What a beautiful day it was with a bit of sun and not a drop of rain. We caught up with the Atlantic Way again, which we had driven along on our individual trip. It is 2600 kilometres long and is not always alongside the Atlantic, but the closest road to it. A fabulous road and part of the reason Ireland is now so popular.
Our first stop was the churchyard where Yeats is buried. What a beautiful, typical rustic cottage just outside!
The grave is well visited, though I do wonder how many had heard of W.B.Yeats.
We learnt a little more about the Celtic crosses, in that as the people of the time could not read, there were stories portrayed on the crosses. We had also learnt that shops were different colours, the colour indicating what was sold there. Even residential buildings had different coloured doors so the people did not need to know their numbers. Simple but very efficient and great for us to enjoy years later!
Shortly afterwards we stopped at a gorgeous long, sandy beach, Shandhill Beach. The menacing dark clouds interspersed with rays of sunshine were quite dramatic. It was stunning and it was super to have time to wander along the beach appreciating this lovely area.
It was a day full of really different locations, the next being the magnificent Carrowmoor Megalithic cemetery with spectacular views over the surrounding hills. A week earlier and all the fields would have been a mass of wild flowers. If you look closely at the top of the hill in the distance , Knocknarea ( what a brilliant name) , you can see a large cairn, Maeve's Cairn, , about 10 metres tall, probably a burial chamber, but actually it is one of the only mounds not to have been excavated, so we will never know. There are lots of wonderful tales about the area and we had a great guide, who evidently loved her job and made the tour super interesting.
On the left side is the other burial mound, this one more recently restored, fully excavated and only about 5 metres tall. The ruin was only excavated 20 years ago and the cairn was restored to what they thought was the original height.
Inside it was a passage tomb, thought to be 5600 years old. How remarkable! Apparently on two occasions during the year, in late February and early October, the end and start of winter, the rising sun should shine through the front of the tomb, lighting up the entire tomb. Sadly, as the sun does not appear much in Ireland 😀, the guide had only seen this on two occasions in the past ten years! One year apparently the sky was cloudless except for one cloud, covering the sun!
One of the many highlights of these days was the vast estate of Kylemore Abbey built by Mitchell Henry in the mid nineteenth century as a gift for his wife. Quite some gift!
Sadly, she , Margaret Henry died very young and the home is now home to the Nuns of the Benedictine Order . He went bankrupt, unsurprisingly!
The park with extensive views of the Maumturk mountains is simply idyllic and would be a wonderful place to spend the entire day. We had two hours, so I went at a gallop rather than a leisurely stroll. There was so much to see, and certainly not to be missed were, in my opinion, the Victorian Walled Gardens. Wow, how amazing to have vegetable and fruit gardens like that!
It must be marvelous to work in such an environment with such breathtaking views. Though I think you would need a substantial team of willing helpers.
Back on the road, it was fanulous to be at the front of the bus and able to enjoy the ever- changing lights and colours of the mountains.
We had a very late lunch stop, but it was very memorable. The little town, Ballin, is famous for its salmon. We had the most delicious, and massive platter imagineable with both poached and smoked salmon, tuna, king prawns and mussels with salad. Absolutely mouthwateringly good! Then we went out to watch the fisherman fishing, in the centre of town.
I was even able to reminisce a little as we passed a sweetshop with its wonderfully colourful containers of sweets. I haven't seen a shop like this for decades!
As if we hadn't seen enough already, we then headed out to Achill Island, actually more a peninsula than an island. It was stunningly beautiful with 'free-range' sheep and lambs wandering across the road and grazing at the roadside.
It was an area very badly affected by the potato famine in the 1840s so there are a lot of the old ruins of farmers' cottages. The stone walls could date back 4000 years or more when the majority of the farmers were cattle and sheep farmers.
Here one of the typical, so- called famine houses.
Our final stop was Westport, where we stayed two nights in a fantastic bed and breakfast. Westport is a pretty little 18 th century town with very colourful houses and , as always, loads of pubs.
As I walked into town I was amused by the dozens of birds gathering on the roof. They were making an incredible noise, presumably chatting about their day! Suddenly they all took off, swooped around above me and disappeared into the vegetation at the side of the hotel. Absolute silence reigned! Bedtime obviously!
Not for me though! I headed to a local pub and had a great evening listening to this couple singing lots of old favourites. Great atmosphere as we all sang along with them. I will really miss these lively, friendly musical evenings.
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