Aran Islands

Today we spent the day on one of the Aran Islands, Inis Oirr (Inisheer).  We took the 11am ferry across, and spent the day there, returning at 4.45pm.

We chose this island to visit as it had a very rusty shipwreck on it.  This is the wreck of the MV Plassy which was wrecked on the rocks in 1960, and subsequently raised higher on the rocks by a storm.  Apparently, it has featured in an episode of Father Ted!

It felt a bit like a cruise ship invasion as we arrived at the ferry pier - lots of people with horse drawn traps ready to greet us an offer to take us around the island (for a fee of course!).  There were bikes to hire and even some people using tractors to pull carts full of tourists.  I saw one with a full trailer and two people in the tractor cab either side of the driver.

After spending time with the wreck we walked back into the port and attempted to find some lunch.  Nothing was open!  We eventually found sausage and chips from a hut near the beach.

The island is dominated by small fields enclosed by stone walls. (Second extra)  These small fields are often empty, but sometimes contain cows or horses.  We did come across someone planting potatoes in theirs. 

There's also a fort at the peak of the island. We didn't manage to get up there in the time we had - it was very imposing from the beach anyway.

After the ferry back we stayed on board and had a cruise along the Cliffs of Moher (fourth extra), with a recorded commentary telling us about them.  I liked the photo in the last extra of the lone sea stack, which has apparently been like that for centuries.

We found a pub just up the road from the ferry port and had dinner, before returning to the cottage to flop.  We've walked 7.5 miles today - most unlike us to do that much!