Outdoor Discoveries

Older Irish summers

During the last few years, I have been exploring the country of my birth more than I ever have. This has helped me to bridge a chasm created by moving to Scotland for postgraduate education, and was sustained by my working in England thereafter. In too many ways, this website has its genesis in those early years spent finding my feet in the U.K. and with no roots in the place where I lived before then.

Places to Go

After a summer that took me around many places on the Emerald Isle, it is not before time that I extended the timeline back further. Thus, we reach a time with long summer holidays from school and university. They allowed for many family day trips around the Irish province of Munster.

Coastal destinations featured so much that I began to tire of them. Those in Clare, like Kilkee or Spanish Point, retained their appeal, possibly because we did not go to these so often. Anyway, cliff scenery offers more to the eye than beaches. Maybe, that is why Beale, Ballyheigue or Banna in Kerry were not a major draw for me. Ballybunion got visited too often for me, though I went back there once in 2023.

Historical interest pervaded too. A trip to Blarney Castle involved a steep descent made in the belief that we were going the wrong way. The one-way system has changed, so you ascend this way and go down what once was the way up. Lough Gur was another calling point, along with other places that lay outside the consciousness of most, like Springfield Castle, for instance.

Touring

Where there is ruggedness and a chance to stretch my legs, the appeal never wanes. That started off in those years, and got repurposed in Scotland and England before I headed into Wales and other places. Killarney was favoured then, as it is now. Gougane Barra was another, even if current public transport provision is insufficient for getting back there now. Other destinations included the Ballyhoura Mountains, the Glen of Aherlow and Mount Melleray Abbey.

Touring by car was favoured by my father more than self-powered travel. Lack of patience for walking was part of this, as much as the need to return home for evening farm work. Even so, there were some epics, like a 180-mile circuit from home that got us around the Ring of Beara on a day trip. Others include a round that took us through the Black Valley and the Gap of Dunloe. The Healy Pass was another favoured route on the Beara peninsula. The trouble with all this driving was that you scarcely got time for a lunch stop, let alone a break for stretching your legs. It often felt as if you were skimming the landscape; getting out on foot ensures a much deeper experience.

Local Explorations

At the time, it was cycling that did that for me. Over the course of the summer, this started with short circuits to build up fitness before lengthening them. The later times for sunset in Ireland allowed more time for those evening bike rides, especially in August. The earlier sunsets in September curtailed such escapades during my university years. The outcome was that I cycled through many of the local towns and villages at some stage. Roads in various states of repair were endured, and I paid numerous visits to an aunt, too. Dry weather was seen as best for all of these, though rainwear allowed for travel in the rain as well.

The first bike that took me out on these circuits was an elderly item without much braking power. That was resolved by my putting my feet on the ground, a habit that resulted in a somersault when a saddle broke under me. That mishap put paid to a visit to my aunt for that evening. The lack of braking efficiency possibly left a mark on my psyche that continues to this day, a lack of trust in bicycle brakes that causes me not to let go of the brakes when going downhill, hardly the best at times when there are other road users going their way.

Aside from borrowing a racing bicycle at times, the other bike used on these travels was a one acquired new at the end of the first summer. This had three speed gearing and much better brakes. Others probably preferred my having something safer to use. However, there was one other hazard that it did nothing to avoid: dogs at the hour of dusk. One nipped me while returning from my aunt’s, ensuring a visit to the family doctor for a tetanus booster. Wariness around dogs still remains with me.

Rupture and Restoration

Most of this was left after me when I moved to Scotland. It took until the last Christmas when we were all together for me to realise that. Other things occupied my life after that, yet there were occasions of reconnection. Ambiences stay with me, and one from six years ago is one of them. That was a week when I was staying at the old family home and savouring the long summer evenings at the time. The sense of calm of an evening while at the back of the house remains with me. In some ways, it may have taken my mind back to years before.

Two years ago, the inspiration for various explorations of the Irish countryside came from those years while living full-time in Ireland. Killarney and West Cork were among these. The Clare Glens between Newport and Murroe also covered ground from that time. The retracing of steps did nothing to stop me from going to Galway and Connemara (a 2018 outing), the Sheep’s Head peninsula, Cahir, Clonmel, Clogheen or Killaloe, new places for me. Still, the list of repeat visits lengthens: the Dingle peninsula, Mount Melleray Abbey, Cashel, Blarney, Cobh, Fota, Bunratty, Doneraile and the Ballyhoura Mountains.

Even with a list that suggests a constant going over of old ground, there are new experiences that change how things feel to me. That all adds up. The accumulation means that you start to take ownership of things in a way that you could not do before. These are not just places where your parents took you; they become yours, too.

One thing that has struck me repeatedly in recent months: there is also something about hearing music from another time that sends you back there. Even so, you now look at things with different eyes and understand them in different ways. The occasions can be prompted by something like the playlist during a hotel stay in Tralee or what is played on a radio station. Even looking up a tune on a streaming service has a similar effect, restoring old connections in the process. It helps if you encounter these in an environment that is not so far removed from the time to which you are being transported. The result can be a melding of time that closes gaps, and mends ruptures in this way.

The closing of gaps has been a recurring theme during the last few years, and it is something that continues. Nevertheless, there is much more to Ireland than all this. The acquisition of a new base to use may mean more visits and the spending of more time there. With that, explorations can go even deeper than they already have. The experience of exploring other parts of the world can be brought home.