Ireland day 1405. Sunday 03 August 2025- Doolin DWC Day 2

Today’s summary	Day 2 of our short stay in Doolin. After breakfast, drove inland to Lough Avalla to complete the loop walk ending up at Harry’s Farm for coffee and apple pie at the end. Tacked on a short loop walk round the nature trail before returning to Doolin. Back to O’Connor’s pub in Doolin for dinner in the evening. A wonderful day
Today’s weather	Dry and bright with sum sun until light rain started at the end of the afternoon. Light westerly breeze. Appx 18c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Lough Avalla and nature trail DWC

Commentary

If you are ever passing through County Clare, and if you have the slightest interest in natural history, you must visit Lough Avalla. A short term visitor – Harry – from, the Netherlands – came here several decades ago, and seemingly never left. He bought a farm, had a family, and created a life here. In his spare time – he is a very capable man(!) he built an 8km waymarked walk across the Burren limestone pavements and finishing up at his farmhouse, where he offers thirsty hikers a cup of tea and a piece of apple pie. There’s no fee for the refreshments – it’s all done on honesty and diners contribute whatever the feel is appropriate.

We had visited Harry’s establishment in May 2022 but when the opportunity came up to go again today, we jumped at it. First things first though – breakfast was had, washing up done, packed lunches made, and then we set off for the drive from Doolin to Lough Avalla. It’s about an hour.

There were plenty of other walkers about when we got to Lough Avalla, so we had to park some distance away from the actual start of the looped walk. But eventually, we were on our way just before noon.

It was, as last time, an absolutely excellent walk. Fascinating flora, glorious geology and spectacular scenery. The weather was good too – light cloud but enough ultraviolet to ensure pink-hued faces by the end. We paused halfway for lunch, and then completed the loop at a leisurely pace.

Eventually we pitched up at Harry’s farm, where we had the customary interview with the proprietor, before being served with our coffees and apple pie. Once refreshed, we walked on back to the road where the cars were parked, but rather than going straight back to our transport, we added on an extra nature trail loop walk, which gave us a few more paces to add to our daily total.

We finally made it back to the cars at about 6pm – a world record, probably, for the slowest (but possibly most enjoyable) completion of the Lough Avalla circuit. We made our separate ways back to Doolin afterwards – Val and I paused at the Burren visitor centre in Kilfenora but could only peer through the windows, as it was long past closing time.

The evening was spent as so many are in this part of the world – down at the pub. Tonight we were back at Gus O’Connor’s in Doolin for a good chat with a couple of pints of Murphy’s and a really nice steak sandwich. We pottered back to the cottage at about 11, hoping to get back before the predicted downpour struck later tonight (we made it and stayed dry, you will be pleased to know). A nice way to end another excellent day on the Burren.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Start of the Lough Avalla looped walk	Looking over to Mullaghmore – such a beautiful iconic hill. Must return and climb it one day!

The altar-stone: said to be a glacial erratic left behind when the ice retreated 15,000 years ago	Fearsome guard-dog

Harry’s hidey-hole in the woods	Heading out on the nature trail. We did the White loop

Lots of fun in Harry’s diner!