The unexpected dawn
Let’s start right away with, what was the program?
Waking up at 6 and 7, maximum 7 and a half being in the car so as to get to the Slieve League to see the sunrise scheduled for eight and a half.
Simple isn’t it?
No, the bed has this property of increasing the gravitational pull with the reduction of the time of the alarm clock; so if you have to wake up at 8 its attraction has a constant g = 10 but if you have to wake up at 6 this constant magically changes and becomes 1000!
Since the only force that can counteract that of gravity of the bed in this case is willpower, and we did not have much; we stayed in bed until 7am…
So before 7:30 we didn’t set in motion.
Google maps already shouted at the catastrophic delay showing us that we would arrive at the cliff parking lot at 8:20 and that therefore we could say hello at dawn; it is known that she does not feel the gravitational force of the mattress.
Along the way it was still nice to see the landscape take on increasingly sharp contours, the midnight blue of the sky become overseas and then cobalt; see reality take on more shape as the sun woke up.
When we were close to the arrival of the fiery sphere we were lucky enough to find a beautiful clearing; which I then discovered to be right in the place where the secret waterfall of Largy is located, which allowed us to see donegal bay and the whole north coast slowly light up.
Largy
Together with us some sheep grazed quietly, even if one of them bleated against me; who knows if we have disturbed their morning eating meditation.
Needless to say, it was cold enough, cold enough not to want to take off his gloves to handle the photographic equipment.
Matthew, however, is a true warrior, now it is not something to be further questioned; in fact he took out the drone and made him do a warm-up voletto.
Then I anticipate that it took more than half an hour of warm-up in the car to bring his hands back to a condition acceptable to the human being.
First I mentioned the Secret Waterfall of Largy, the name is self-explanatory; it is a beautiful waterfall accessible only from the beach as it is located inside an inlet of the coast.
Getting there, however, is not easy; the stones of the coast on which you have to walk are slippery and accessible only at low tide.
Any low tide is not enough, you need one lower than half a meter and therefore winter is definitely not the right season to venture, unless you have a wetsuit and a lot of resourcefulness.
The protagonists of the day: the Slieve League
With the sunlight getting higher and higher in the sky and slowly illuminating the whole landscape we arrived at the parking lot of the Sliabh Liag (Slieve League).
We left the car at the first parking lot.
If you just want to admire the cliffs go to the other which is very close to the view point of the cliffs.
If you plan to make a loop, consider where you should leave the car.
We paid 15€ to park for the whole day and we walked, backpacks on our shoulders and ready souls; the fresh air that finished waking us up.
The path up to the cliffs was very nice, there were many sheep and we could take some interesting photos; the morning light is perfect and gives everything an aura of warmth.
These magnificent cliffs overlooking the sea are 609m high, almost three times the Cliffs of Moher!
From the view point the gaze embraces them completely and there for there I thought that they were not so monumental, I did not realize how far they were and that was the reason why they seemed “small” to me.
In the shot then made with the drone I had to change my mind, look how long it takes to frame the sea, and it is going to 50 km / h!
Once your eyes are filled with the sight of these monumental sculptures of nature you can walk along the path patiently built with huge stones.
One Man’s Pass
The marked path soon gives way to nature and therefore to the now familiar bog.
This is a strong deterrent for any adventurer if the weather is inclement, we were lucky that it was a beautiful sunny day with little wind for more.
If the bog has not defeated us do not worry that the next stretch has succeeded great!
In fact we arrived in front of the One Man’s Pass: a narrow steep ridge of 400m that is very similar to a knife.
I was very sorry not to be able to cross it, also because we discovered that it was only the first step to be disturbing. We passed to the right avoiding it and then I went up to see the ridge on the other side, I must say that seen from the north it did not look as scary as from the south.
In this photo you can see a royal crow, which we amicably nicknamed Gandalf because he scrutinized us and for me he did not croak but said: “You shall not pass!!!”
We stopped to eat and it was clear that Gandalf was used to pleading for food to hikers, although with that huge beak he did not particularly soften me.
Fun fact: as we climbed we heard a sound that sounded like the ringtone of a mobile phone, but there was no one! Guess what?
King crows can learn to reproduce sounds like Indian blackbirds… it was Gandalf who made that sound!
After the One Man’s Pass we reached the top and as always it is a strong emotion to tick off another Irish summit.
The idea was to go down to Tellin following the Pilgrim’s Path but unfortunately it was already late, we turn around and go back on our steps.
I would like to return to this place and walk the Pilgrim’s Path; we are only the last explorers of these ridges.
On the way back
It is believed that even before the advent of Christianity in Ireland the Slieve League were a place of pilgrimage.
The name of this path finds its origin in the era of the Irish penal laws of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, these were imposed on the local population to force Catholic Christians to convert to the “true religion”, the Anglican Protestant one.
How then could they secretly profess their faith?
They came to these remote places to celebrate Mass on the “Mass Rocks”.
I read that there are remains of an early Christian monastic site but we have not visited it, if you find it send me some photos!
Lesti lesti we go down, we give way to a large flock of sheep who have decided to enjoy the sunset from a vantage point, and we get in the car that the sun has been going to bed for a long time.
I want to go back to the Slieve League, maybe renting a kayak to see them from below!
Relax at Rusty Mackerel
Our retreat for the night is not far away, it is the Rusty Mackerel.
This beautiful pub offers comfortable rooms at the back of the main building, each featuring a private bathroom with a shower that I fell in love with! The water fell from a square plate and gave the impression of being under a waterfall, after a good sweat to the cliffs there is nothing more you could wish for.
Once refreshed we went to eat at the pub, fast service and really good food, I ordered rusty’s Fish Platter because I felt in the mood to be a spendthrift (26.50 €) but in the end it was Matteo who finished it.
While we were waiting for the dishes sat at the tables near ours a couple from Northern Ireland and an American family (they too had been to the Slieve League), not having much to say between us I could not help but listen to what they told each other and in the end I slipped into the conversation.
While in Italy the thing would have seemed annoying here is different, the pub is a wonderful meeting place and there is nothing better than finding people with whom to converse more and less; as of car trade, engineering and the 12 bridesmaids that the future bride would have!
A few more drinks later and a few hours later we retired, we wanted to go to bed early but I had gotten too caught up in the desire to speak in English that we finally went to bed at 11pm!
If you don’t know how we got here or what will become of us… here are the buttons.
