The cliffs of Moher, where birds conceal their vertigo
The landscape seen from the cliffs is one of the most beautiful examples of an abyss.
If we think that among the most important moments in life are those when we are absorbed in the admiration of a landscape, a visit to the Cliffs of Moher would well confirm that premise.
At 700 feet high at their tallest point, the Cliffs of Moher rise above the Atlantic Ocean to provide a nesting place for hundreds of thousands of birds, and to allow humans to see much further than the climate would normally allow them: in the distance are the hazy silhouettes of the Aran Islands, Galway Bay, the Twelve Pins mountains and the blurred horizon where the bards once sailed.
The walk stretches for five miles of green meadows that flow across the top of the cliffs. To the north, the O’Brien Tower, a Victorian fort that now lies in ruins, sumptuously crowns the highest part of the rocky point. If you do not suffer from vertigo, the best way (or the only way) to see the birds is to crawl to the precipice and lie on your stomach with your head hanging over the edge of the cliff. It is worth seeing and feeling the wind and the beating of thousands of wings over the Atlantic that breaks against the rocks below. But even without that experience, the visit is awe-inspiring.
The Cliffs of Moher have been designated an ecological park by UNESCO and as a protected bird area by the European Union. Without a doubt one of the most magical destinations in the planet’s North: one that reminds us just how small and vulnerable humankind is.
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