this walk that we had not seen all week. Sunshine!

I can’t believe how blue the water was and how white the wave caps were.

The walk wasn’t quite as difficult as the hike up to Glen Head on the first day.

That's Glen Head, waaay over there with the tower on top.

I really enjoyed the time I spent tramping around Gleann Colmcille. It’s going to be really hard to leave tomorrow. But, I’m not going to think about that now. Tonight, we have dinner with the Belfast Lasses and the final Ceilimhor. After this walk, I hope I can hold up for at least a dance or two!

Coastal Walk

In Alabama when somebody talks about a coastal walk, you know they’re going to be in Gulf Shores walking along the sugary white sands in their bathing suit. Coastal walk here in Gleann Colmcille means something quite different.

On Wednesday, the weather was cool and wet, again, especially on the heights, so Tony opted for a walk along the headlands just to the northwest of the village.

I’m sure he sighed heavily when he saw Sean and myself waiting in the parking lot with the others. Slow pokes again. Sean said it seemed to be the natural order.

This walk wasn’t anywhere near as strenuous as the first two, in the beginning, at least.

We saw sea caves.

We saw quartz outcroppings.

 

We saw rocky areas that looked like they could be on the surface of the moon.

This is our housemate, Elisabeth.

We climbed down rock faces. Well, some of us did.

We were going back by the beach, but the tide was in and we had to tromp through a farmer’s cow pasture. That was the steep part on this walk and while sheep are prolific, um, poopers, they got nothin’ on cows.

My boots stayed in the car all night. I hope they don’t charge us the extra fee for cleaning it out. 

Tomb Walk

Our second hillwalk was to a five thousand year old Neolithic tomb. The weather was cool and wet again.The climb over the hill was a long one and I lagged behind all the others just like the first day. Luckily, there is another slow walker in the group. His name is Sean and he’s a retired member of the Irish Parliament from Dublin. 

We started out at the Oideas Gael campus and took several back lanes to get to the road over the hill. It finally leveled out and then started downhill.

Once on the other side, we could see the tomb, or what’s left of it, on the other side of the road, in a bog.

Our guide, Tony, said this kind of tomb is called a court tomb. It has small antechambers and was rather large. There are spiral carved into some of the larger stones, but they are very hard to see, especially on a cloudy day. Archaeologists found burned and unburned bones inside, but can only speculate on what that means. 

 

 

Further along the walk, he pointed out a collapsed dolmen in somebody’s sheep pasture and told us about an uncollapsed dolmen that a local farmer uses for a dog kennel. Why not? Dogs gotta have shelter, too.