Gleninagh Castle
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is a 16th
century "tower keep" with its back to the sea. It was lived in until
the 1840's, presumably by gentry fallen on hard times. When Victoria was
the young Queen... How unfashionably cold must have been the drafts
blowing up one's nightshirt, in this furthest flung outpost of the English
Ascendancy in Ireland.
The Burren rises steeply in the background.
All in ruins now, Gleninagh has all the prerequisites of rule by force,
the battlements, slit windows, (so much better than peep holes, should
one need to shoot callers), church, graveyard, well, lodge, walled fields,
and quick escape route down to the boat. |
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Tobar na Croiche Naofa, a
covered well, with windswept tree. It was so dark inside, I
only saw these objects when the flash photo was developed. |
All the ships to and from Galway pass here.
Not so many as I saw 30 years ago. About 310 nautical miles to Liverpool.
A heading due West true will just clear the Aran Islands and fetch you
up, 2000 miles later, in Goose Bay, Labrador. This is a northerly place.
It is hard to leave the sea. It is easy to sit until it gets dark...
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last stop, the Aran Islands 