We’ve got a mountain!!!
Woke up to blustery wind, but it looked a lot brighter. We stumbled out of the van to breaking cloud, a sun peeking out and a tall peak overlooking our campsite that turns out to be Slievemore mountain standing at a lofty 672m and dips its toes into the ocean. From our own lofty position we could see distant coastlines too – those weather apps were right for once.
The whole van felt damp, so I did some laundry, dried the towels in the dryer and we just hung other stuff out. We weren’t particularly quick, but we would be off to investigate Achill Island. With ten minutes left on the dryer, we parked the van by the site’s shop and rewarded ourselves with icecream while we waited for it to finish – then we were off! Our first port of call was the Deserted Village on the foothills of Slievemore mountain next door to a rather large cemetery. We parked up and above us was a long row of abandoned stone cottages, all roofless and in somewhat state of dereliction. It is thought that there has been some form of habitation here throughout history, the last known being in the 20th century – the cottages were inhabited again as booleys but only during the summer with islanders looking after their animals. It was quite startling how quickly the cottages had deteriorated, but with the howling winds and lashing rain, it probably didn’t take much. We sat there quietly – it was very thought provoking and atmospheric, what a tough life these people endured – until a noisy family came along, dad with phone in hand videoing everything. We wandered off muttering. In the distance, several tall towers stood on top of Minaum mountain (466m) and we realised that was what we briefly visited in the fog yesterday. Oh blimey. What were we doing, though we would have got fabulous views up there!
http://www.visitachill.com/en/desertedvillage.html
We drove down the road to Keel Beach, just to have a look. It was busy with cars and people, with a large flat campsite across the way. It looked a lovely beach with waves crashing onto the sand – kite surfers and windsurfers were in the water making the most of the strong steady wind. Dogs weren’t allowed on this Blue Flag beach so it was a bit rotten of us to take The Pup with us while we checked it out. She was itching and wasn’t impressed when we trotted back to the Van.
The hubby had read that Keem Beach, right down in the southwest of the island was quieter and off we set, diverting only to find the Achill Henge on the way. Apparently it’s a large brutalist concrete monument built in the middle of nowhere in 2011 . We turned down a tiny little lane, did another right turn and raised eyebrows as the tarmac turned into a rough stony track. We crept down this until we reached a sort of isolated farm building and a wasteland of quarried stone. We felt that we were trespassing. Hubby went out to see if he could see it while I tried to find it on Google maps – it was all very vague. He came back after unsuccessfully scanning the moorland and we abandoned the quest. What a weird place to build a monument and make it so hard to visit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achill-henge
We rejoined the main road to Keem – I finally found the concrete monument on Apple Maps and we had been in the right place after all, but we just didn’t fancy returning back to that track – we were lucky not to scrape the underneath of the van as it was.
The road started to climb as we skirted the Croaghaun mountain which plunged into the sea below – sheep happily munched on grass on death defying slopes. We were quite a way up, though this time I could see where the void on my left went today. As the road turned, way down below, the little Keem beach sheltered in a delightful curving cove, appeared. We dropped down to the parking area which was on various levels – we ended parking on the top level as campervans were banned from the bottom, though two or three had carried on, their drivers apparently unable to read. We walked down the hill to the beach – there were many people milling around and two food vans were doing a good trade. It was quite a lovely little place despite all the people and cars and had great views of distant cliffs and islands. The beach, as usual, was golden soft sand and gentle crashing waves. We broke the bad news to The Pup that she wasn’t allowed on the beach either (well not between the hours of 12 noon and 6.30pm, June to September apparently). We had lunch here, perched on a rock overlooking the bay while The Pup whimpered. So close yet so far. We felt quite bad, tormenting our dog by showing her a beach and then dragging her away. So we told her that we find a dog friendly beach and waddled back up the hill.
There were sheep everywhere on this island, free to amble wherever, trotting across the roads and even into gardens. The Pup wanted to play with them especially when they ran so we kept her on a short lead. If they stood still, she ignored them. Back at the van, we looked to see where else we could visit and discovered a wide sandy curve on Apple maps in the north west. Perfect. We could go there on the way back to base.
I plotted Dooniver Strand in the satnav and after a lot of twists and turns down country lanes came across a small jetty and a cul de sac . There was no obvious way of dropping down to the beach, so after a lot of backwards and forwards to get the van turned around, we headed for Dooniver Beach instead, just a little further up, again going down the tiniest of roads. The lane ended overlooking the sea with a couple of wooden picnic tables perched by the entrance – another car was already parked so we happily switched off the engine as we saw a long empty sandy beach.
The Pup was so happy. Chasing her ball and running into the sea, we were finally back in her good books. The beach was practically empty apart from a family of four half way along and as we approached, they seemed happily playing in the water of an outflow pipe. This whole gorgeous beach of soft beautiful sand and they were by a large pipe spewing water – we hoped that it was just freshwater being piped to the sea and not something else. It just seemed rather odd with the shallow sea just metres away. Anyway we left them to it and walked quite a way until we kept spotting stranded jellyfish and turned around. The sun was out and it was gorgeous – we sat on the large stones on the edge of the beach and enjoyed the fabulous view. It couldn’t get much better than this.
We strolled back to the van – three more cars had pulled up and their occupants had gone for a walk, we thought we had exclusive rights to this bit of the coast! We were about 3 miles from our base and had a leisurely cruise back along the coast with Slievemore mountain stood majestically in the background. We stopped briefly at a recommended cafe to see if they did breakfasts and if dogs were allowed in – yes was the answer, so that’s breakfast sorted. We headed back in the sunshine and set the van up before sunning ourselves in our camping chairs. Unfortunately, the trees that shielded us from the worst of the wind last night were now starting to blot out the evening sun! We got chatting to a lovely couple and their dog from Leicestershire and later, after tea and The Pup booping for a walk, we all got together for a dog walk on the beach where the dogs had a good run chasing balls. We then wandered over to the pub (more like a working men’s club tbh) for a Guinness or two and had a good chat before meandering back to our respective campers and shutting down for the night. It’s been quite a lovely day.
apathtosomewhere 