An old man came by kayak to collected dulse, the seaweed strewn on the shore, and watching him, I spied the carcass of a minke whale beached by a far cliff.
Connemara ponies are bred on the grounds, and the sea cliffs at Slieve League, some of the highest in Europe (and three times higher than the far more visited Cliffs of Moher), are just half an hour or so away by car.
When we got there, people were talking about a rogue wave that had dashed three surfers into the cliffs at the far end of the beach the day before, killing them.
Back on that July 5th morning I made my way down to the encampment at the base of the cliffs at the far end of the beach.
Down on the beach, far below the cliffs, the miniatures are all lined up on their backs in the sand, as though taking sunbaths, even though they're dead.
In Response to "Fiscal Cliff Ahead: Cue the Extremists" On what meat does the Far Right feed?
It said the coast path at the top of the cliff was far enough away not to be affected and it was installing temporary warning signs.
And his late poems, from "The Waking" through the posthumous "The Far Field" (1964), are crowded with limp, quasi-mystical abstractions: "I learned not to fear infinity, / The far field, the windy cliffs of forever, / The dying of time in the white light of tomorrow".
"It's been over with me, as far as Cliff's concerned, since I talked with him," Valentine said.
