Since Easter 2004 we had been hoping one day to go to the exposed outpost of Tory Island in the far North West corner of Ireland. McBear had been doing of lot of study and hopefully this year we would succeed...
Thursday the 13th April we arrived at our base camp in Bunbeg, a small fishing village in a large Irish spoken area of County Donegal.
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Tory Island (or Oilean Thoraigh in Irish) is a fairly in-accessible place as it requires not only travelling by sea, but also that the weather allows you to go. We would be travelling with the little ferry Tormór. Roger had a chat with the captain and - surprise, surprise - he explained the captain how to maneuvre ferries around other Irish islands like the Skelligs and the Saltee Islands - not to mention Cape Clear and Dursey Island.
After a rough journey over the sea between sky-high waves we arrived Tory Island in sunshine and found our B & B, Teac Bhillie. The Landlady got very surprised as we stood on the door step.
- Never has the Tory Island experienced such a bear invasion!!! she announced.
Well, in fact there was a good few of us: McBear, Roger, Tom, The Pinbear Brothers, Erasmus, Edward, Lansdowne and Isabella.
Opening the door to our room, we got a big fright: A Seamonster had taken possession of our bed. Roger, as per usual, was prepared to punch the dragon, when it turned out that the monster was a toy animal working hard as a door draught excluder. This inspired McBear to ask if there was other TA's on Tory Island, and if so, McBear would be happy to help them set up a proposal for TAROT : Toy Animals Rights' of Oileann Thorraigh.
McBear wished to study and explore the island, and he and Roger went out to the western part of Tory Island. Here, a white light house had been erected back in the 18 hundreds.
McBear and Roger caught up with the rest of the group who had gone all the way out to the eastern part of Tory Island with all its amazing cliff sceneries.
The next morning it was time to prepare for the journey back to the mainland. But before that we had time to do some more study. On the island is built a roundtower which dates as far back as the 6 or 7 hundreds.
Also on Tory Island is an old cross which dates back to the 12 hundreds and is believed to have been inspired by Celtics visiting the Coptics in Egypt.
On our way south towards Dublin we had time to visit the famous beach at Naran (or Narin or Nairn). This place is a very popular summer resort.
We also found time to visit the spectacular Slieve League. These cliffs are said to be among the highest sea cliffs in Europe. It was very windy up there, and we had to cling to the fence.