GlenGarriff Plus 2

Another rainy day in Ireland! But we are taking the bus down to Mizen Head, and there are rumors that the weather is going to break.

Mizen Head is reputed to be the most southern tip of Ireland, that’s a wee bit of an exaggeration. But it is a prominent promontory. It’s a rocky coastline and Mizen Head is the location of a lighthouse, and former signaling station. It is one of the featured locations of Guiglielmo Marconi’s experiments with transatlantic radio communications and the first undersea telegraph cables.

Arriving at the visitors center, the first order of business is lunch, and they accomodate our large group slowly but satisfactorily. Being early in line, we get a chance to wander around the visitor center, which features displays about the construction of the lighthouse, lighthouse life and people, and navigational aids from lodestones to GPS. Following lunch there is a ramble out to the lighthouse on the promontory. Despite hopeful predictions of a break in the weather, the weather breaks into some of its worst behavior. It starts as rain and wind.

The path to the lighthouse is an asphalt walk down switchbacks (or 99 steps if you’ve an intrepid spirit) followed by a footbridge that crosses a gorge hundreds of feet deep that essentially divides the promontory into an island. Then it’s a further walk out to the lighthouse with a detour up stairs to an observation platform that commands a view to the south and north of the promontory.

Paula dares the walk and the bridge and the observation platforms, and specifically wants proof of being out on the bridge, but we are not quite equipped for the walk out to the lighthouse, for the winds have picked up to 35-40 mph, and the rain has turned to sleet, the asphalt walk becomes icy, and neither of us is equipped with more than a rain parka, so we turn back. But not before documenting the feat.

The pink dot in the bridge arch is Paula, leaning over the rail, peering at the seals cavorting in the surf hundreds of feet below.

And this is a view to the north from the observation platform.

Others in the group have gone out to the lighthouse, so we have time to get somewhat warmer and dryer back in the visitor center while they make the trek back. It has been a cold, wet, slippery, windy and freezing sort of day, but it is nevertheless one of the more significant features of the tour, and one that Southern California group members will talk about for a long time.

After dinner, music in the Park Hotel pub. Again, a smallish pub, and we stuff it with tour group members, locals, and assorted musicians. That’s really one of the salient features of the tour, the opportunity to sit and chat with locals, and their willingness to bring out an instrument, or volunteer a song or a request for a song or tune for the amusement of all.

Paula and I go back to Casey’s and stop in the pub for a nightcap, and encounter Donald chatting with Fraser, a long-time friend of Donnie and James, who has driven over from Scotland to join the group. Fraser was once a professional musician that often played in this community, so he knows a lot of the locals, and is quite at home in this particular establishment. Donnie joins us, as does Jeff and the evening wears on and the drinks flow on, and the stories are funny, and it’s a nice quiet end to the day.