Ireland - Clifden / Shannon

We left Clifden via the Sky Road, up into the hills overlooking the sea, then backtracked a bit to go see the Twelve Bens. They are twelve peaks in close proximity to each other. The tallest one is about 750m, so they are not huge, but they are the biggest ones around. You can hike them all in one day if you are keen (and fitter than me). We drove up a dodgy road to a tv/radio mast and got some great views.

Then we began another driving day. We headed down south of Galway and around the coast of County Clare. The scenery was great and we discovered something rarer than a four leaf clover; an Irish town with no pub! We tried to stop to keep the scenery:beer ratio in balance, but we couldn't find a pub in the town. I've erased the name of it from my memory and shall never speak of it again. We did stop for ice cream, which is a distant second.

Then we arrived in the town of Shannon (Insert Shannon joke here - there will be a prize if anyone comes up with one I haven't already used). Some family is having some sort of celebration in the pub attached to our hotel. There is a lot of mutton dressed as lamb. Dinner was good, but loud.