Ireland, Haunted castles to stay at in west

Thank you valpal 59.
Iwas all set to post more pics when the camera batteries died, I left the replacements at home. Will do more pics tomorrow.

On with the tale. Back on the road again.

We were about 3 km south of Maam Cross and the junction of r336 and N59. Pulled into petrol station at junction and Lynn had an ice cream cone. Big tow truck with a big box truck hooked up, about a 22 foot box sitting there all muddy.. We continued north on r336 passing some incredible views of valleys and mountains, bogs and sheep, the valleys of green sometimes were in such sharp contrast to the pinkish gray of the mountains, you'd see these rock walls go straight up these steep slopes and marvel at the labor involved.
We past Lough Naugh and a beautiful yellow hotel across from the shoreline, can't remember its name and I failed to write it down, in the lake you see one of those stone circle tiny island forts, I forgot their name, starts with a "c".
Continue on and all of a sudden you start to see huge amounts of bog black soil on the road, so much so you have to drive around some of the clumps they are so big. Dang if another dump truck doesn't nearly push us off the road and AGAIN, a baby sheep nearly gets clipped by me this time. This r336 and me are not too fond of each other. Alittle further north you can see where a truck drove off the road and was pulled out of the bog mess. Now we connect the tow truck and its companion at the station, they were the ones that made the mess. Continue on to Leenaum and turn left on N59 to check out Kylemore Abbey. You drive across a causeway on the inlet were you look to your right and you see the Abbey about a 1/4 mile at the end of this lough. We pull over, take pics, nice Czech family and us swap taking pictures of each other, very pretty views. Crazy drivers nearly clip one of the Czechs as they fly by , onward to Letterfrack, we'll stop at Abbey tomorrow, around 6:30 we found a B&B, The CornerStone, just past Letterfrack, Crocnaraw Moyard, very friendly greeting from Eithna Horan, our host. www.connemarabnb.com. Now from this place and our view was beautiful .You can see the Connemara Mountains across Ballinakill Bay and with the binoculars you can just see Kylemore Abbey to your far right. We drop off our luggage and head off to find a pub to eat at.
TBC

I like pub food.
We stop at Pub Wedford and the first thing we do is make eye contact with this guy at the bar, we walk up and he introduces himself, John, and offers to buy os a pint. I accept and 3 pints of Guiness show up, Lynn patiently waits for the head to settle. Now John turns out to be a classic from the picture movies and books Irishman. We talk about this and that and before you know it he's singing songs about his lost love and how cruel the English have been to the Irish. We toast all kinds of things and folks. He's a sheepman, family goes back 800 years that he can tell you everyone of the family. A bachelor, was turned down by his one and only true love at 16 years old and still laments his unrequited love. I thought he was about in his late 50's early 60's, he was 50 years old. Another round, Lynn declines, getting hungry, we sit down now at a table and John conts. at the bar, other locals sit and talk with him. I see he is almost empty and buy another round, we eat and then go sit at the bar for one more, I buy, we all toast, Lynns tired, about 9:45, still daylight. We all say our goodbyes.
Back at the The Cornerstone, we hear the donkey braying and I comment to Eithna and she laughs and says" Like we call it around here at 5 in the morning"BLOODY DONKEY" ", too funny. The yard is immaculate, flowered and landscaped, the room is perfect and the views are spectacular. Turns out this B&B was last years runner up as best b&B in in Co.Galway. It deserves to win.
Next morn roll over early and see this beautiful sunrise happening, get up , grab camera and take some pics, go back to bed.
Breakfast at 9, scrambled eggs, stewed tomatoe, bacon, toast, cereal, served by daughter, very nice and friendlyacross the board.
Quick note, travelling with Lynn is like being accompanied by a tornado! Mind you at home she is pretty darn neat, but get her on the road and I swear , every morning she had stuff covering every square inch of free flat space! She says its because she is so neat at home she is entitled to her messiness on the road. OK, no more on her travel habits.
Morn is beautiful, sunny, slight overcast, puffy clouds, breezy, nice. We say our goodbyes, bloody donkey says his, we head off to Kylemore Abbey, OK, Kylemore is beautiful, nuns here and there, schoolgirls sunny themselves on the little beach area on the lough. It really is as pretty as the postcards.
Kylemore Abbey was built as a home originally and now serves as an Abbey to the Benedictine Nuns. www.kylemoreabbey.com
On to Lennane and the fabled r336.
tbc

Fred, I didn't know you were going to the Abbey. If I had known, I would have told you to ask any of the nuns to show you where my first cousin, once removed, was buried. Ellen Greaney, aka, Sister Teresa, is buried up on the hill behind the Abbey. A picture of her is below with her two older brothers.


