Cliffs of Moher and Aran Islands

There was a really big thunderstorm during the night in Killaloe - there was thunder and lightning followed by torrential rain. It sounded to me as if there was water pouring through the ceiling somewhere but I had a look round the house and couldn’t see anything coming through. In the morning it was back to hot and sunny and at Cat;'s suggestion we decided to go to the cliffs of Moher, as a well known feature in the area. It was indeed well known, because it was quite busy, perhaps not surprisingly on a sunny Saturday. We parked in the large car park then walked up to the cliffs. They were worth the hour and a half drive from Killaloe - gorgeous big sandstone cliffs curving for miles around the edge of the sea. There’s an 18 km cliff walk but it was way to hot for that so instead we drove to nearby Doolin, a tiny hamlet, again very busy with visitors. After a quick lunch we were just in time to take a ferry out to the nearest (and smallest) of the three Aran Islands, Inisheeran. It was only about twenty minutes on the ferry, and we had a couple of hours before we needed to catch the last ferry back to the mainland. When we arrived on the island we were greeted by several horses and traps, with their operators offering to take us on carriage rides around the island. We opted to go on foot instead. There are a couple of wee shops selling the famous Aran jumpers, an old castle, a hotel, a pub, a café and a pretty beach. The sky was absolutely spectacular in a sinister and terrifying way, because while we had set off on the ferry in warm and sunny weather, a bank of storm clouds had quickly built up behind us. Behind them the sky was steely grey, and we could see lighting flashing in the cloud. Sure enough, after about an hour the storm reached us and the rain came crashing down. We nipped into the café and got ourselves some coffees; there was a feeling of camaraderie among the tourists, who had converged on this tiny island from all over the world. The rain had stopped by the time we got back to the boat, although the seats on the ferry were rather wet. 
Back in Killaloe we had dinner in the “Tuscany Bistro” an Italian restaurant which was just across the river in Ballina. It was absolutely excellent with great service. It had been a good day, and I would like to come back to County Clare because despite being on the go all day, we barely scratched the surface of all the things to see and do there.