True confession: Traveling as a couple can be a challenge when you both have different goals. For example: I detest crowds of people as much as Dan loves to photograph iconic sites. Since iconic sites are tourist attractions, I will tolerate them so he can get a few “tourist shots” and then we will find alternate views that the masses don’t visit. What a thrill it was for me when I found an alternative to the Cliffs of Moher and its countless tour buses while we were visiting Dingle.
No disrespect to Moher, of course. Those cliffs are indeed beautiful and worthy of every photograph. Therein lies the issue, really: They had to build a safety wall because of all the pushing, shoving, and jostling that comes with hundreds of people angling for the perfect selfie shot. Who could blame them? No one wants to watch someone end his tour at the bottom of 400-foot-high cliffs. Even worse if you’re the unfortunate victim.
An alternative to the Cliffs of Moher
Thanks to a small paragraph hiding in our Lonely Planet tour book, we discovered that there is a nice alternative to the Cliffs of Moher a bit further south in County Clare. Not only is it far less crowded, they said, it’s easy to get up-close-and-personal with these cliffs because there are no fences, walls or heads to obstruct the view.
Our B&B hosts agreed that it was a worthy destination and promised that we would have a pretty drive on the way to said cliffs.
They recommended a back route that would save both countless miles and hours of car travel. But did we mind taking a car ferry across the Shannon River?
Umm … no. Actually, we loved the idea of driving on local roads in a foreign land. To us that sounded a bit like an adventure.
First stop: Kilkee
The ferry dropped us near the town of Kilkee, a lovely little seaside resort town. Like most coastal towns it has a pretty harbor, filled with fishing boats. The tide was out when we arrived and we could see lots of people on the beach.
By the time we had arrived it was nearly lunchtime, so we stopped at a pub in town for a bite to eat and a necessary visit to the “loo.” As it turns out, that was a really smart move because once we left town all we could see were occasional houses dotting the landscape.
Very occasionally.
Tip: There are no pubs OR bathrooms along the way. Eat and “go” before you go.
Driving the Loop Head peninsula
Vast expanses of barren fields and rocky outcroppings made the area seem rather desolate but every once in a while a lone house would promise that we hadn’t left civilization far behind. Occasional glimpses of the Atlantic here and there reassured us that we were on the right road.
All this barren land made us wonder if we might possibly bypass the cliffs and end up back in Kilkee. Crazy maybe, but when we finally came across an area where a few cars were parked, we pulled off to the side of the road to check it out. Not far away the verdant land suddenly disappeared. Sure enough, we had found cliffs!
Definitely different from the Cliffs of Moher
Unlike Moher there was no admission price here. These cliffs had no gift shop or bus parking lot, just a spot where we could see a few cars parked at odd angles. So what if the cliffs didn’t rise quite as high or have as sheer a drop-off? We were thrilled at how peaceful it was here without the crowds. Plus, we could quite literally walk right up to the brink of the cliffs and see the crashing surf directly below. You’d never be able to do that in the U.S.!
The saddest thing was to find a memorial to a lad who had slipped and fallen to his death. I still feel for his family.
We saw very few people apart from a few fishermen who had cast their lines off the edge to angle for fish in the surf hundreds of feet below, and a father who was there with his kids.
This father was wisely holding his children’s hands at the cliffs.
Up at the edge
Jimmy and I crawled up to the edge on hands and knees because it was windy and it looked like the grass was growing over the edge of the cliff. This was one place we really didn’t want to take a wrong step.
Caution: Grass can be slippery.
It was worth it though, once I peeked over the edge and got a glimpse of the clear water below. I never would have suspected that the Atlantic could be that blue!
I never would have suspected that the Atlantic could be that blue!
We spent so much time at this one spot that we had to abandon our plan to drive the entire loop all the way down to the end. We were expected at our Galway B&B before dark and anyway, we would need some dinner and traditional music after we had checked in.
So much for seeing the lighthouse at the end, but that’s okay. We got some awesome views and had a relaxing day with no crowds.
You were right, Lonely Planet: This is an excellent Cliffs of Moher alternative. Not only did we avoid the crowds but we got to see a part of Ireland that most tourists never see. It was so worth carving out the time to make this drive. Sure and it was a little more out of the way, but it is now one of our most-cherished memories from our entire time in Ireland.