Over our late breakfast in Killarney, we check the weather radar again. It has not improved since last night or this morning and is looking very grim. Gale force winds and lashing rain are forecast. Not the best combination to stay shiny side up. We definitely will have to skip the ring of Kerry and head north.

We have a friend in Miltown Malbay who is attending a week long music festival in her home town. There is no accommodation available there but we find one hotel with one last room in a village up the road. That will do. It is the Ritz at Lisdoonvarna. Someone with a sense of humour I think. Our route has been changing every day because of the weather so we were unable to organise anything with our friend in advance. She is busy tonight and tomorrow but can meet tomorrow evening. That means booking another night which turns out very interesting and answers some questions we have been asking ourselves ever since we arrived in Ireland: why are all the hotels booked out. With a sudden influx of 3,500 Ukrainian refugees in the county (there are over 84,000 Ukrainian refugees in Ireland as at early June 2023), hotels have turned into refugee accommodation. While good for hotels on the one hand as they have 100% occupancy, it means they and other businesses around are missing out of tourist money which is spent on food and drinks etc. Not too surprisingly, The Ritz is fully booked tomorrow and according to the usual websites I use, so is every other hotel in town and the area. The manager is very helpful, suggests 3 other places we could walk to and ask in Lisdoonvarna and says that if we find nothing to come back to her anyway and something will be sorted, not to worry. We did say we had a tent we could pitch beside the bikes at the back of the Ritz. That could be an option. The first hotel/bar is strangely deserted and we quickly disappear. The next one is fully booked too but we are told to wait while she double checks the booking system: she pulls out a massive white board from under the counter. She rings one number and leaves a message about a lovely couple looking for a room. She then calls another messages and gives the same story and embellishes it some more. It turns out this booking system has the names and numbers of a number of unofficial guest houses that can cater with hotel overflow. And we now have a huge room with private bathroom at this little old lady’s who used to have a guest house but now lets out rooms in her new home whenever the local hotels recommend someone. It’s nice to know we look trustworthy enough to be recommended to her. What a perfect arrangement.

Once again, we have a fine evening – our mornings so far in Ireland have always started wet and wild, and by late afternoon, the sun comes out. Time for a short walk around the village before dinner at the Ritz – it sounds good doesn’t it?! – which served up good simple tasty pub food. As we walked around Lisdoonvarna, the only language we heard on the street was Russian. Sitting outside one large hotel were three groups of women, of different generations, all talking in their native language. The small supermarket in the village was staffed with Ukrainians. People helping people….

I have circular route planned out for the next day – starting inland first as I do not fancy riding the Wild Atlantic Way in 110km/hr winds forecast that morning. First stop is the Burren Centre in Kilfenora, a very well presented museum that explains the UNESCO Geopark we are about to discover today. The Burren, an Irish word for “stony place”, is the largest expanse of limestone pavement in the world and measures 530 square kilometres! Within the Burren area, we visited Caherconnell Stone fort and Poulnabrone dolmen.

Caherconnell stone fort is a remarkably well preserved medieval stone ring fort, 42 metres in diameter and with walls of up to 3 meters in thickness and 3 meters high. This 1000 year old fort was inhabited up to the late 16th century. The craftsmanship of the walls is awe inspiring. Things were built to last back then.

Just up the road, is the Poulnabrone dolmen, an unusual neolithic dolmen portal tomb that was used as a burial site between 3,800 and 3,200 BC and is believed to have been used as a centre for ritual well into the Bronze age.

Ballyvaughan, a very picturesque little village, has a Saturday market on which we decide to stop at. What a treat to find a pancake stand who could make gluten free pancakes for Anthony.

We stop for a walk along Fanore Beach before getting to the spectacular Cliffs of Moher which rise 200 metres above the Atlantic Ocean: a truly breathtaking sight, especially as the skies cleared in the afternoon as per usual. The wind also died down this afternoon which made the ride along the Great Atlantic Way coast road very enjoyable.

Today is capped off with catching up with our friend at the Roadside Tavern for an evening of good company, good food and of course good music.

Patsy gives us some ideas of places to visit tomorrow as we head north towards Derry (as LondonDerry is known here) but it is the Matt Molloy’s pub music in Westport which settles our next destination.

– Anne