The Mullet

Yesterday was one of those million-photograph days that happen all the time in Ireland. Not to worry: I'll only post a few of them here.

We spent the day on the Belmullet peninsula. The Mullet is one of the more remote parts of The West and is the only part of County Mayo to which I've never been. (On this map, it's the elephant's trunk dipping down from the top right) It's about a 75-90 minute drive from Westport. Other parts of the country offer more dramatic vistas, but seldom will you see such Caribbean-blue water.

The Mullet features a number of pieces on Tir Saile, the North Mayo Sculpture Trail. We stopped at Deirble's Twist, "a sculpture based on the local legend associated with St. Dervilla. Made by raising the existing granite boulders on site and placing them in an ascending spiral."

One guidebook described this part of The Mullet as "denuded" by a millenia of assaults winds and sea. Let me tell you, I grew up in South Texas and I've driven across West Texas, and I know from "denuded." This was plenty rocky, all right, but there was no shortage of flora, either. I even filmed this single blade of bog cotton:

Later, we came across this holy well:


Road and sea:




THIS JUST IN!!! While the Germans rearmed in 1934, the French tried to purge the comma. Now they have the semicolon in their sights.