Wow!  Today turned sunny.  We could hardly believe our eyes.

We were on our way to see The Black Fort.  The little leprechaun houses are so cute.  Can you see it by the side of the road?

The stone walls on the island usually have very jagged tops.

We were were told that some of them are well over a thousand years old.  The wind can go through the cracks. We could look through the cracks to see the fields of flowers.

I know it is silly to take photos of seagulls, but I like them.

 

 

There were several gravestones along the road.

I love the white Irish houses.

 

We took a right hand turn off the road and thought we were headed to the fort.  The grassy paths were  great.

Sometimes we we had to go through a break in the wall.

We  passed a 9th Century round tower.  Only the base of the tower remains. It was once 35 m high.  It was part of the monastic village of St. Edna.

We saw a wooden sign and followed it.

I was behind Mary as she walked through grass and over stones.

We came upon Teampall Bheanáin (St. Besnan’s Church).  It is claimed to be the smallest church in the world. This roofless building is a great example of the earliest Christian stone churches which were constructed as copies of the wooden buildings they replaced.

I believe that the next photo may be of the place where they Baptized people.

We walked all over (climbing over rocks) trying to find the cliffs and The Black Fort.  No luck.  So we climbed back down to the grassy path and the road again.   After talking with a couple local people we discovered that we had passed the actual road to the fort. So we decided to walk on to the town of Killeany next.

I love the flowers growing right in the walls.

I think that Mary discovered another Holy Well, but we were not sure.

Below is another example of a leprechaun house that we saw near a house we passed.

 

We looked back and saw these fishing boats.  We think that the stone cones are there to guide the fishermen through the deepest part of the water.

We came across a cemetery.  Inside of the cemetery we found Teaghlach Einne (literally “the house of Edna” which is a small rectangular church from the 8th or 9th Century.  It is said that St. Edna is buried here (together with 120 other saints – if you believe that).

The carvings on the stones may represent the circle of life.

You can see how low this door is with me standing in the doorway.

 

The graveyard by the church is still being used.  There were several stones of people who lived into their 90s. This is a very modern grave of a young 16year old who passed away a few years ago.

We retraced our steps back from the cemetery and found the road to the Black Fort.

We arrived at the cliffs which were spectacular.

I stayed away from the edge.  I think there are at least 360 windy days in a year on Inis Mór.  At least that is what the locals told me.

In order to actually get to the fort we had to find our way over the limestone rocks and several stone walls.  There were no paths at all.

It was worth it.  Photographs just don’t capture it. Here is part of the outside of the fort.

We had to go around the edge of the wall to get to the inside of the fort and we were very close to the edge of the cliff.

 

The inside of the Fort.  Dún Dúchathair sits on a rocky promontory that stretches out into the sea.   The large walls Reach up to 6 m high and 5 m wide. On the inside are the ruins of various rooms, and possibly the remnants of ‘beehive huts’ like we saw on the Dingle Way.

 

I wish I could have really caught a photo of the waves hitting the cliffs.

mary walking over the stone paths.

 

Mary climbing over one of the easier walls to negotiate.

 

After we finished at the Black Fort, we retrieved our suitcases from Catherine’s, went shopping in town, had “Linner” at a restaurant (including another ice-cream Sundae for me) and took the ferry back off the island.