After we were done at Blarney Castle, we had to decide what other thing from the original itinerary we wanted to do. We landed on the Ballycotton Cliff Walk, and I am so glad that's what we chose!
Ballycotton is about 45 minutes away from Blarney, so we had a pleasant drive through Co. Cork. When we got to Ballycotton, we decided to stop for a quick pint before heading up to the cliffs. We walked into a virtually empty pub (to be fair, it was in the afternoon on a weekday). Chris started chatting with the barkeep and told him that we were headed up to the Cliffs. The barkeep pulled out a little book about the Cliffs that the Ballycotton 5th and 6th graders had created. It was really special to be able to see.
The Cliffs were less than 5 minutes away from the pub (Ballycotton is a really small town). We drove up to the top and parked -- we were the only ones there. Perhaps it was because it was a weekday afternoon or perhaps it was because of the significant amount of fog that had rolled in. Regardless, we donned our fleeces and headed up the path to the top of the Cliffs.
We found an outcropping on the side of the cliffs that had a beautiful view of waves crashing against rocks out in the ocean and flowers on the side of the cliffs. We spent quite a bit of time there taking a variety of pictures.
While I was taking the above photos, Chris went exploring and found stairs that led to the bottom of the cliffs. They were steep and there was no guard rail, but he convinced me to be adventurous yet again and we headed down.
The next thing I knew, Chris was hanging out on a rock out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!
Again, he convinced me to join him out there and we had an amazing time, hopefully getting some shots that no one else has seen!
Eventually, Chris headed back to the main part of the Cliffs to get one of my favorite shots of the day! Yep, that's me out there!
He came back to retrieve me and make sure I didn't fall into the ocean on my way back. Then, we packed up, and headed back up to the top of the Cliffs.
We got back to Cork close to 9 PM and that was when we learned that if you want to eat in Ireland, you should do it before 9. It took us quite awhile to find a place that was still serving food and we ended up in a fantastic burger joint (which luckily also served beer).
After our burgers, we were both exhausted so we decided to skip the pubs for the night and headed back to our hotel to relax with one more beer and turn in for the night. We were getting up early (as usual) the following day to drive the Ring of Kerry!
Like the pictures? Want to see more? There are loads posted to my Flickr photostream, but to see what I consider the best of them go straight to my Best of Ireland 2015 album. I'm adding more every week!
Ballycotton is about 45 minutes away from Blarney, so we had a pleasant drive through Co. Cork. When we got to Ballycotton, we decided to stop for a quick pint before heading up to the cliffs. We walked into a virtually empty pub (to be fair, it was in the afternoon on a weekday). Chris started chatting with the barkeep and told him that we were headed up to the Cliffs. The barkeep pulled out a little book about the Cliffs that the Ballycotton 5th and 6th graders had created. It was really special to be able to see.
The Cliffs were less than 5 minutes away from the pub (Ballycotton is a really small town). We drove up to the top and parked -- we were the only ones there. Perhaps it was because it was a weekday afternoon or perhaps it was because of the significant amount of fog that had rolled in. Regardless, we donned our fleeces and headed up the path to the top of the Cliffs.
We found an outcropping on the side of the cliffs that had a beautiful view of waves crashing against rocks out in the ocean and flowers on the side of the cliffs. We spent quite a bit of time there taking a variety of pictures.
While I was taking the above photos, Chris went exploring and found stairs that led to the bottom of the cliffs. They were steep and there was no guard rail, but he convinced me to be adventurous yet again and we headed down.
Once we were at the bottom, I spent some more time taking pictures while Chris continued to explore.
The next thing I knew, Chris was hanging out on a rock out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!
Again, he convinced me to join him out there and we had an amazing time, hopefully getting some shots that no one else has seen!
Eventually, Chris headed back to the main part of the Cliffs to get one of my favorite shots of the day! Yep, that's me out there!
He came back to retrieve me and make sure I didn't fall into the ocean on my way back. Then, we packed up, and headed back up to the top of the Cliffs.
By this time, we were both chilled to the bone and it was getting close to 8 PM! The Cliff Walk is pretty long, and we'd barely made a dent in it. However, we were both exhilarated with our experience and happy with our pictures so we decided to head back to Cork city to warm up and get some dinner!
We got back to Cork close to 9 PM and that was when we learned that if you want to eat in Ireland, you should do it before 9. It took us quite awhile to find a place that was still serving food and we ended up in a fantastic burger joint (which luckily also served beer).
After our burgers, we were both exhausted so we decided to skip the pubs for the night and headed back to our hotel to relax with one more beer and turn in for the night. We were getting up early (as usual) the following day to drive the Ring of Kerry!
Like the pictures? Want to see more? There are loads posted to my Flickr photostream, but to see what I consider the best of them go straight to my Best of Ireland 2015 album. I'm adding more every week!
No comments:
Post a Comment