A Day Off in Ardmore

June 6, 2025

This is a cool little part of the world and we are glad we are here. We got to bed early and slept well, due to the long day on the bike, and we can see a stellar view of Ardmore Bay from the bed. We didn't dawdle too much even though its a quiet day because the weather prediction was that it was going to rain by 1 pm.

So, contrary to my usual instincts, I prodded Dave to start the day early and we were downstairs for our fancy breakfast by 8:30. That is an even more impressive feat when you realize that our room had three - I said three - tubs. One in the bathroom and two on the outside deck - so you can enjoy the view of Ardmore Bay together while bathing!

But we deferred extensive tub usage that morning to enjoy a superior breakfast. It was served in courses. First there was a fruit and coffee/tea course. Then a triple tray of croissants, scones, and soda bread for the second course, and finally an ordered hot meal. Dave had salmon on eggs and toast and I had a smoked kipper (a fish with a ton of little bones that you eat with the fish). As I say: When in Rome.

We were out the door by 10 am for the day’s planned activity, which was the four km famous Ardmore Cliff Walk. This walk is a loop around the cliffs, through some fields, and and then to the town of Ardmore and it is laced with small historical sites described well by the Ardmore tourism authorities and by the Cliff House Hotel in its handy map. I say all this somewhat ironically but it is an excellent walk and we learned a lot about this small corner of the world.

The short story is that the Ardmore Cliff Walk incorporates the legendary final walk of St. Declan in the fifth century. St. Declan was a priest sent by Pope Celestine to Ireland to Christianize those awful pagans in Ireland. He supposedly came over, started his walk in Cashel and ended up in Ardmore. We saw the alleged location of his well and his Oratory (small chapel). Although St Patrick is generally given credit for beginning the Christianization effort in Ireland, St. Declan supposedly came earlier in the Fifth Century. There are a number of additional dubious legendary tales associated with his visit. For example, Declan’s trusty bell supposedly crossed the sea from Rome on a rock after his servant forget to pack it (really? - blaming the servant?) and it landed on the beach here at Ardmore, where we saw the rock - but not the bell.

The apocryphal rock of St. Declan, but no bell.

The view from inside a WWII observation post, not from St. Declan’s era!

The cathedral was built in the 12th century and the round tower was a repository for religious relics as well as serving as a place of refuge for the ecclesiastics.

I find the story of Declan highly unlikely as when I read about St. Declan on Google (that reliable source) the first discussions of him and his exploits came in the 12th Century - call me crazy but I am doubtful somebody 700 years later can speak reliably about events in the fifth century!

In any event, besides the St. Declan associations, the walk included a lookout post from WW 1 and WW2 and a ship wreck and some medieval buildings and was just generally interesting.

This is the wreck of the Samson, circa. 1987

We met Kevan and Jenny, two lovely Brits from Sheffield, England who were car touring in Ireland. They had been to the US over 30 times and particularly loved the Southwest, saying there was no place like the Grand Canyon and the other Parks there. They had visited Crater Lake in Oregon and had even been to Bend. But, Kevan said they will not go back to the US - for all the recent usual reasons.

Kevan and Jenny, definitely impressive world-travelers.

Afterwards we ate lunch in the restaurant (very satisfying Caesar salad and seafood chowder, the chowder being recommended by Jim and Diana from their lunch at the Cliff House a few days before). By then the rain was falling so we were happy we did the walk early on. We had hoped to use the fitness area but Dave’s report on it was that it was tiny and there was no room for a yoga mat. They have a great spa if you are into that sort of thing. We wound up doing a bit of a work out in our room as it was certainly big enough with lots of floor space.

Plenty of room in which to do our workouts.

After a lazy afternoon we had another pretty spectacular dinner in the Oceanfront Grill. It was much busier on a Friday night - the restaurant was full. We met Maximilian, this little critter who vidits the restaurant so much he has been named by the staff!

We have now powered through seven of the eight episodes of Dept. Q. The good news: The Criterium Dauphiné starts tomorrow so hopefully that will keep us diverted, as if riding in the Irish countryside isn't enough.

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