• The National Museum of Ireland - Country Life is located in Turlough Park, near Castlebar, in County Mayo.

• The museum shows how the people of Ireland lived in the hundred years between the Great Famine and the end of the 1950s.

• Ruins of a round tower and church in Turlough as seen from the Country Life Museum. It is dated to the 11th or 12th century.

• Turlough Park House is located on the museum grounds. Built in 1865, it was designed by Thomas Newenham Deane and incorporates elements of the Gothic Revival style.

• Parlour of Turlough Park House

• Parlour of Turlough Park House

• Library of Turlough Park House

• The conservatory in the Country Life museum gardens

• This house is the result of a 2003 project that was done to demonstrate the use of traditional building materials (thatch, wattle, and lime) that were commonly used in country houses.

• Interior wattle construction

• Interior lime wall finish

• Hurleys and sliotars (hurling sticks and balls) old and new. Hurling is a uniquely Irish sport thousands of years old.

• Weaving is a traditional art in Ireland. Here, John Feeney, Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, twists plaited rope into the shape of a horse collar.

• A completed horse collar

• Straw armchair made c. 1848 by John Fortune, Gardamus, Mayglass, County Wexford

• Basket of rye straw and briar bark made c. 1900

• Straw Boys wishing to politely 'crash' a party

• The story of 'Straw Boys'

• Straw boy's hat made in 1903, County Kerry

• A straw home for a chicken, used to bring a chicken inside during the cold winter months

• A farmer would host a feast and dance to thank the people who participated in gathering his harvest. Guests wore harvest knots such as these. People sometimes exchanged these knots as tokens of affection.

• Harvest knot detail

• The Irish weaving tradition continues to evolve. Scoodoos are an example.

• A scoodoo in a garden

• This was our lunch stop. A 'sheebeen' would not typically have been advertised in this fashion, as they were places that surreptitiously served 'moonshine'.

• In Ireland, peat is cut, dried, and used as a home heating fuel. These stacks of peat portend a long, cold winter!

• A statue of St. Patrick holding a shamrock with Croagh Patrick in the backgorund. St. Patrick is said to have fasted on this mountain for the 40 days of Lent in the 5th century.

• Croagh Patrick is an important pilgrimage for many devout Catholics.

• A view of the countryside and bay from the location of the St. Patrick statue

• A photo of Croagh Patrick, from the Vagatron, in which the chapel at the top is visible

• A memorial to those who died in the Doolough Tragedy of 1849, during the Great Irish Famine

• A view of Doo Lough and surrounding mountains from the famine walk memorial

• A view from the famine walk memorial

• Kylemore Abbey, a Benedictine monastery founded in 1920 on the grounds of Kylemore Castle, in Connemara, County Galway

• Connemara National Park, County Galway

• Children at play in Connemara National Park

• A walk in Connemara National Park

• A walk in Connemara National Park

• Abbeyglen Castle Hotel, Clifden, County Galway, our lodging for the night

• Abbeyglen Castle Hotel

• Abbeyglen Castle Hotel

• Abbeyglen Castle Hotel

• A father and son own the Abbeyglen Castle Hotel. This is the father helping with our group's luggage.

• Rick, Rob, and Wes in the Vagatron

• Gina, Mary Lou, Jeanie, and Holly in the Vagatron

• John and Chris in the Vagatron

• Ferries to the Aran Islands depart from Rossaveel, on the north shore of Galway Bay. Seán would drive the Vagatron around Galway Bay, through Galway city, to Doolin on the south shore of Galway Bay to meet us at the end of the day. Rob and Kristinia decided to do the land sightseeing with Seán. The rest of us visited Inishmore.

• Our ferry to Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands and the location of Dún Aenghus, the cliff-top fort.

• The port in Kilronan on the north shore of Inishmore

• This is one of three popular ways to tour Inishmore. Jeanie rented a bicycle. The rest of us took a minivan tour.

• Our lunch stop on Inishmore

• In the coffee shop window

• Lunch: soup, Irish dark bread, a scone, and coffee

• The Dún Aenghus visitor center

• The path to Dún Aenghus, visible in the top center of this photo

• The widest high wall at the horizon is the second rampart. The higher wall just right of center is the first rampart.

