Ireland Day 4

Day 29 - Ireland - Day 4 (September 27)

Overcast and mist as we got up about 7:30 AM. Packed up and went down for breakfast then loaded the car and headed off for the Kylemore Abbey http://www.kylemoreabbey.com/ out on the West Coast . By 10:30 AM the mist had cleared up as we drove into the highlands on the way to Kylemore.

Lakes everywhere! Sheep everywhere! Even wandering along the road. At one point we pulled over to watch a sheep dog (border collie) and his master work a herd of sheep into a small paddock - really amazing to see it in real life.

We reached the Abbey about 10:50 AM. After getting our tickets we made the quarter mile walk and entered the front door of the residence. Only a portion of one wing is open to the public but once again, you could see the grandeur that people with money lived in. From there we walked down to the small church. The gothic architecture of this small building is simply stunning. Built in the late 1800’s, it’s like a small cathedral with marble columns, gothic arches and beautiful stained glass tracery windows.

From the church we walked back along the lake to the visitor center where we caught a shuttle bus for the one mile ride to the Walled Garden. We spent the better part of an hour just walking around admiring the formally laid out cutting garden with all the flowers and lawns then walked through the vegetable and fruit gardens where all the food crops are grown for the table. It is amazing how much of the gardens and greenhouses have been restored. Included in the gardens were the head Gardeners home and also the “Bothy” where the laborers ate and slept.

Returning to the car we embarked on our drive up the coast on the N59 Loop Road through numerous small towns and on into Westport. From Wesport we motored north to Newport ending up in Mallaranny headed for Srahnamanragh. Ooooopps! Went too far, we should have turned inland at Westport. Oh well, not to worry. We turned around and backtracked about fifteen miles to Newport where we picked up the R311 and went over the hills to Castle Bar. From there we caught the N5 for Charlestown then followed the N17 to Sligo before turning east on N16 towards Enniskillen and our B&B.

Unless you have ever experienced irish back country roads you can’t begin to imagine how narrow, twisty turney, uppy downy, with blind rises, sheep, fast driving locals coming at you like people with a death wish. Was it nerve wracking? A little!! But mostly it was a really long day of driving. We probably covered a total of 130 miles in a little over five hours of continuous focus. Fortunately once again we had a relatively nice day with heavy mist at ties but no rain.

Eventually we found our lodging went in and got our room, the immediate drove the five miles into Black Lion for a pub dinner, drove back and decided to call it a day. Wheeeww!!

To see all our photos go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski