A day out to Oiléan Cleire

A bit of an adventure today, The forecast looked sunny and calm and we decided to risk a ferry journey over to Cape Clear - I had cards to deliver and a well to inspect. The sun did not appear and the wind was quite brisk but we had a great time nonetheless. Armed with sea sick tablets I managed to cope with the 50 minute journey out to the island. There's lots to look at - tons of seabirds, little islands, beacons and sometimes even whales and dolphins - and you sit outside surrounded by vast amounts of shopping and chatty islanders. A large stag party disembarked as we got on board.

Cape Clear or Oileán Cléire as it should be called is a Gaeltacht area and feels like a different world. Only 8 miles from the mainland it is a hilly place with some 100 souls living on it. We had lunch, did the card business ( he would like a card of the Fastnet Rock and wild seas - gulp!) then I went off exploring whilst Himself did a sketch or two down by the harbour. First I checked the well which belongs to St Kieran who is meant to have been born on the island and later we had a very interesting chat with an erudite priest who was having a day off on the island and he recommended a few other wells I should visit. Then I walked up the very steep hill, inquired of  two old chaps waiting to go to mass if they had any well information (they thought I was holy enough as it was), was greeted by another man in Irish and failed miserably to respond in kind, watched scores of kayakers in the north harbour below the yurts - yes there's a glamping site on the island too - and found a few interesting bits of dereliction. This little place appealed but I was impressed how many old places were being restored, very well.

Wrecked and weatherbeaten, we now have to fill in our census returns as it's census day - all go.

And thanks to Serpent for doing the business re Derelict Sunday.

And you can see Himself's sketch here