• A ruin on the way to the main site

• Doug 'off' the trail

• A view to the east of the fortress

• Loosely dry-stacked stone walls made it easier to remove/replace sections to move animals to new pasture and made the walls more resistant to the strong winds that blow on the island.

• Much of the surface of Inishmore is stone rather than soil, making cultivation of edible plants difficult and grasses for grazing livestock limited.

• Viewing the first rampart from within the second rampart

• The first, innermost, rampart

• Where the first rampart meets the cliff

• Kathy, Chris, Mary Lou, Wes, Gina, and John, with the Dún Aenghus first rampart in the background

• Jeanie and Kathy at the entrance to the inner stone rampart at Dún Aenghus

• The entrance to the first rampart from the inside

• Kathy inside the main entrance

• The eastern leg of the first rampart as it reaches the cliff

• Don't think you can get around this gap!

• A view to the east of the fortress

• Stone walls separating limited pasture

• Pasture. sea, and cliff

• A view to the west from inside the innermost stone rampart

• The first rampart from between the first and second ramparts

• These buttresses were added in the 19th century

• A view to the west from inside the second stone rampart

• The upright stones in the foreground form a defensive barrier between the second and third ramparts.

• This view shows the upright stone defensive barrier between the second and third ramparts.

• A view to the north side of Inishmore from Dún Aenghus

• A view to the north side of Inishmore from Dún Aenghus

• A view east from between the first and second ramparts

• Clearly, the soil that exists would be difficult to till!

• A view along the cliff of the east end of the first rampart from between the first and second ramparts

• As close as we wanted to get for a foot shot

• Doug hanging on tight while photographing straight down the cliff wall between the first and second ramparts

• Looking straight down the 300 foot-high cliff

• At the cliff wall

• At the cliff wall

• At the cliff wall

• At the cliff wall

• Looking north at the path to the visitor center

• Returning to the minivan

• A cart with Oregon Duck colors

• Gift shops at the bottom of the path to Dún Aenghus

• A cafe at the bottom of the path to Dún Aenghus

• A group of young ladies bicycling the island

• Our minivan

• Apparently our driver and tour guide is a Boston Celtics fan.

• Called the Seven Churches, this collection of ruined chapels, monastic houses, and fragments of a high cross dates from the 8th to 11th centuries.

• Seven Churches

• Seven Churches

• Seven Churches

• Seven Churches

• A currach, a light weight fishing boat, next to a cottage that was featured in the movie 'Man of Aran'

• The 'Man of Aran' is a 1934 movie that portrays the difficulty of living on Inishmore. This cottage, featured in the movie, is now a Bed and Breakfast.

• Back to the port village of Kilronan

• The port of Kilronan

• Awaiting our ferry to Doolin

• No kidding, the ferry to Doolin is called the Happy Hooker, a reference to the Galway Hooker, a traditional Irish fishing boat used in Galway Bay. Sorry to say, the old lady has seen better days.

• En route to Doolin, we passed by Inisheer, the smallest of the three Aran Islands.

• From Doolin, it was a short drive to our lodging for the night, the Cliffs of Moher Hotel in Liscannor, County Clare.

• Jeanie, Kristinia, Rob, and Holly in Liscannor. Kristinia and Rob chose the seven day tour and would leave the group on this day.

• Mary Lou, Kristinia, and Rick in Liscannor

• Gina, Kristinia, and Wes in Liscannor

• The Cliffs of Moher

• The Cliffs of Moher are more than 200 meters (650 feet) high

• The Cliffs of Moher

• O'Brien's Tower at the Cliffs of Moher

• O'Brien's Tower at the Cliffs of Moher

• Moher flagstone is characterized by the fossil tracks of a marine worm

• The Cliffs of Moher

• The Cliffs of Moher

• The Cliffs of Moher

• The ferry that crosses the River Shannon between County Clare and County Kerry

• Boarding the ferry

• A coal-fired electric power plant in County Clare. The ship dock is for receiving coal that is shipped here from Brazil.

• Vagatron and Vagabonders aboard the ferry

• Kristinia, Rick, and Mary Lou enjoying the ferry ride