The petrol station at the Maam Cross was closed and empty last April. Just the tourist trap restaurand next door to it was open.




Attached Image. (Click thumbnail to expand)

Just was looking at your new posted pictures and I knew you couldn't resist seeing how close you could get to the edge, up on the cliffs.

Nice going, Fred!!

The crash really killed this thread. I was really enjoying Fred's stories of his vacation. It brought back so many memories for me, since I have covered most of the same territory.


It doesn't look like the lost posts will be returned. Maybe we can cut and paste from the reply menu and rebuild the thread. We might miss a few posts but it will begin to make sense again.

OK, it looks like this thread is back to normal.


BRING IT ON FRED!!!!

A Shrule Egan,
We didn't know we were going to the abbey either!! We really went with an open agenda. We had booked the first nite, 3rd nite and 5th nite. In between we just kinda headed in the general direction of the next nites stay. After the 5th nite we had no plans. I seems no matter were you go there is something beautiful and interesting to see. We didn't cover all that much geography but were thoroughly entertained and enjoyed the wonderment of it all. We have spoken with folks that land in Dublin, drive to Belfast, drive to Westport, over to Galway, down to Limerick and pot shoot the country that away, not my style. I liked LOA suggestion of less formality in travel makes for a much more stress free vacation.

Well at Kylemore Abbey I may very well have said her name outloud, as I like to say the deceaseds' names outloud. I mentioned once before in another topic how I wonder when it was their name was last spoken outloud in this world. I read many of the names at their tombs.

The picture did not show up??!!

We had ice cream from the station and I filled up there, at Maam Cross. We did see the restaurant next door and everything about it shouted "stay away" to us!!

USN

It's funny, no matter how hard I tried my brain made a mental fenceline it would not let me cross!! I did get pretty close but there was this young woman , say 20 years old that actually climbed down to this little cliff area and was sitting there reading in the sun!!! She was down about 6 feet below the main floorline of the cliff wall near the fenceline in Dun Aenghus, Crazy!!
You are right, if you go down off these cliffs, its gonna be awhile before they recover you, thats for sure!! Regardless, Spectacular views!!

I tried to postb the pics of the area we had the flat in but I left the camera in high pixel mode and they are too big to post, sorry.

Now............ We head south again from Leenaun on the fabled R336, figure we'll head back to Galway to find a big city bank and get more cash and try and trade in these 100usd bills nobody wants. Drive down again on r336 and somehow I miss the turn for 336 and continue on 345 onto the east side of Lough Corrib. Wait aminute there shouldn't be water to our right , it should be on left. My trusty navigator simple shrugs and says its pretty, If I recall Keanes Pub was on this route. Well we almost go to Cong before I decide to turn around. I figure we'll head back up this way after we hit Galway. So I turn around and sure enough there is the 90 degree turn for r336. Ok back on track. Stop at our petrol station in Maam Cross, get ice cream and turn left to head on N59 back to Galway. Drive down to the lake on some really back roads and pop out in Oughterard. Really a fun drive today, great sites and now we decide lets spend the nite here. So we stop at a B&B but she is full and recommends the Waterfall Lodge, ok, we go there and Lynn goes in, comes out with this big old smile on her face and says we stay here! Kathleen, our hostess, welcomes us and shows me the room, now I know why Lynn was so happy, beautiful! Antique furniture, big four poster bed, huge room, wide floorboards, settees, chairs, armoire and an incredible view out the window to the side and backyards, You can hear and see the river and waterfalls and the flowers, lilies, wisteria, firebushes all in full bloom. Lynn unpacks, or should I say explodes her luggage in the room, I go down and have a cup of tea in the sitting parlor, gorgeous, comfortable and read alittle of my book. 2 ladies walk in and start telling me how they love this and that and how wonderful I am. Of course I then look at them quizzically and they realise I am not the homeowner, They are Carol and Veronique, an American and a Polish national living in France, travelling together, met like penpals and now they travel all over together. Funny couple, very gregarious and like an old married couple. Nice, meet some folks from Wisconsin and Minnesota. 6:30 Lynn is hungry and off to town we go for dinner. Find a pub, drink Guiness, have traditional lamb stew, another Guiness, now, this is the only time we saw rain, people started to come in soaking wet. By the time we got up and left it stopped raining and was just cloudy. Back to B&B, I read til 10:30 in parlor, Lynn continues to unpack, oops, I said I wouldn't say anymore about her unpacking, my bad.
To bed, slept great, waterfalls is so soothing, best nite sleep. Next morn, breakfast, talk with carol and Veronique and couples from mid west,
TBC

Figured I could come home every day and find a new adventure written by USN or some new pictures and nothing!! I'm so depresssed.

