Waking up with the Atlantic Ocean on the doorstep is pretty awesome I can tell you 😊

It was so nice that we just sat there for a while looking at it. I was attempting to play my new whistle, but I am going to need practice 🙂

Once Mark got sick of my squeaky playing (he says he wasn’t but I wouldn’t blame him) we decided to go and visit a stone fort for which we had passed a sign 🙂 I have to say it was a pretty awesome!

It was a lot like a massive circular dry stone wall… I loved it!!

From their we made our way over to a place called abbey island, which, unsurprisingly had an abbey built in it. It was intriguing because it was only accessible at low tide 🙂

The abbey proved to be quite interesting, another one of the ones that escaped the dissolution but has since become a ruin but used as a burial ground right up until September this year!! The approach to the abbey and the setting was absolutely spectacular 😊

en route to the next abbey (it was that sort of day) we passed so absolutely spectacular views which conveniently came with their own viewpoint so it was only right that we stopped and took pictures 🙂

The next abbey was The Ballinskelligs abbey which was where the monks resettled once they had returned from the mainland after living on the remote Skellig Islands. It was very similar to the abbey island one, and I have to say I feel that the habit of burying people in the abbeys distracts from the abbey appeal for me. I can understand why they do it and understand why it is important for the local families so that is more important really.

The next part of the journey involved the most terrifying trip up a mountain ever! It was so steep there were moments when I didn’t think the van would make it…

We survived though and called into the Skellig museum which wasn’t quite as exciting as a trip to the Skellig Islands would have been… sadly though a recently broken ankle made the prospect of 640 steps up and then down again a little of a daunting prospect…that and actually getting a spot on the boat for a 10km boat trip out there was proving tricky..

we camped up for the night in a nice little site with lovey facilities on Valentia Island 🙂

I have to say, the hill doesn’t seem quite as terrifying in the pictures…

Categories: Van Adventures, Wild Atlantic WayTags: adventure, adventures, Campervan, campervan travels, exploring, Ireland, travel, travelling, vanagon, volkswagen, volkswagen camper, volkswagen van, VW, VW camper, Wild Atlantic Way