After ending our retreat with a night in Dingle and another in Dublin, we traveled back to the west coast and stayed in a little cottage in Lisconner, County Clare. A beautiful cottage that used to be a residence, but also a place to gather and play music.

We are staying by the Cliffs of Moher. A five minute drive from our cottage. The cliffs are a famous backdrop for many movies including The Princess Bride and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Beautiful walk along the cliffs!

We are on the edge of The Burrens, a geopark in Ireland. It’s a karst landscape of bedrock incorporating a vast cracked pavement of glacial-era limestone, with cliffs and caves, fossils, rock formations and archaeological sites. Lots of things to explore, including The Burren Perfumery. It is a family owned perfumery where they originally created their fragrances from the herbs and flowers that were found in the Burren. Today the park is protected, so they do have to import their ingredients. The fragrances are light, floral and herbal. A nice change of pace and I purchased sample sizes to try out.

We also visited some archeology sites including The Cahercommaun Stone Circle which was built as a fortress when feuding baronies were in battle in the 7th and 8th centuries.

We then hiked into the Paulmabrone Dolman which is an ancient tomb with the first burial estimated at 4200BC- 2900BC.

Finally, we went chasing more vistas and sunsets and encountered lot of cows. I mean LOTS of cows. An they were quite aromatic and not in the perfumery kind of way! So instead of sheep, County Clare is known for their cows.

We kept seeing these signs all over Lisconner and wondered, “What does matchmaking have to do with donkeys?” Well the last living matchmaker in Ireland lives in Lisconner and I guess he also raises donkeys! We did not visit was we figured after spending 46 years together, we didn’t need matchmaking!