Maureen asked What is a turnstile? and I happened to know so explained that it was like a small wooden or stone ladder or stepping stool on both sides over a fence so people could come and go without opening and closing gates but cattle or horses could not. It would be my first turnstile so I was excited.
As we walked along we saw to our right off in the distance what we thought was a castle and maybe a lighthouse. I knew that I would be walking over there before leaving the island. We passed two houses on the left that were not yellow but about 100 yards later the next house was yellowish. We went past and looked for the turnstile but it was not there.
Concerned that we had
misunderstood our excellent directions we did continue on down the road discussing the giving of directions in Ireland. We saw a house on the left up on the hill about 100 yards away from the
road that was yellow but thought why would they put the
post office so far away from the road.
We persevered and went the 200 feet past its road and low and behold there was a turnstile!
It was a charming turnstile, small and efficient and we were over the wall in no time. The path that we had to follow was good but narrow and parts were covered by some pokey, prickly, bushy plants. We did not see the bull or any cattle at all for that matter so we thought Archie was kidding.
Over the first hill we did see goats.
Over the next rise we saw the other side of the island and the church. When we arrived, with minutes to spare, Maureen went in and I went down the road to see if I could find the Goat cheese place I had seen a sign for.
Now we were on the other side of the island and there was a strong breeze off of the ocean or the channel and even though the sun was beating down on us there was no fear of overheating.
Cape Clear Island is the southern most tip of Ireland and has a warmer climate that the rest of the country. It is gaeltacht which means that Irish is the first and main language spoken. With its long history there are lots of historic sights to see and is a great place for bird watchers too. Something for everyone. But right now I was on the hunt for cheese.
I proceeded down the road and wondered how much some of the old stone houses would cost to buy and for some how much would they cost to fix. the views were marvelous. I walked for about 10 minutes and met a young girl walking down the road who, when I asked, told me it was just down the road. I kept going and eventually came to the house with the sign that said Goat cheese and Ice cream.
At first I went to wrong door. There were a few men sitting at a table inside and one gentleman came to the door and told me that the store was on the other side of the house so I went up and around to the other side of the house. When I got there I knocked on the door the same gentleman who had told me to come to this door came to take care of me. He had his dog with him a beautiful big german shepherd.
I thought he was blind as when I asked for the cheese he felt his way to the freezer. I picked out some post cards with goats on them that he pointed out were not available anywhere else as they were his goats. The young girl who had given me directions showed up and helped with the change. With my cheese purchases safe in hand, I was not brave enough to try the goat milk ice cream, I went back to the church to meet Maureen.
By the time I got there The mass only had another 5 minutes to go so I did not have to wait a long time. Maureen told me the mass was in Irish but the priest must have known she did not understand because he did throw a little english in. the church was simple and lovely and pink. My favorite church window in Ireland was here. It was stunning in its simplicity. We stayed for awhile enjoying the quiet.
We decided to follow the road back into "town" to see what we could see.
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