Castles and Coastlines-Day 2 of our Irish Adventure

 Greetings All.

We have had another amazing day.   We left our hotel this morning around 9:00 and reached Belleek around noon.   That is where we toured the famous pottery factory.   It was so wonderful to see all the craftsmen and women working on the beautiful pieces.   After lunch at a nearby diner, we headed to our hotel on the edge of Lough Eske, just outside Donegal.   Lough is Irish for lake.   The picture to the left is what greeted us as we drove up the long, winding, narrow drive.   Just beautiful.   We could hardly believe this was the place we were staying!

The hotel and grounds are lovely.   We took a stroll around before we jumped in the car for another nail-biting, heart-pounding drive along the coast to the cliffs you see on the right.   It is called Slieve League.   We haven't asked anyone specifically, but we are guessing "slieve" must mean cliff or mountain as we have seen it other places.   Anyway, it was a fantastic drive which felt like we were heading off the edge of the earth.  It actually is about the farthest west you can travel in Ireland.   The cliffs rise up out of the Atlantic to a height of 730 feet.  They are some of the highest in Europe, even higher than their famous Irish cousin-The Cliffs of Moher.   We figure the reason that they are not as well known is because it is quite an unbelievable drive to get there, but certainly worth every white-knuckle minute!

We then headed back to Donegal town for dinner.   After we finish here we are hoping our energy will allow one more stroll around the castle before we have our tea and head to bed.   It is 9:00 PM, but the sun is still shining.   Stays light till nearly 11:00!   Tomorrow we head a bit farther north to a National Park which is supposed to be beautiful.  We hope to do some shopping at the woolen mills and craft stores in this area.   Mike, we are looking for just the perfect hat.  

Katie, I have some bad news.   The weather has been so fantastic that we are getting worried that we might not see a rainbow.   That means no pot of gold or leprechauns!   We will keep looking, but we are not crossing our fingers for rain.

Love to everyone,

Bob and Deb