Clare on Clare Island

After bidding our farewells to Barney, Sinead and Sam, we set out though the green and grey mountains to Killary Fjord. There wasn't too much to see thanks to the low cloud, but the drive was pleasant enough on pretty much deserted winding roads. We had an afternoon ferry booked, so had time to stop briefly in Louisburgh. Rain had set in at this point so after a quick search for a book, took refuge in a tea shop, where we soon lost track of time and ended up racing the final few miles down to the end of the road, where we just made the ferry, thanks to one empty space in the car park!

We pretty much had to run down to the harbour wall as the boat pulled in, having grabbed anything that looked remotely useful for a few days on an island! The initial plan had been to take over rock climbing kit - especially as we'd found out that there are quite a few unclimbed cliffs. It would have been ace for Clare to put up a new route on her Island, but a final check of the weather made it look like this was going to be increasingly unlikely as rain was now due for a few days. Without climbing packs and ropes, we had plenty of room to load up the hold-all and climb onboard with the handful of other bedraggled looking passengers. 

Once on the boat, the rain stopped and the skies began to clear. It looked like the weather was going to be in our favour after all. I spent the 40 minute crossing looking intently for passing dolphins, but only managed to spot a few Cormorants.

Stepping off the boat onto 'Clare Island' involved some high excitement!

From where the boat dropped us off, we walked down onto the sandy beach of the bay and put the tent up on the grass.

It's hard to beat a tent pitch like this one!

Once 'home' was established, the next obvious step was to take a dip in the inviting coloured waters of the bay. It felt colder than our recent swims, but was so clear it was like snorkelling.

In order to travel as light as possible, we'd left the stove and brew kits in the van, so once we'd dried off, we went to the island pub to sample the local brew.

Which we drank outside as the skies cleared to give us a beautiful evening.

After a short walk along the coast to admire the views, we returned to the pub for dinner before watching the lights come on along the harbour as it got dark.

Waking up the next day, we were delighted to find that the weather was showing no signs of the predicted rain. In the distance was a super looking mountain that we agreed we should try and climb once back on the mainland.

When you're camped by the sea side, you've really got to take advantage of the fact that you can crawl out of a sleeping bag and get straight into the sea, so we did. It was a bit of a shock wake up to be honest, but all very invigorating. And it meant that we could reward ourselves with a good breakfast from the tiny 'Clare Island Oven' bakery at the harbour.

As we had no climbing gear with us, we took a hike along the south coast of the island and enjoyed a bit of bird watching rather than climbing to the island's high point.

We also found the island post office, for some postcards!

Before the last ferry departed, we took one final dip in the beautiful waters.

Back on the mainland, it was just a short drive north to 'the mountain' that we'd spotted from the tent. It turns out that it's Irelands Holy Mountain and that thousands of Pilgrims hike to the summit (barefoot!) each year. In the abscence of any nearby campsites, we found a fantastic little pull in by at the end of a road by the sea. We deemed it to be sufficiently above the high tide mark, and thus, the perfect bivi spot.

We soon had a hearty dinner on the go.

That's the mountain in the distance (Crough Patrick). After a good feed, we put the tent up at dusk and were soon asleep, in preparation for an early start...