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KILKEE |
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KILKEE , over on the Atlantic coast and eight miles northwest of
Kilrush, is a small, busy, seaside holiday town with all the amenities
you'd expect: cheap cafés, restaurants, amusements and nightlife.
Popular with the bucket-and-spade brigade, the town comes as a healthy
piece of normality if the offbeat romanticism of the west coast has
become too much. The westerly tip of the town's magnificent golden beach,
set in dramatic cliff scenery, meets an apron of laminated rock strata
known as the Duggerna Rocks, which protects it from the ravages of the
Atlantic. Here, when the tide is out, deep, clear pollock holes form,
filled with colourful marine life.
The area is a favourite for scuba diving and snorkelling, but even
without equipment, exploration is rewarding. There are exhilarating
walks for miles along the cliffs both to the north and, more
spectacularly, to the south round Loop Head , where you can walk for
sixteen miles along the cliff's edge past stack rocks, puffing holes (where
the sea spouts up through crevices in the rock) and the natural Bridges
of Ross. The other good way to see this peninsula is by bike ; you can
rent them from Williams', Circular Rd (tel 065/905 6041; £7/¬8.89 per
day).
In the little church at MONEEN , near Kilbaha at the tip of the
peninsula, you'll find a nineteenth-century curiosity known as The
Little Arc . In penal times, Catholics were forced to be both ingenious
and secret in the practice of their faith. Here they were not allowed to
worship on land, and so built a little hut on wheels which was kept on
the beach and wheeled down below the high-water mark between tides,
beyond the legal grasp of the local Protestant landowner. The priest
would then say Mass in it while the congregation knelt around it on the
beach. A couple of pubs at the tiny village of Cross are handy for
breaking your explorations of Loop Head, but better by far is the
unspoilt fishing village of CARRIGAHOLT , which has a slither of beach
beside the quays, a ruined castle overlooking the harbour and some very
welcoming pubs: The Long Dock , for example, does good pub food and has
music several nights a week in summer. Carrigaholt is also an excellent
place to see Ireland's only known resident group of bottlenose dolphins
- they're sometimes visible from the shore, but the best way is to take
a boat trip with Dolphin Watch (tel 065/905 8156; 2hr boat trip; advance
booking essential; £10/¬12.70).
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