Hilltop with a View

by Steve Templeton

Title

Hilltop with a View

Artist

Steve Templeton

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Photograph - Digital Photograph

Description

The Blasket Islands were definitely one of the most scenic parts of our trip to Ireland. From where I sat for this picture, I could almost see the previous generations of inhabitants tilling the soil and herding their sheep. We ate our lunch on the beach you see to the left, and were entertained by curious and friendly seals body surfing the gentle waves.

On the most western point of the Dingle Peninsula, Ireland and Europe, are The Blasket Islands.

People are recorded to have been living on the Blaskets in 1597 but the population ebbed and flowed. About 150 people lived there in 1840, but after the Great Famine that had decreased to 100. The population is said to have reached a peak of 176 in 1916. Sadly, the once vibrant Blasket Island community declined as a result of the persistent emigration of its young people, until eventually the Island was abandoned in 1953 when only 22 inhabitants remained.

My wife & I, along with her sister, took a week long vacation to Dingle Island, Ireland. This wasn't our ordinary trip, in that it was a " 2 boot walking tour." 2 boots is a way to describe the difficulty of the hiking. (2 boots is harder than 1 boot, but not as hard as 3 boots.) We hiked all over Dingle Island with day packs, and the tour guides would shuffle our luggage each day to a new B&B further down the trail. We dined sumptuously each night in a local restaurant, and there is more than one bar in Ireland to quench your thirst. Each successive day of the 5 day trip got a bit more difficult, as we walked further each day, and had a higher elevation gain each day as well. By day 5, several of our group had fallen out. It was a lovely country, filled with lovely people, and we'd love to return.

Uploaded

July 6th, 2022

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