19th July 2018 - Castlefreke

Kms today 83
Kms to date 2,391

We woke to find that David was not feeling well and had had a bad night. We thought it might have been the Monkfish he had at Mary Anns the previous day. Alan and I decided to leave him in peace and ride to Baltimore and get the ferry to Cape Clear ourselves. We got to Baltimore in good time for the 10:30 ferry and found a parking spot. The ferry was pretty full but we found a seat.  The ferry went east of Sherkin Island which was different to how I remembered and the  first thing I saw was the lighthouse and telegraph station.

The harbour at Cape Clear.

We were soon in the the north harbour and walking up the hill to Paddy Burkes now long closed as he died in 1997.
We headed off on a marked walk past the youth hostel and the Ceili hall towards the mouth of the south harbour. There was a natural arch (the bridge) I remembered and we saw it looking back as we walked down the southern hill line towards the lighthouse.

The "Bridge" with some egit in the foreground.

I suggested we took a shortcut to the lighthouse but we ended up tramping through prickly ground cover. The lighthouse was off limits with warning signs so we couldn't climb up inside to the top.
Our planned lunch stop at Mara's  Farm was thwarted so we walked back to the north harbour.

The latest navigation aid for the Cape Clear ferry.

Afterwards we walked up a track which was extremely steep that I had never used before  to the church and Heritage Museum. The museum was mainly  about the Fastnet lighthouse which was just south of Cape Clear and the O'Driscoll clan, who dominated the area for centuries.

Fastnet rock with lighthouse.

The boat was even more packed on the way back and we got home at 6pm.
David was feeling much better and we had a gammon roast dinner with fresh strawberries and cream. Later David showed us the old family photos he had collected over the years.