I suspect we are drawn to areas unlike the ones where we live because the unfamiliar engages our senses, captures our attention, and excites the imagination. Kilkieran and the Connemara region of western County Galway felt isolated and inhospitable. Driving through parts of the Twelve Bens mountains, the sparse population was nonexistent. Many of our states have greater uninhabited expanses, but this IS unexpected Ireland.
In the midst of the Twelve Bens
Soon, this too will become more of the verdant Emerald Isle. Helen and I preferred its stark beauty of early May: winter with a hint of spring. Even within the few days of our stay, the green was beginning to take over.
Twelve Ben Mountains
Helen next to glacial erratics
"Glacial erratics are stones and rocks that were transported by a glacier, and then left behind after the glacier melted. Erratics can be carried for hundreds of kilometers, and can range in size from pebbles to large boulders. Scientists sometimes use erratics to help determine ancient glacier movement." https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/glaciers/gallery/erratics.html
