RunningWithBulls.com - The curse of Sanfermin

For the May Bank Holiday we went to Achill Island, off the north west coast of Mayo, with Mort and Zaira.

Originally we had intended on kiting and Mort wanted to go surfing. That all changed when we got there and saw the torrential rain that poured down for the weekend!

The weekend was realyl great. We had some really nice pints in the Mináun View Bar (Which someone thinks is a “dodgy IRA den“, and someone else thinks its one of the best pubs in Ireland). True there was some political statements made there, but at least they are open about it
We went to see the Deserted Village at the foot of Sliabh Mór.
The main explanation for this deserted village seems to be the remnance of a booleying, or transhumance farming, village. As explained on the Achill-Island Tourism website:

“Slievemore is the largest and most recently abandoned of several ‘booley’ settlements on Achill Island. The practice of booleying, or transhumance, was continued in Achill long after it was abandoned in other parts of Ireland and western Europe. It refers to the practice of living in different locations during the summer and winter periods, primarily to allow cattle to graze in summer pasture. The cottages at Slievemore were used as summer dwellings within living memory by families from the villages of Dooagh and Pollagh. However, the larger story of the Deserted Village at Slievemore is more complex than the abandonment of booleying.”

This village is dated to 18th Century, but there are indications that the foothills of the Sliabh Mór mountain was a settlement dating back to 3000BC.

The internationally renowned German writer and Nobel Prize winner, Heinrich Böll (who lived and wrote on Achill in the 1950s), recorded his impressions of the Deserted Village in his Irisches Tagebuch (Irish Journal), originally published in 1957.

We managed to get up Sliabh Mór fairly quickly, and decended before the rain arrived, once again.

We wanted to eat in the Achill Cliff House Hotel resturant, but they didn’t want us. Two days in a row, they told us they were full, and didn’t want us to come back. So, instead we went to Yes! It’s Calveys, where the black pudding and Achill Lamb cutlets were real tasty. It’s so good they patented it..Hmm not so sure about that.

On the way back we stopped into Westport. We had some really tasty pub food in Cosy Joe’s pub, which was voted Best Pub In Mayo 2000 by Black’s & White’s.

And now, back to the real life, and a real bed
[Posted with ecto]