Caherdaniel to Sneem 21km (with the extras)

Breakfast couldn’t come soon enough this morning. Trying to eke out lunch into dinner as well last night didn’t really work for two hungry walkers. More than made up for it at breakfast.

A one kilometre walk back to Caherdaniel to rejoin the Way. Once there Paul thought it was a good idea to go back down some of yesterday’s trail to try and find a stone fort we had missed in the rain. Barbara didn’t think it was such a good idea but we went anyway. We eventually found it and it sits on a rocky promontory covering most of the summit. The wall on the west and south side are almost intact and about six metres high. The wall is about 2 metres thick and the interior diameter is about 20 metres. It is more ruinous in the south and east. The floor level inside is only about a metre below the top of the wall. There are many stones scattered in the interior but no houses are obvious. This is the first time we have been up close and intimate with a stone cashel . This one dates from about 600AD.

Back in Caherdaniel we came across a gang repainting road markings. At home this is a very automated affair with a guy in a truck and spray equipment. Here it involved two guys with huge STOP signs, and three guys, one with a large bucket of paint, one with a sort of paint roller, and another with a bucket of sand. They were being very diligent though.

Not a hugely interesting day today. Early on we were above the coast but soon moved inland and went down two farmed valleys and across two spurs. Mostly out in the open but also through some small areas of woodland. No villages or refreshments anywhere along the way. As we had eaten all our own supply of food last night we had asked Cathy at the B & B to make us ham and cheese sandwiches and she had also given us bananas.

We did have one regret today. At about the half way mark we could have done a 2 kilometre detour up a steep hill to see the Staigue Fort. This is a pretty impressive stone ring fort built during the late iron age 300-400AD. It is large and is a considerable feat of engineering with huge dry stone walls. It has  elaborate stairways leading to terraces and passageways leading to corbelled cells. We only read about it after we reached Sneem. I would have passed up the small and simple Caherdaniel Fort for the huge and complex Staigue Fort any day.

Sad sight of the day. A black New Zealand beanie we found on the path. Some poor walker has dropped it and won’t be able to flash it around the bars in Sneem tonight, bragging about the America’s Cup. We did see one guy in O’Shea’s Bar tonight when we were having dinner wearing an Emirates Team NZ shirt.

For the first time in three weeks we have seen potatos growing!

We have sussed the Irish weather forecast: If it isn’t raining, it will soon. If it is raining, it will eventually stop.

Old Irish proverb of the day: It is afterwards that events are best understood.