Coast of Kilkee
30 September 2018
Kilkee is a little town on the coast of County Clare that sits right at the top of the Loop Head peninsula. It seemed to be a beach resort town mostly, as it was cool now at the end of September; like the resort towns at the beaches back home, Kilkee was quiet without much going on. Still, the rocky coastline gave way to a nice sandy beach and the view was just incredible, so we stopped to explore!
“The Cliffs of Dooneen” was playing in my head as we parked by the seaside and made our way down to the beach. The narrator in the song describes standing on the cliffs (which are on the northern coast of Co. Kerry), and from his point he can see the coast of Clare up to the towns of Kilrush and Kilkee. We couldn’t see the cliffs from town, especially with the heavy overcast sky and light rain, but we would be able to see them further down Loop Head. Still, the idea of stopping in Kilkee after years of hearing the song was a bit exciting. That’s a great thing about Ireland, you can make a trail of places in all those amazing songs and go visit. We’ve already been to Athenry, the Hills of Connemara, Galway Bay, and so many other places made famous in those traditional songs!
We passed by the pier and carefully made our way across the rocks. The light rains and spray from the sea made things a bit slippery. The birds were swooping down and making a ruckus as we looked out over the cliffs toward George’s Head off to the north. The sea was rough today and waves crashed violently against the rocks. We stood along the shoreline and ended up a bit wet, and decided to make our way back across the slippery rocks to the pier.
This is probably a busy seaside resort in season, but it was a cold day in Kilkee today!
