The Edge
This morning was filled with angst and excitement. I knew that in the next couple hours, I would have the opportunity to look over the edge of a 300+ foot cliff into the Atlantic Ocean. With this idea filling my head, the 45-minute bus ride followed by the 45-minute ferry didn’t seem too long. After a bit of seasickness and a quick drive to Dún Aonghasa, we were finally there. A couple of my classmates and I were very eager to be the first to peer off the cliff, so we started up immediately. The walk to the top of Dún Aonghasa is filled with views too beautiful to explain. Writing about the views can do them no justice; only to be seen will justify their true beauty. The walk took about 10 minutes and we were there.
Standing in front of us was a beautiful, ancient stone fort, which had been built by hand in the Iron Age. The fort was cool and all, but what really intrigued us was what was behind that wall. Walk forty feet into the forts opening and we see it, The Great Atlantic Ocean. We immediately throw our backpacks to the side and start for the cliff. We get ten feet to the edge and remember a promise that we made to Dr. Braye, so we lie prone and begin to army crawl out to the edge. In a couple of seconds we are at the cliffs edge and have the most beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean there is. To take in just how magnificent the view really was most took pictures. I closed my eyes and put my head on my hands as if to fall asleep at the edge. While lying there with my eyes closed, I thought about the billions of people on this earth, and the few who have been in the same position I was. I also thought about the people who built the fort some 2000 years ago who most likely stood in the same spot I was. After lying there for about 10 minutes, I realized that everyone else had made it to the top and were either at the edge or in the process of army crawling to the edge. I crawled back a couple of feet stood up and took in a deep breath. This is truly an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. I knew that if I didn’t take any pictures my grandparents would be upset so I snapped a few pictures, and after about a half an hour of exploring the grounds and the different views, it was back down the mountain into the tour bus.
The tour bus quickly took us to a place known as “The Seven Churches”. This site was at one point a monastery, however it is now in ruins. We explored the ruins, and walked around the graveyard. I touched a fallen doorway arch, which was cracked in half, and thought about the sculptor that created that arch however many years ago it was. I remembered the place from a trip I had taken with my family to the same place six years earlier. Then I was young, ignorant and didn’t realize how special this place really was.
Today was a good day. I experienced the things that I came to Ireland to experience and it made me feel amazing. A beautiful day like this one on the Aran Islands comes once every decade, and I could not be happier to have experienced what I did with the people I was with.
After a bus ride back to town, and a bit of shopping in the Aran Islands Sweater store, Ryan Lasnick, Paul Castro, and myself decided to make one more memory out of the day. The tide was noticeably low, and Paul asked if anyone wanted to join him in a “baptism” of sorts. A quick dip of the head in the water at the Aran Islands sounded like a great idea to me, and before I knew it my head was soaked and we were walking back to the road. A great experience with great people; I will truly remember this for the rest of my life.
Jack McCombe
