Great Blasket Island


Today we visited the Great Blasket Island and did some hiking; we have the sunburns to prove it!

Today we drove out to Dunquin village (on the tip of Dingle peninsula) and took a ferry out to the Great Blasket Island. Blasket Island was once inhabited by the Irish, but in 1953, was evacuated due to dwindling population. The ferry does not travel to the island unless the weather is good. Later on we met a woman who does tours for Rick Steves, and she had tried five times to get to Blasket Island, but could not due to weather, so we felt very fortunate.

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. The sun was shining and after the morning fog lifted, there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

We hiked around the island, over some beautiful (and hilly) terrain. Over all we spent about 4 hours hiking, and five hours on the island all together. We packed a picnic lunch and sat on top of the island with the best view in the world. These islands are the Westernmost point in Europe, and as the Irish who live in the area say..."the next parrish is in Boston."

The day was so perfect, something had to go wrong...and it did. Stephen had turned on the car lights while driving through the fog this morning and left them on all day. After some time and a long walk later, a very nice man at a pub offered to jump the car. As it turned out, he had been to the States a few times to attend (and manage booths) at the Big E in Springfield, MA. It is a small world indeed.

We got back into town in time to eat and head back to the B&B to nurse some of the sunburns we received today; Megan's are particularly bad, so tomorrow will be a restful day, as our legs and skin recover from all that beauty! We'll be in Dingle one more day and then we begin the two day trek to Dublin!!!!

By the way....the Guinness does taste much better here!

Posted: Thu - August 7, 2003 at 07:07 PM   Ireland Trip   Honeymoon   Email Comments

© Stephen and Megan Katsaounis