IF YOU’VE SEEN ONE IMAGE of the Aran Islands, it is likely to be an aerial shot of Inishmore’s Dun Aengus, semicircular stone walls that abut a 300-foot sheer cliff above the Atlantic. The initial walls of this ring fort — one of seven to be found on the islands — date back to 1100 B.C., and it is next to impossible not to gravitate to the site while on Inishmore. An visit at daybreak was rewarded by absolute solitude as the wind whistled over the stones. Early on during Synge’s first visit to Inishmore, he met a man who told him a story. A Sligo woman, it seems, had a dream that her blind son might be made to see if she traveled to a particular well out on the Aran Islands.

Source: New York Times September 10, 2018 09:00 UTC