An old Irish blessing, one perhaps you’ve heard, begins, “May the road rise up to meet you; may the wind always be at your back.” We let these lines guide us along our loose Irish itinerary.
At no time on our trek through Ireland did the road rise more than at Glengesh Pass.
Where I took that photo — a panorama, actually, on my iPhone — we’d gone only partway up. Click the photo to see it at full size.
Margaret had set our itinerary for the day and told me we would come upon this pass. But neither of us was prepared for the winding rural road into it, or how sweeping the view would be, or how compelled we would feel to stop to look.
Here’s a closer look at that hairpin curve. As I negotiated it, the road felt mighty narrow. I prayed I wouldn’t encounter a bus here; I’d encountered a couple on the way up to this point, and we barely squeaked by each other as we passed. But this car looks like it has plenty of room. Perhaps the road was widened at this curve, but not enough to allow a bus and a car to pass at the switchback’s tip. I watched a bus negotiate it, and it filled the space.
The pass is on a winding 15-mile road that connects Ardara to Glencolmcille, and peaks at about 900 feet above sea level.
Closer to that peak is a pulloff with this commanding view, back in the direction from which we’d come, down into Ardara.
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