Saint Declan and his magic rock

On the 9th of April, our professors surprised us with a daytrip to the small coastal town of Ardmore. We were lucky to get a local to show us around and tell us all about the history of the town and what that history means to them. We took the local link bus to get there, which was a small county bus that had an interesting route there and back twisting through country roads so we could take in the scenes. Since Armore is in the gaeltech region, at some points as we approached ring (An Rinn) we saw signs only in Gaelige which was a culture shock even though I know I am in a different country. Now back to Ardmore, since that is where we went, we ended up doing the cliffwalk there as a thing to do. This was included in our tour as the Cliffwalk was at the beginning of Saint Declans well. Saint Declan was an earlier Saint than Saint Patrick in Ireland and so he is very prominent in Ardmore because that is where he supposedly landed in Ireland. Since he landed here, there is St. Declans rock and St. Declans Monastary. These were very interesting to see but the coolest of all was the 12th century round tower built by monks. It was still in tact and is only one of 12 in the nation according to our tour guide. While at the cliffwalk, our tour guide told us to sit there and listen to the nature. We listened to the waves crash on the rocks, the bees hum, and the birds chirp. This reminded me of the West coast of Ireland as it had similar beauty and so I thought the poem "Lovers on Aran" would relate to this, delving into its natural beauty and rocky coast. Seamus Heaney wrote this about the Aran islands obviously but it can apply to all the beauty of Ireland.