8 hours in County Clare

On a beautiful Saturday morning, I decided to head off to co.Clare. So jumped in the car at 7am and reached Kinvara at around 9.20am. First stop, Dunguaire Castle, a castle built in 1520 by the O'Hynes Clan. Unfortunately , like most tourist attractions in Ireland, the castle is only open to visitors between April and mid September.
So i just walked around the fortified castle along the path where I enjoyed the crisp morning air and watched birds wading along the shores.

The next 2 stops along the Wild Atlantic Way are Taught Beach and Flaggy Shore. Taught beach is a Blue flag beach popular with families in the summer, Flaggy Shore is the perfect location to see limestone pavements and fossils that are embedded in the rocks and enjoy the views as far as Connemara and Galway.

Carrying on my journey towards the Cliffs Of Moher, i passed Fanore Beach, an amazing sandy beach flanked by impressive sand dunes. The Caher river, the only river in the Burren which flows it's entire lenght above ground, is flanked by this blue flag beach.
Leaving this amazing spot, I travelled further while enjoying the views as far as Connemara and the Arran islands.
I had heard reports that the waves at Doolin Pier were good, so decided to make a detour. The waves, flanked by the rising cliffs  on the opposite site of Doolin pier and the sun shining down on the waves combined with the blue skies reminded me more of Hawaii/ Madeira rather than Ireland.

After a refreshing break, I carried on my travels to reach the Cliffs of Moher car park. The car park is €6 for a car, problem was that there was only 1 paybooth opened which meant that there was a significant enough traffic queue to get into it.   My advise is to park in Doolin and hike towards the Cliffs of Moher along the Cliffs of Moher coastal walk . Once parked up, I hiked along to cliffs and enjoyed the Cliffs of Moher visitor Centre building. To get more detail on the Cliffs of Moher, read the following blog ​(Cliffs of Moher)

Afterwards, I headed toward Lahinch, a popular surf town in Co.Clare. The beach is perfect for surfers starting off, and there were at least 50 students in the water enjoying the clear waters of the Atlantic. From here, i turned back homewards, but not without taking a detour to Kilfenora , the gateway to the amazing Burren. The Burren is one of Ireland's 6 National Parks. The Burren are dominated by a Karst landscape, and the landscape is composed of limestone pavements with cracks known as "grikes". These cracks are the perfect location for flowers to bloom and you will find in Spring and summer an abundant amount of flowers ranging from arctic, Mediterranean and alpine flowers.
The Burren visitor centre was closed , so I decided to have a look at Vaughan's pub. The pub  featured in the Father Ted episode "Are you right there father Ted?" . 

My last stop for the day was Poulnabrone Dolmen, probably one of Ireland's most photographed portal Dolmen. 
I enjoyed co.Clare immensely , the weather turned out to be amazing, the only 2 issues not relating to co.Clare, but in general is that all tourist attractions are closed until April, the second one was that i wasn't able to get any stamps for my Wild Atlantic Way passport as Post Offices close at 1pm. When i asked the information desk at 1 of Irelands major tourist attractions (Cliffs of Moher) if they had the stamps, the answer was no.