Ireland's Burren Way and The Cliffs of Moher
Posted on May 20, 2015 by
This hike was so amazing, it’s difficult to write about it. Please forgive me in advance for including so many photographs. They really are necessary because it’s such an indescribable place. What I had expected to be a fairly quick walk turned into something much longer simply because I felt obligated to stop every 100 feet or so and take photos. I hope you find the time to go to Ireland someday. If you do, I highly encourage this adventure.
A little over five miles along the coast, and 1,638 feet of elevation gain.
I hadn’t planed on doing any hiking while I was in Ireland. It wasn’t supposed to be that kind of trip. On our second night we were staying in a small town named Doolin, which is on the Atlantic coast. The next morning we planned to go to the Cliffs of Moher visitor’s center and see them like the other tourists do. But that night at our hostel, my wife and her friend encouraged me to hike the cliffs. I wasn’t so sure about it at first – mostly because I hadn’t done my usual preparations – but after some internet research, I decided to give it some serious consideration (depending on the next morning’s weather).
This stone cottage was our hostel for the night. It is called the Allie River Hostel, and they treated us great there.
The weather turned out to be good enough to hike. It was overcast and about 45 degrees. But no rain. With their encouragement, I loaded up the daypack and headed out to find the trail. The plan was to meet the ladies at the visitor’s center later that morning. They would be able to enjoy their morning (breakfast, shower, shopping, etc.), and so would I (walking in the mud).
From here on, I’ll just leave my comments in the captions rather than write paragraphs…
Before I even got to the main road to take me to the trail, I met this wonderful donkey. He
demanded we take a selfie together, and my friend Susan managed to get us in the act.
I began by following this paved road toward Fisherstreet, one of the areas in Doolin with
pubs and shops. Rural Ireland is awesome.
A small fork in the road and I was starting to head uphill. Here’s a view of Doolin with the
Allie River in the foreground.
Walking past medieval watchtowers became a common occurrence in Ireland. So much
history to explore there. This was along what became a compacted gravel road.
The first warning sign I saw next to this fence across the road. Hikers could go around,
but no cars past this point. The Burren Way continued to follow the road beyond it.
I was able to leave the road and approach the cliffs. There were numerous social trails
through the grass here. I thought these cliffs were incredible until I hiked another three
miles and saw the big ones.
This is looking south not far from Doolin. The ocean was noisy below and sent up plenty
of mist. Notice the waterfall emptying into the ocean on the far left. I figured falling in the
water here would have been an instant death.
After taking a few photos, I went back to the road. In no time a second gate appeared
with a horse behind it. The road became dual track beyond the fence. The Burren Way
leaves the road here and follows the stone fence on the right.
At the second road gate, hikers must climb up and over some fencing to continue on the
Burren Way, which becomes a single track. I had to scale a number of fences in this
manner throughout the morning.
Not very scenic, but this was one of my favorite signs. Look at that poor guy
The single track Burren Way follows the coast for quite a while here. There is a short
burm on the ocean side which you can see here. On the opposite side is a livestock
fence…with an electrical charge.
In a few places, creeks flowed downhill and dumped directly into the ocean. To cross
them, trail builders placed huge stones to serve as steps.
Here’s one of the streams making its way to the ocean. Further up the hill were some
stone structures in various states of collapse. I’m not sure how old they were, but ruins
like these were pretty common.
As I followed the curvature of the coastline on the trail, I could see higher cliffs up ahead.
On the left here you can kind of see the fence line was paralleled the trail up ahead. If
you squint, you can see a green flag on the nearest high cliff.
In order to get up to where that flag was (on top of a considerably higher cliff), the trail left
the coast momentarily and switchbacked up to the next plateau. The fence continued to
follow the switchbacks, as noted in this photo.
Once on top of the plateau, the cliffs became much more magnificent. Again, many social
trails through the grass allowed me to get as close to the edge as I wanted. This is the
view south. I still wasn’t able to see the tower which marked the visitor’s center.
And this is the view north – looking back toward Doolin. Those first cliffs that I thought
were so huge looked mighty small now. It was windy as heck, as you can tell by the flag.
A little further up the trail, I took another photo looking north. The flag is just on the
nearest tall cliff edge.
About this time, the trail once again left the coast in order to ascend to a higher cliff. This
time I had to follow a stone fence with some horses on the other side. It was wet and
muddy along this section. I was basically walking through a pasture. The small gravel of
the trail wasn’t used here.
They were friendly horses, and I’m not much of a horse guy. But I stopped and rubbed
their wet, matted faces for awhile. They seemed to appreciate the attention. As you can
tell, I was gaining elevation here and headed away from the ocean.
The trail eventually funneled me through this livestock pen near the road. This is looking
back through it once I had already passed. Then the Burren Way follows right beside the
road for about ten yards before dipping down and becoming an easy to follow single track again.
This is heading back towards the coast from the brief visit to the livestock pen. In the
distance are the Aran Islands, which were visible during the entire hike.
Soon the trail began to parallel the coast once again. It also started to gain elevation.
Social trails were all over in the grass to the right of the trail. At the crest of this cliff, I was
finally able to see the tower at the visitor’s center. That square thing up on the hill to the
right is the sign in the next photo.
Another attempt to limit liability. But they certainly weren’t lying…the cliffs were becoming
incredibly high, and there was no barrier keeping people away from the edge.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, this stoney staircase would be the final climb to the top of
the last cliff before the visitor’s center. It was pretty steep, and the stairs were wet. I
imagine it’s like that a lot. Notice all the social trails – the one on the right was too close for comfort.
Halfway up that final hill, I turned and took this photo looking north. Doolin is back on that
spit of land in the upper right side of the photograph.
As you can see, there is nothing there to keep lookie-loos from falling off the cliffs. I didn’t
dare get close, especially since I was hiking solo.
Just short of the top, there was a small shelf to stand on where I took this photo. You can
see the tower in the middle of the photo. Further south is Hag’s Head, sticking out into
the ocean.
Here’s a little more zoom on the tower. There’s another tower on Hag’s Head, but I didn’t
hike all the way down there.
You can see the zigzag stones from the prior photo on the cliff in the middle right of this
one, just before the cliff gains more elevation. This is looking north. I also think this is the
northernmost of the largest cliffs.
I was closing in on the tower. As the cliffs got taller – and as public land got closer – the
burm got much taller. So tall, in fact, that I wouldn’t have been able to scale it. The tower
itself is inaccessible.
At the tower, I saw my first to people of the morning. They were excited to see me though as I walked off the cliffs covered in Irish mud. I was the only person available to take their photograph. I hope I took a good one for them.
The view south towards Hag’s Head from the tower. Truly amazing.
A little less zoom from the same spot. The small bump center-left is where I eventually
turned around. The visitor’s center is just downhill to the left of the photo.
The hike took a lot longer than I anticipated. Mostly because I took so many photographs. Amazingly, I checked out the Visitor’s Center for a little while, and when I didn’t see my wife, I went over the the parking lot. They had just gotten out of the car. It was perfect timing. I hiked the cliffs south of the Center with my wife and her friend.
From the tower, the trail is paved and goes down the the Visitor’s Center. Then it climbs
back up to the south cliffs. This is the view back north to the tower.
These areas were much more crowded. Not long after I arrived at the Visitor’s Center, the first tourist charter bus showed up. It was rainy and muddy…so I was able to laugh at those you were completely unprepared. I saw a couple of girls wearing Uggs. And even a few people without rain gear.
This was taken at my turn-around point.
Signed the Cliffs of Moher visitor’s log.
I am a hiker backpacker paddler I pretty much do whatever comes my way And I am always looking for new adventures
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