Day Eight: Sunrise on Bealtaine

It’s a solid drive from Dingle to Galway so I woke up early and I was on the road by 6:30 am. Today is Bealtaine/May Day, and I was going to be driving through the Connor Pass as I left Dingle, so I also wanted to be there right at sunrise. However, as I’ve often happened to do, I was not quite prepared for the road. Whenever Irish roads have multiple warning signs, it’s a bit concerning. The road hangs off the mountain and it’s another one lane, two way affair that I REALLY didn’t want to have to be reversing to find a pull off. Mercifully there were only a few people on the road at sunrise and there was a real pull off with parking at the top of the pass.

I got there right at sunrise, and it was spectacular.

Totally worth nearly driving off the side of a cliff before sunrise in the middle of nowhere.

And now for the rest of the drive! There is a world where I considered adding another 2 hours onto this 3.5 hour drive just to stand on top of the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren in high winds and be miserable, just so I could see them from the top. But that would mean getting into Galway later in the afternoon and not really seeing the city at all since I’m hopefully spending most of the day tomorrow on Inishmore. Needless to say, I’ve decided to skip them, since I’ll see them from the boat tomorrow.

So after Dingle I headed to Bunratty Castle, about 2.5 hours away. However, the low tire pressure light went off on my car right about the time I’d be heading into relatively remote area, so I pulled into one of the gas stations that was open, filled the tank, and then topped off the one tire that was slightly below optimal tire pressure (yay sensors with PSI levels), and discovered that it likely happened because there were no valve caps on the rear tires. I had noticed that the back left tire was only at 28 psi while the rest were at 38-40, back when I left Dublin and I was fiddling with the various screens, so I knew it was slightly low (should be at 30) for a while, but it had dipped down to 26 around about the time I was rattling about on the remote roads of Kerry and Dingle. Nothing crazy to worry about because it was otherwise perfectly fine, but I did want some caps for the tubes at some point, thus began my half hearted search for tube caps, which proved…interesting.

After three quick stops along the way to Bunratty, I discovered that gas stations don’t have tube caps, bank holidays (like today) mean most garages are closed, and finding an actual tire shop is a challenge. So given that I had already aired the tire up to 36 psi and it seemed fine, I just kept driving.

I got to Bunratty at 9:30 am, just after it opened. I hadn’t known exactly what to expect since it was called Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, but I knew it was supposed to be a good stop and the castle was meant to be interesting.

So this place is wild.

Bunratty Castle had fallen into disrepair, and in the 1960s an aristocratic (titled) Anglo-Irish family bought it and the surrounding land, and restored it. Part of the town had grown up around the castle over time, so they permanently preserved a few streets worth of shops, all the way to Bunratty House on the other end, with its regency garden, church, and fields. And then they decided to relocate actual buildings from the late 19th/early 20the century onto the grounds, so that visitors could see actual Irish shops and buildings from that time period, including blacksmiths, cottages, farmhouses, and even the farm animals that the would have raised.

So Bunratty Castle and Folk Park is a restored medieval castle surrounded by Irish buildings and homes from a period of 100-200 years ago. And it’s really interesting to walk through.

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This castle looks like the exact castle a little kid would draw, with the little crinolinate rampart and spiral staircases.

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The cool thing about the park and the buildings is that they were making an effort to make it sound and smell authentic. So there were animals, drying herbs, and they were even burning peat in the fireplaces, which I had never smelled before.

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Sheep, Irish Wolfhounds, Red deer, and…

Dad’s nemesis. Safely locked up so it can’t be an a$&@%#*.

There is literally a small village main street frozen in time here. The real buildings and street. Some have even been reopened to sell the same goods. Like a little time capsule.

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In addition to the castle, cottages, and town, there’s also a regency walled garden that I was obsessed with.

After the castle I located the parking lot where I needed to park the car while I’m staying in Galway and plotted a course that would take a little over an hour. I was going to get there well before the 3 pm check in time, but I figured that would give me time to walk around town.

I got to town around 12:30 pm and parked the car, then walked to the hotel to get my bearings. Right next door there was a Budget rental car place, which seemed like it was asking for me to figure out this valve cap situation. They suggested I stop by the maintenance place they use a few blocks away, so I started on a short adventure through town to find that. Galway is an older city, so there’s a fair amount of weird streets, cobblestone, and old and new buildings crammed together, but it was fun to get to see all the different shops. I got the tire caps (!) and headed back to the hotel (which is also a pub) to get some lunch.

After lunch I still had an hour to kill, so I went in search of Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, a famous bookstore that was only a few blocks away. It was huge. Tons of rooms full of new and used books from floor to ceiling. They had a large selection of Irish books, which were fun to browse through.

I made my way back to the hotel, picked up some snacks, and my bags from the car on the way, and got checked into my room and just crashed. My back started bothering me a bit this afternoon, so I’m going to just relax and read for a bit this evening.