After some sight/site intensive driving days I didn’t really have much planned for today but to get from my last night’s B&B to tonight’s Guest House with just one stop in the middle. And that’s how it started out…

It was a terrible start to the morning, pouring with rain until 9am, leaving everything misty and dream-like till it all burnt off in the late morning sun. It then alternated sun and dark clouds the rest of the day.

My route north had my driving around the Shannon estuary and right through Adare, known as “Ireland’s Prettiest Town”. Hmm, pretty full of tourists is what I say. On the outskirts are several cottages built for workers of the local estate back in blah blah blah, and there’s a church, and a teeming visitor’s center absolutely stuffed full of coach tourists and I just wanted to get out of dodge! So after about 15 minutes I jumped back in the car and headed out.

On my To See List in the Vicinity was Knappogue Castle and Walled Garden and Baum so I detoured off the main road to visit but both were closed as it’s the end of the season. Frustrated, I decided just to drive straight to my guest house and call it a day when I happened to drive past an old abbey. Intrigued as this was not on my Frommer’s List I stopped for a Looky-Loo. It turns out this ruin has an illustrious past as it was built as a castle back in 1280 but left a “blackened shell” just 6 years later. 200 years on some Franciscan monks took over the ruins and created Quin Friary, only to be shut down by Henry VIII in 1541. Some old monks remained however with the last friar dying in 1820. Isn’t that an amazing history?

I was starving after my impromptu tour so I looked in village shop for a quick snack but nothing appealed so went into I went into the local pub which was a beautiful, busy bistro. I treated myself to a delicious roast beef dinner with lots of veg and potatoes and ate almost every single bite!

I reached the Sea View Guest House about 4pm and checked in to my nice, if dated ground floor room. Horror of horrors, there’s no TV!!! Luckily there’s a nice lounge upstairs and I’m the only guest here tonight so I’ll be able to sip a nice cuppa tea and watch Escape To The Country or whatever else take my fancy.

But first I have a mission! My host informed me that the weather was going to turn tomorrow and if I wanted to see the Cliffs of Moher at all, I had to go now. Right now, before they closed, meaning no afternoon tea. So I piled back into my car and drove the 20 minutes out to the coast and the big paid parking lot. There’s a huge information center but as dusk was fast approaching and the weather was already rolling in I headed straight up to the cliffs for the magnificent views and obligatory selfie shots…

Overnight: Rineen