Today was a very long day, but we gained a lot of insight and visited a ton of historical landmarks and sites along the coast. We started off by driving a few hours to the Dark Hedges, which are these crazy looking trees that are seen in the backgrounds of the filming of Game of Thrones. Although none of us really watch Game of Thrones, we all thought it was a super cool place to see and enjoyed taking a walk in the natural habitat there after a bit of a car ride.
Over lunch at the Fullerton Arms, we talked a lot about what makes a place special. We came to a consensus that it depends on the persona and what they hold values in as to what they believe a special place is. Different people are interested in different things and therefore hold different meanings to things, people, and places.
We then drove a bit more down to Giant’s Causeway, which was a beautiful sight to see. We walked along the path to get down near the stones, which allowed us to climb and view the ocean from a beautiful height.
After Giant’s Causeway, we visited Derry/Londonderry and got to learn a bit about its history. A big show that is set in Derry is Derry Girls. This is a show that has been recommended to us over and over during this trip, and we might just have to watch an episode or a few! It was compelling to me to learn about the segregation of communities and how that has affected Derry’s community.
Our next stop was to Grianan of Aileach, which is a sort of stone fort. It is a circle of stones that you can walk into and up onto. Things such as rituals and gatherings have been held here, but what I found interesting was that not very many tourists stop there. Brandon explained how, usually, if you head up there, you are either one of the only or one of only a few people there.
Finally, we arrived in Donegal and headed to our hotel! We had dinner at the restaurant, which was very good, and then we attended the country line dancing that was being held in the suite room. We were definitely not the best ones out there, but we had a lot of fun!
Visiting these sites today gave us a ton of insight on the community in Ireland and what the dynamic here is like, which will be especially helpful for our consulting project in Carrigart over the next week. We can’t wait to apply all of the knowledge and context we have consumer over the past few weeks!