Sorry, DSL has been down since yesterday early afternonn, still down. Am at home on son's and he is kicking up a storm, big baby.
USN

Now we finish breakfast at the Waterfall Lodge and say our goodbyes to all and head into town to find a bank. Oughterard is a very nice little town on N59 about 15 miles north of Galway. We ask about for the bank and walk down to it. Oh well they won't take $100 bills either. So I settle in to using the atm and get me a bunch of euros, no problem now. So first thing Lynn wants to do is hit up this little gift shop she saw. We walk up to it, go in and start perusing about, when this older fella says " Clinton won the primaries" , well that catches my attention and I turn around and think "What" and he continues on with the 2 ladies in the store about Hillary being on the front cover of Time magazine , so she must be going to win the Democratic primaries. Now then this is when I am really drawn into this conversation when the youngest of the 2 women, say she is about 22 years old, comments back that" They put Hitler on the cover of Time in '36 and he didn't win". I'm like , were are these people from, they know more about our politics and things from the past then most people 3 times this young ladies age.
Now I jump in and say "Who says Hillary won and we start alittle discussion on politics. They are amazingly informed on American presidentila politics and follow it very closely. Well, Lynn buys a couple of little things, the ladies tell the old guy he's full of it and we all step out on to the sidewalk. The guy introduses himself and we to him. His name is George McLauglin, is a retired American ex-pat and has lived in Ireland since 84. We continue to talk about American politics and he invites us to his home done the road a piece, can't miss it, look for Killarneys and the old cottage, next to the old gate posts and turn left there. Those were the directions he gave us. he was still on his way to visit people at the old folks home because he said that was his job now, he brings cookies and keeps old folks company for about a couple of hours every day. he tells us to come on down in about an hour or so. In the mean time, he likes to play trivia with me , constantly asking me questions about this that and the other thing, from American history to Irish history and all kinds of things in between, astronomy, horse racing, you name it and he is quite surprised that for a bunch of questions I knew the answers, not to toot my own horn, well one I could not remember was the persons who ran against Hillary for the NY senate, I just could not remember, George laughed and said for me to look it up.
Now he goes off and we figure lets kill the hour in town. We find the local tourist center and go in and lo and behold they have internet access, so for 1 euro you get 20 minutes , Lynn emails home and family and friends then I google who ran against Hillary on the Republican side. I got the answer now. Oh yea, so while we are in there we ask the lady if she knows were Killarneys is next to the old cottage by the old gate posts, and she says, o" Oh, ya goen to see George?", Well it turns out everyone knows George, she gives us alittle more info on finding Killarneys and the cottage and the old gate posts are the original entrance to the estate lands were George lives.
WE drive south a bit and find the old gate posts and turn in, pass abunch of houses and road turns to dirt, then we see this guy walking and ask him if he knows were George lives, he smiles and points down the road and says keep going til you see the gates and drive in there, so we do......... What a surprise!
The road at the gate turns to meticusly manicured gravel and lawn with a lake to our right and this beautiful manor house to our left, curve around front and we see Georges 18 acres of manicured front lawn!! Ok, I can't do justice to what we see for the next 3 and half hours as George takes us all about his property. The best I can do is say go here and even these pics do not do it justice.
Check this out www.rosscastle.com
30 acres, 90 acre tournament course fishing lake, boathouse, enclosed gardens, courtyards, greenhouses, koi pond, pool, tennis courts, apartments for rent, chapel with Tiffany stained glass windows, museum manor house, just spectacular and quite the sight to see up close and personal for a couple on their first visit to Ireland. George walks and talks with us for over 3 hours and I felt alittle bad because it turns out he's like 80 years old, but such a wonderful man to treat us like he did. He used to raise Connemara ponies there also but recently sold out of that venture. His wife Elizabeth was a world renowned concert pianist and did all of the interior design and furnishings, just incredible. She was busy all over the place, working on adding a new feature to one of the garden areas.
He bought the property, derelict at auction , sight unseen in 1984 and the Spanish general contractor just left the week before!!! 20 plus years of restorations!!!
If ever you want to rent out a truly exclusive beautiful place, this is definitely an option to remember.
Well we again said our thankful goodbyes and drove off. Now we went to Aughnanure Castle, home of Grace O'Malley and the O'Flahertys fame. Some beautiful scenic areas there, with the river undercutting the castle moat area it looks like little peoples places to hide. Now we are very tired from walking all day and decide to go back to Oughterard, check out a couple of different B&Bs and decide to go back to Waterfall Lodge, new room , just as pretty, not spectacular like the first nite but very very nice, in to town for dinner at Archers, Lynn has a pizza and I have Oughterard Beef Stew, mm, mm good. Back to room, read and good night........

