Downtown Cape Clear Island

Upon departing from the small ferry we were greeted by the Cape Clear bus driver who offered to take us or if we wanted to walk, just drop our luggage off at the hostel for 2 euros. Maureen said yes without reservation. I had reservations. What if our things got lost? That would be sad. How far was it to walk? Where the heck were we going? In the end I agreed and we loaded our small bags onto the bus which is actually a van and we explored downtown Cape Clear Island. The first thing you see of course is the dock. This runs into a smallish road and brings you past St Kieran's Well and Holy site where his hand print is in the rock and he had a well. It is marvelous. Every where you go in Ireland there is another new saint that you have never heard of. St Kieran was born on the island in the 4th century. How long has this island been populated? Just a little farther around the bay and down the road was the Store on the main floor and social club upstairs. Outside the grocery/liquor/hardware and cafe store were picnic tables that were at the moment full of people getting ready to either depart the island or go exploring it.

The Island has a year round population of about 120

with the summer months bringing tourists who might be only day visitors or who might be staying for a while. Today there were a few but it was not too bad. Our next stop was the gift shop where we purchased postcards of course.

Continuing up the road past the smallest mailbox I had ever seen, about one foot tall by 8 inches deep, was Cotter's pub and restaurant.

A little further on up a steep narrow road was a most charming building with green windows. I found out that long ago they had a 'window tax' in Ireland and the bigger the window the higher the tax. That explains why there are so many buildings with small windows.

About five minutes further down the road was O'Driscolls pub

and restaurant and about five minutes further was a great view of the bay on other side of the island.

The road that we had just walked was the narrowest point on the island in between the two bays. the whole island is only about three miles long and one and a half miles wide.

It was a lovely hot walk as the sun was out and we were sheltered from the wind.

The hostel that we we staying at was just over the hill and around the corner. It is an old coast guard station that the current owners have fixed up wonderfully. Archie or 'just call me Henri' was a real comedian. Lots of fun. Our luggage was there! Good old reliable Cape Cleire bus people.

Once we got shown our room and shown around, he gave us very explicit instructions on how to get to the catholic church who had a mass at 2 pm, in about 45 minutes. only a 30 minute walk away by his reckoning if we took the shortcut.

Just up the road, about 200 feet past the yellow house that was the post office there was a turnstile. Go over the turnstile, through the field and over the hill following the path. Just watch out for the bull and you'ld be fine.

Bull?! We thought he might be kidding as he was a kidder. We sallied forth on our quest for the Church.