Inishmore Island (Aran Group) & Cliffs of Moher (County Clare)
We spent the day among some spectacular geological formations…ancient, raised sedimentary deposits, to be more precise. During breakfast, the National Geographic Explorer anchored off Inishmore, the main island of the Aran Group. This island is composed of layered limestone that formed many millions of years ago when this region was located in a warm, shallow sea. It has since been raised far above the sea floor level and now is eroded into a landscape resembling Swiss Cheese.
Because of the strategic location of the group, the Aran Islands have featured prominently throughout much of Ireland's history and are quite interesting both historically and culturally (as well as geologically). There has been a long human presence here, and life has never been easy. Even just growing food has always been difficult, because people had to actually make their own soil by smashing rocks into tiny bits, adding sand gathered from a few tiny beaches, and mixing seaweed into it.
Locals have, for centuries, built stone walls as a way to remove loose rocks from agricultural plots and in recent years have even brought in soil from the mainland to form small parcels of tillable land. The locals claim there are 7,000 miles of rock walls dividing the island into tiny, privately owned plots, although this may be a slight exaggeration.
There are many ancient historical sites scattered about the Aran Islands…the most spectacular of which is the fortress of Dun Aengus here on Inishmore. This 5th century BC walled structure is an Iron Age stone fort that consists of a massive semicircular ring rock structure of three concentric enclosures, all located near a cliff edge more than 300 feet above the ocean (see left photo). It is regarded as one of Europe's finest prehistoric monuments.
We went ashore right after breakfast to the town of Kilronan and spent the rest of the morning exploring the island, including a visit to the spectacular site of Dun Aengus. By mid-afternoon, we had reached the impressive Cliffs of Moher, located on a peninsula within County Clare, and found conditions conducive to a Zodiac ride which allowed us to get close to the cliff face and sea bird sites.
This great exposure of ancient sandstone is another type of sedimentary rock that formed in the sea, but is very different from the limestone of Inishmore Island. The cliffs reach about 700 feet above the sea's surface in some places, and are completely exposed to the unrelenting swells coming in from the Atlantic Ocean. The erosional effects of the sea have created arches, sea stacks (see right photo), caves, and many other fascinating shapes and structures. This area is also a very important nesting area for sea birds, such as kittiwakes, guillemots (common murres), razorbills, puffins, fulmars, and shags.
We finished the day with a revisit to Inishmore Island, but this time we cruised along the base of the impressive cliff below Dun Aengus, which gave us a different perspective of the fort’s dramatic location. Unfortunately, the erosion of the cliff face has slowly taken away much of the fort grounds and it is only a matter of time (hopefully several more thousand years, at least) before the fort itself completely crumbles and disappears into the raging sea below.
We spent the day among some spectacular geological formations…ancient, raised sedimentary deposits, to be more precise. During breakfast, the National Geographic Explorer anchored off Inishmore, the main island of the Aran Group. This island is composed of layered limestone that formed many millions of years ago when this region was located in a warm, shallow sea. It has since been raised far above the sea floor level and now is eroded into a landscape resembling Swiss Cheese.
Because of the strategic location of the group, the Aran Islands have featured prominently throughout much of Ireland's history and are quite interesting both historically and culturally (as well as geologically). There has been a long human presence here, and life has never been easy. Even just growing food has always been difficult, because people had to actually make their own soil by smashing rocks into tiny bits, adding sand gathered from a few tiny beaches, and mixing seaweed into it.
Locals have, for centuries, built stone walls as a way to remove loose rocks from agricultural plots and in recent years have even brought in soil from the mainland to form small parcels of tillable land. The locals claim there are 7,000 miles of rock walls dividing the island into tiny, privately owned plots, although this may be a slight exaggeration.
There are many ancient historical sites scattered about the Aran Islands…the most spectacular of which is the fortress of Dun Aengus here on Inishmore. This 5th century BC walled structure is an Iron Age stone fort that consists of a massive semicircular ring rock structure of three concentric enclosures, all located near a cliff edge more than 300 feet above the ocean (see left photo). It is regarded as one of Europe's finest prehistoric monuments.
We went ashore right after breakfast to the town of Kilronan and spent the rest of the morning exploring the island, including a visit to the spectacular site of Dun Aengus. By mid-afternoon, we had reached the impressive Cliffs of Moher, located on a peninsula within County Clare, and found conditions conducive to a Zodiac ride which allowed us to get close to the cliff face and sea bird sites.
This great exposure of ancient sandstone is another type of sedimentary rock that formed in the sea, but is very different from the limestone of Inishmore Island. The cliffs reach about 700 feet above the sea's surface in some places, and are completely exposed to the unrelenting swells coming in from the Atlantic Ocean. The erosional effects of the sea have created arches, sea stacks (see right photo), caves, and many other fascinating shapes and structures. This area is also a very important nesting area for sea birds, such as kittiwakes, guillemots (common murres), razorbills, puffins, fulmars, and shags.
We finished the day with a revisit to Inishmore Island, but this time we cruised along the base of the impressive cliff below Dun Aengus, which gave us a different perspective of the fort’s dramatic location. Unfortunately, the erosion of the cliff face has slowly taken away much of the fort grounds and it is only a matter of time (hopefully several more thousand years, at least) before the fort itself completely crumbles and disappears into the raging sea below.
