But we are resourceful, and we don't mind walking!
And, we arrived early enough to ensure ourselves a spot.
If you park at the visitors center, it's a huge tourist ripoff. If you just show up unannounced, it'll cost you €12 ($17 CAD, $13 USD) per person. If you book online with a guaranteed entrance time (that you need to arrive at within 15 minutes of) it'll cost €7 ($10 CAD, $7.50 USD) per person.
We found a great parking spot near Hag's Head, 5 kms away from the visitors center, but only one km from the southern start of the walk. After all that's the main reason we came... to do the walk!
We parked for free at GPS 52.938226, -9.44867
Just north of there is a private paid car park that charges €5 if you really want to get closer.
Check out the beautiful blue sky!
Shorts and t-shirt weather!
They were calling for thunderstorms all day, with a much higher probability in the afternoon. We set off at 10:00am with a rough idea that we'd be back at Max by 1:00pm. And that's pretty much what happened...
Looking south.
Lots of sea birds nesting on the cliffs down below.
Looking north.
Funny rock.
It's actually bigger than it looks in the photo. Maybe 20' tall.
Ruth on the trail at Hag's Head.
The old tower at Hag's Head.
Looking north.
Looking south.
Ruth at the edge of the cliff.
At this point in the trail, there are no guard rails or safety notices. You are responsible for where you put your feet.
It's quite a drop to the bottom.
looking north.
Fantastic scenery.
Easy to understand why it's popular.
Opposite the cliffs is fencing that separates you from farmers fields.
Can you see the small castle on the top? That's the tourist area.
You can't see the hordes of people... but they are there!
There hadn't been many people on the walk so far, but as we got to within 1 km of the visitors center there was a noticeable increase in the numbers on the trail. Then we came around the corner and saw this...
The main parking area.
By this point, they had also put up barriers that blocked the view at a lot of it. Really poorly designed, because the path is so narrow at this point that you have to turn sideways to pass anybody coming the other way. And of course with that many people, you can't pass the slow people or the ones who stop to try to take photos.
Narrow path!
Looking south.
The tourist area.
This is as far as we went.
The path continues north to the town of Doolin, about another 7 kms. But we turned around at this point and headed back. Yes, the skies were still beautiful, but we hadn't brought lunch with us and we didn't want to get caught in a thunderstorm.
Back at Max, the skies did cloud over inland, but looking out to sea it was still quite nice. We never did get any rain, but we did hear lots of grumbling in the distance, and we had a beautiful rainbow that seemed to last forever!
You could almost see the pot of gold!
I don't think we've ever seen such vivid colors in a rainbow.
This morning, we got up and drove right away into the town of Doolin to ensure ourselves another parking spot. We are headed out to do the north part of the walk back to the visitors center area. And yes, all for free.
So, the walk along the Cliffs of Moher is definitely worth it. But avoid the visitors center parking area and the rip off entrance fees.
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Introducing the new Echo Pop.
And in Canada...
What a gorgeous area! You two were so smart to park where you did and walk. You got to see even nicer views and avoid most of the tourists. That parking lot full of cars and RVs is kind of horrifying out there in such a pristine spot! Great rainbows as well!
ReplyDeleteIt really is a beautiful area, we think our walk the next day was even better and yes, we think we were really smart to park well away from this "zoo" and walk the extra distance. There were no RVs in that parking lot is was all cars and tour buses! Apparently the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience was only built in 2007, and I guess because of that they now get inundated with hordes of visitors, as the saying goes "If you build it they will come!"
DeleteThe rainbow was fantastic! It lasted for at least 20 minutes, we have never seen a rainbow last so long before.