"Contae an Chláir" a County Clare Travel Page by kit_mc

In August I spent a week in the Midlands with Pa and Step-Mama, acting as chauffeur. My father is from the east coast of Ireland so I've been there often, but this trip was for me to experience a bit of rural Ireland that I've not seen before, as well as to meet my new step-in-laws.

While we were only over for about a week, we covered a lot of ground and in one day drove full circle from Offaly west into Clare, up through the Burren and back east of Lough Derg. The whole trip through Clare can be done in a day fairly comfortably if you don't mind being on the road most of the time. We followed the route below:

- Roscrea - Nenagh - Ballina - Killaloe - Scarriff - Ennis - Inagh - Ennistymon - Kilfenora - through The Burren - Ballyvaughan - Burren - Kinvara - Gort - Portumna - Birr - Roscrea -

This trip to Clare was mainly for me as I wanted to see The Burren (Irish: Boireann), an area of outstanding beauty that has, I think, the status of a National Park. However, it had been a good 30 years since my father had last been in this neck of the woods and Step-Ma it transpired had never been there at all, so it also gave them both an opportunity for a drive through of an unfamiliar piece of their own land.

While being stuck in a car for 7 hours with an 80 and a 72 year old may not sound like everyone's idea of fun, it was actually quite cool for me to hear their stories from years back, some tales of growing up in Ireland in very different times. To hear them re-tell their memories. I know that in the years to come I'll be very grateful for this trip and the opportunity to spend such special time with these two people.

In the course of the day I ate in a nice vegetarian Italian restaurant, saw derelict churches by the dozen, abandoned country piles and random towers in the middle of fields as well as the lunar landscape that is The Burren.

To really get to see this neck of the woods, I would advise taking a car or hiring one as we had for the duration of the holiday. I have to admit that having driven in Ireland a few times this year, I've been reminded of a few things, such as a) Irish drivers have a tendency to take speed limits as a suggestion rather than an obligation b) tailgating is a national sport and c) they've a lot to learn when it comes to driving on motorways!

Still, at least these days the road signs are all in kilometres, leading to less confusion... I remember as a child in the car on the way to Cork once, and the signs kept on changing between kilometres and miles, meaning that the distance to Cork kept going up even as we got closer!! Anyway, I reckon it's ok for me to moan about Irish drivers - I'm a plastic Paddy after all!!