The Aran Islands are 3 islands that are located in the Atlantic Ocean off the western coast of Ireland. They are a little chunk of Ireland that was split away thousands (or millions) of years ago. Life on the islands existed in very primitive conditions until fairly recently. The islands are essential huge hunks of rock. They did not even have any soil on them originally. All the soil was made from seaweed. If you are interested in this kind of stuff, then by all means, watch the movie, "Man of Aran". I, personally, was not able to last longer than 15 minutes with the movie. My movie review: We fish all day. The weather is really bad. Boy, it sure is windy here. We live on a rock, and we don't have any dirt. Our life sure does suck doesn't it?

But, if you are just interested in seeing a few pictures, then you are in the right place.

Dun Aengus is a 3000 year old fort that was built on the edge of a 300+ foot cliff. It is a spectacular location. Here are a few pictures of it and the surrounding cliffs. Keep in mind that it was really, really, really windy out there, so I was risking my life to get some of these pictures for you -- especially the one where I'm looking over the edge at the ocean below!

Dun Aengus (the fort)
Aran Island Cliff 1
Aran Island Cliff 2
Aran Island Coast
Over the edge!

The Irish were pretty clever about defending the fort. This picture shows how they used their natural resources (ROCKS!!!) to build a defensive perimeter that made it difficult to even reach the fort.
Dun Aengus Defense (pointy rocks!)

Here is a picture of how they stacked the rocks to make walls for the structure. There are 3 separate walls in this picture.
Dun Aengus Walls

This is a picture of what the ground is like on the islands.
Aran Island Rocky Ground

And finally, this is a picture of the only real town on the island. It isn't very big, but the people were certainly nice and friendly. Oh, and the animals were friendly too. This picture is take across the bay from the town.
Aran Island Town

Overall, the islands are a very relaxing place to visit. But if I had to spend more than a couple days on them, I think I would just jump off the cliffs so that I would have something exciting to do! Definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Ireland though.