The Aran Islands are one of the places I heard about a lot before I came over here to Ireland. Many people who had been to Ireland that I talked to over the summer told me I should go to the islands. They also talked about the Aran sweaters, hand knit and available only there. Going to the islands reminded me a lot of the trip I took with my mom and sister this summer to Isle Royale. I thought the 40 minute ferry ride would be no problem because that was about how long it took us to get to Isle Royale on Lake Superior. Lake Superior is not an ocean. Within 20 minutes of leaving the dock, we were hot and sea sick. I was in the third row and I saw three people get sick already. Luckily, my stomach held out and I didn't get sick.
Jackie, our Archeology professor was also our tour guide and she was awesome! She's Irish so she was incredibly helpful with finding out where we needed to be and how to work everything out. Some of the group took bicycles but I stuck with the safe route and took the mini bus. Our first stop was the light house which was not strategically placed on the island. We were on the largest island, Inis Mor, and the lighthouse is on the highest point in the center of the island. Our bus driver smartly pointed out that people coming in on boats could see the lighthouse from sea, but they could not see the five miles on either side of it. On our way to view the lighthouse you can see miles of rock fencing. There are over 3,000 miles of rock barriers on the island, all built by hand.
Jackie told us that the people on the island would make small sections at a time, clearing the rock from a small area and using to make a fence around it. The whole island was rock so they had to make their own soil by gathering seaweed from the shore and animal manure and making a field that way. Right now there are about 900 people who live on Inis Mor.
Our next stop was to Dun Aengus, a fort on the side of a cliff. Before we made it there, we shopped a little and I purchased an Aran Island sweater! The walk up to the fort took about 20 minutes. Jackie told us that when the fort was built, the walls were much higher. She also mentioned that the people who built the fort would have highly valued community. It would have taken many to build it and they would have lived together in the safety of the fort.
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| Dun Aengus |
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| Cliffs |
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| The Sea! |
After Dun Aengus we went to an old church. There were two different windows on the church and Jackie pointed out that you could tell that one of the windows was added later because it had much more detail. The one on the left would be the one that was added later on.
On the way back I sat on the top of the ferry and it was much better than sitting inside with all of the sea sick people. Even thought it rained a little, it was a really fun day and it was cool to see how much history there is to see here.
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