While googling fun places to see in Ireland before the trip, I came upon the Marble Arch Caves - a
global Geopark very near to Castle Coole. As soon as I saw that the caves included guided tours and a boat trip on an underground river, I knew that the kids would love it.
After leaving the castle (
see prior post here), we headed out to meet up with some of our irish family. However, the castle exit very sneakily dropped us onto a road leading directly into Enniskillen (instead of where we entered) and we became...ummm...slightly confused. The GPS lady was having her own issues that day and dumped us unceremoniously in front of a garden centre in the middle of nowhere. After that, and consulting with the garden man on duty, we gave up on finding where we were SUPPOSED to be and headed for the caves.
It was beautiful just getting there - the caves are actually very high up in the hills above Enniskillen. We had to drive far up those slopes to reach the site - found in the middle of a vast landscape of peaks and valleys and marshes and crevasses...
The following are some photos of our hike down to the caves and then INSIDE. Very cool.
 |
| Working our way down the slope behind out guide. Groups of 20, and no one enters without a guide...sometimes the underground river is so high that no one can enter. |
 |
| Florence - she walked everywhere her family went! |
 |
| Travelling the underground river - low level lights are turned on as we approach and then turned off after we pass. |
 |
| My favourite cave formation - the thatched roof. I could imagine a full cottage made of stone there. |
 |
| The darkness of the caves made groups shots challenging - but here we are! |
It was a great finale to an action packed day.
2 comments:
Wow that is so very beautiful i have enjoyed getting to know Ireland. It is wonderful thatyou were able to share so much with family.
love this cave experience - what a find -- I agree the thatched cottage is a cool formation.
Post a Comment