Now, wait a minute. You become buddy buddy with George. Get yourself and your wife invited to his house, of which you are expecting a typical simple Irish house and find out it's the Taj Mahal of Connamara and you never figured out a way to weasel a one nights stay there??????

A Shrule Egan, Now let me tell you, this whole thing caught us by surprise and we were so in to the moment, we drove off and looked at each other with this "what just happened look" as we are driving out Lynn says , we didn't even take a single picture, who's gonna believe how beautiful this place is, lucky for us when we parted, George and I exchanged business cards and my wife and him exchanged kisses! On his card is an email and website, on our next night out we stopped and emailed home and I looked at the website, so that was good. When we got home George wrote us a nice letter and I sent him a whole bunch of Obama stickers as I had promised him. His wife emailed me and said I know not what I have wrought, as nothing was too much for George when it came to Obama. George it turns out is a big supporter of Obamas and was looking forward to having his car plastered with Obama stickers. Simply lovely folks.

Next morning after another great nights sleep, Lynn and I have breakfast. Its a beautiful morning again, very nice, partly sunny and warm. We head out back to the little red bridge and take some pics and then walk the river walk right next to the house is a stone wall enclosed entrance for a river walk, really pretty view of the upper falls, an old concrete wwii bunker, cliffs and just a pleasant walk along the river for a bit. We then head off for another days travels. We decide to head north again and stop off at Glengowla Mines, drive down a long driveway and pull in. Its still pretty early and we are the only ones there. We meet Johnnie the guide in the gift shop, he's doing alittle cleaning and such waiting for the day to start. Of course we get to chatting and Keith Geoghegan the owner comes in and we talk about mining and geology, me being a junior rockhound and my grandfather being a mining engineer, we hit it off for the next hour or so as my patient wife looks at stuff, finally giving me that little tug on the sleeve. So Johnnie takes us to the various buildings and talks about the history of Glengowla Mines and the lead and silver mining. we get our hard hats and head down into the mine, very interesting , Johnnie keeps up a steady banter of information about the history, operations and things we see within the mine. A tough life for miners for sure. We have a very nice personal tour and finally say our thanks and goodbyes. Another great example of hospitality.
Off to Cong today, Lynn wants to see the Quiet Man Cottage. Well Cong is a pleasant surprise, a very pretty and picturesque village. We park and walk over to the tourist building walk in and peruse about, nobody home, we ring the bell and I find this nice lambs wool scarf I like but no one is around, so I leave a note with a little pile of things we wanted to buy and leave it on the counter with all the stuff. We walk across the street to the Abbey and just as we get there the church bells go off and a whole bunch of people come out of St Marys RC Church which is right attached to the old abbey. Out comes First Holy Communiun families, kids all dressed in white and everyone in their Sunday bests, We go to this second floor area in the old abbey and have a view of all the parents and kids taking pictures and kids running around in the open area of the abbey, really fun to watch, little by little they drift off and we continue with our walk around the grounds, beautiful old yews, pretty scenic river, the classic Monks Fishing Hut, AShrule Egan has a pic of that, It really is a very pretty place, we walk down the far side of the church along the river bank and what is pulling into the church now but a big wedding!! W wave at the bride as she gets out of her old Bentley all decked out with ribbons and flowers. From here we decide to walk up to Ashland Castle hotel. A classic castle building, its a very nice walk and very picturesque and as Lynn says, Now thats a castle, she likes to think of them more as King Arthur type places rather than the stone fortified tower houses. We walk about the grounds and watch the river and swans. We take our liesurely stroll back to Cong proper and as we get back to the church the wedding party is getting out. We stand around and watch as the newly weds get into the Bentley and the wedding party in 2 other fancy cars and drive off. We decide tpo have a bite to eat at a little pub, visit the QuietMan Museum and from here we headout to Westport. We decide Westport is too big of a city for us and continue on to Newport were we stay at the Anchor BNB across from the water inlet. We walk over to have dinner at Grainne Uaile Pub, I have Beef and Guiness Stew, mmm good. From our seats by the window we watch the kids down at the playground, an old and I mean old dog, lays down in the middle of the road and everyone just drives around him and he wags his tail at them, occasionally getting up to see what the kids are doing aand then right back down in the middle of the road. , now its about 10:15, Lynns tired, we walk back to our BNB, I trade my just finished novel for a new book from their library. Read abit then lites out per Lynns orders.
Another beautiful day, nice people, pretty sites just a great day.
TBC.