Europe's Largest Pod of Wild Bottlenose Dolphins with the Niecephews!
For many years, I’d been regaling my nieces and nephews (‘the niecephews’) with stories from my travels, and tall tales about the wildlife I’ve been lucky enough to have encountered along the way. By far their favourite though are always the dolphins, who we regularly scan the seas for at home too. So it was, that I decided to take the niecephews to see the resident pod of bottlenose dolphins in the Shannon Estuary in West Clare. They LOVED it!
And their Auntie had a ball too - so many beautiful dolphins swimming in all directions around our boat.. including very small calves, not more than a day old. They were so young, you could still see the folds on their skin from where they had been curled up inside the mother. Very sweet.
And it was wonderful to see the children’s sheer joy at seeing the wild dolphins bowriding alongside the boat and leaping and jumping through the waves. They all agreed it was the absolute best way to see dolphins - they loved being out at sea on the boat and couldn’t get enough on the dolphins.
Kilkee Beach, West Clare
We had so much fun that I decided to do it all again two years later when a few of my younger niecephews were old enough to enjoy it. We were so lucky with a stunning September day and we combined the dolphin watching (which was awesome once again) with a dip in the Pollock Holes in Kilkee - one of Ireland’s most amazing natural seawater swimming rock pools.
And I’m very lucky to have a few more niecephews growing up fast, so expect so expect to be heading back to West Clare very soon!