"You can get a feeling in parts of the west of Ireland that you are the first man and first woman anywhere. You come upon places so remote and mystifying, so wind-lashed and sea tossed, so rocky, or so green they overwhelm your senses.  Nature fills the silence with the crash and foaming of the Atlantic waves, the shrill crying of seabirds, the flapping of different winds meeting amid the mountains.  It makes you aware of your littleness, quieting you in a way nothing else can."  

               --Niall Williams O Come Ye Back To Ireland (Pg217)

The picture is not upside down, it is how I took it. They were looking down at me as I was laying on soft moss, feeling the heat of the sun on my face, running the palms of my hands over the grass, thistle, and clover next to me, the way a mother does to a child's hair who is sleeping.  Steve and I were the only ones around for miles and miles and miles, the Lord had given us another beautiful day, and here I was laying in a field.  So I stretched my head back and took the picture.

Steve is becoming more like me, he was off with my digital recorder capturing the sound of the wind.

Steve and I talk about this afternoon often and it usually begins with "Remember our angel?"

See, during our trip I believe there were two very serendipitous events that could possibly have been angels.  One was when we were still staying in Galway and were trying to find the large cathedral that our host had told us about, there was free parking and we had spend well over an hour going around and around in circles trying to find.  They do not have normal streets there, they have large traffic circles (roundabouts).  You go around and eventually get spit out pointing in a different direction than when you started, you drive a block or two in that new direction and then find yourself in another roundabout and so it goes and so it goes.  We had found ourselves back in the same circles multiple times, finally in mild desperation Steve said with his hands up "I give up! I am following this farmer in front of us who has the horse trailer, he looks like he knows where he is going."  And that is just what he did, he followed every road, every turn the farmer took, like a wild adventurous stalker, for many blocks, and do you know, that farmer took us directly to the cathedral? 

I put a picture of the dolmen up above, it was about five feet tall and could hold maybe six adults sitting inside of it, I crawled in with my heart beating very fast.  The roof is completely covered in moss.  When we were finished and walking back to the car we walked just a bit to see the limestone on that side of the road and a car passed which was rare, it was a small country road and I don't think any other cars had passed. The driver stopped, rolled down his window and said "Don't just stay there.  If you walk a hundred meters up to the knoll you will see a spectacular view" we thanked him and he drove off.

And that, my friends is how we were handed one of the best views in all of Ireland

The last three pictures show it best, it was just green, green, green as far as the eyes could see in all the directions in front of us.  I put them in order of what we could see from our left to right.

There were other views similar but they were all at pulls offs on the side of busy roads and usually shared with other people.  This was all ours, we looked at every map and travel guides and it was listed no where, no tourist would know about it, but God had something for us to see

The most famous wedge tomb in Western Ireland is called the Poulnabrone, in 1968 when it was excavated they found approximately 27 people buried there.  Steve and I were surprised that it was less than eight feet high, all the photos  in the guide books make it look so large.  It honestly is so small in person.

"When you come upon one of these places you never want to leave; and yet you want to leave suddenly, to shout out, to share with the world the places that has become part of you." 

                                                                                       -- Niall Williams in his book O Come Ye Back to Ireland