Kilmurvy: café
A small café in the hamlet of Kilmurvy, on the island of Inishmore in the Aran Islands (County Galway, off the coast of western Ireland), as the sun breaks through during a mostly cloudy morning in mid-September 2013. It is located in a traditional thatched, whitewashed stone cottage, brightened up with flower baskets and painted benches.
Inishmore -- in Irish, Inis Mhór or Inis Mór ("Big Island") or, more officially, Árainn -- is, as its name implies, the largest of the Aran Islands (Irish: Oileáin Árann). It is the most easily accessible, as well. Despite the availability of flights and a ferry, however, it still retains an aura of separateness as well as the local Aran dialect, customs, and traditions.
Kilmurvy -- in Irish, Cill Mhuirbhigh -- lies below Dun Aengus. In Irish, the mostly prehistoric hillfort's name is Dún Aonghasa. It is thought to have been constructed in more than one stage, beginning in the Late Bronze Age (LBA) primarily during the Iron Age and early medieval period -- from approximately 1100 BC to 500 BC, with subsequent changes up to the late first millennium AD. Like the modern walls, it was built using drystone walls It is one of a number of prehistoric fortified sites on the Aran Islands; it is also the best known, both for its size and for its precipitous location at the top of a cliff that plunges into the Atlantic Ocean. (Information from the panels at the site's Visitor Centre, provided by Heritage Ireland.)
Geologically, the Aran Islands are a continuation of the limestone karst landscape of the Burren, which is on mainland Ireland to the east. Their thin soil has been laboriously built up by hand to create small fields, which are typically separated by drystone walls (walls built without mortar, just stones).
[Kilmurvy café morning 2013 sep 18 c; IMG_3726]
Kilmurvy: café
A small café in the hamlet of Kilmurvy, on the island of Inishmore in the Aran Islands (County Galway, off the coast of western Ireland), as the sun breaks through during a mostly cloudy morning in mid-September 2013. It is located in a traditional thatched, whitewashed stone cottage, brightened up with flower baskets and painted benches.
Inishmore -- in Irish, Inis Mhór or Inis Mór ("Big Island") or, more officially, Árainn -- is, as its name implies, the largest of the Aran Islands (Irish: Oileáin Árann). It is the most easily accessible, as well. Despite the availability of flights and a ferry, however, it still retains an aura of separateness as well as the local Aran dialect, customs, and traditions.
Kilmurvy -- in Irish, Cill Mhuirbhigh -- lies below Dun Aengus. In Irish, the mostly prehistoric hillfort's name is Dún Aonghasa. It is thought to have been constructed in more than one stage, beginning in the Late Bronze Age (LBA) primarily during the Iron Age and early medieval period -- from approximately 1100 BC to 500 BC, with subsequent changes up to the late first millennium AD. Like the modern walls, it was built using drystone walls It is one of a number of prehistoric fortified sites on the Aran Islands; it is also the best known, both for its size and for its precipitous location at the top of a cliff that plunges into the Atlantic Ocean. (Information from the panels at the site's Visitor Centre, provided by Heritage Ireland.)
Geologically, the Aran Islands are a continuation of the limestone karst landscape of the Burren, which is on mainland Ireland to the east. Their thin soil has been laboriously built up by hand to create small fields, which are typically separated by drystone walls (walls built without mortar, just stones).
[Kilmurvy café morning 2013 sep 18 c; IMG_3726]