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Although there's some truth behind the attitude that does down Inishmore ( Inis Mor , "Big Island") as the most tourist-oriented and least "authentic" of the Aran Islands, its wealth of dramatic ancient sites overrides such considerations. Increased numbers of minibuses and bicycles can make the main road west along the island pretty hectic in high season, and it's worth taking the low road along the north shore if you want to escape the crowds. It's a long strip of an island, a great tilted plateau of limestone, with a scattering of villages along the sheltered northerly coast. The land slants up to the southern edge, where tremendous cliffs rip along the entire length of the island. Walking anywhere on this high southern side, you can see the geological affinity with the Burren of County Clare , and visualize the time when these islands were part of a barrier enclosing what is now Galway Bay. As far as the eye can see is a tremendous patterning of stone, some of it the bare formation of the land (the pavementing of grey rock split in bold parallel grooves), some the form of dry-stone walls that might be contemporary, or might be pre-Christian. The textures blur so that it's impossible to make sense of planes and distances, the only certainties being the stark outline of the cliffs' edges and the constant pounding of the waves below. Across the water the Connemara mountains stand in contrast, coloured pink and golden and slatey blue in the evening sun. Up the bay is Galway, now an insignificant speck, and around to the southeast, appearing as just a silvery ridge, are the Cliffs of Moher.
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