Dodging the Raindrops in Donegal

Yesterday the weather was just as predictably unpredictable.....so typical of Ireland (and Scotland as well).  But that didn't keep us from venturing out in the morning.

After a fabulous breakfast at the Ard na Breathe B&B, we put on our boots, gloves, and scarves.....donned our coats, made certain to grab the umbrellas...and headed by foot into Donegal.

Once we stepped out the door of the B&B, I couldn't help but chuckle at the curious sheep.

Obviously, we must have been some entertainment for them, as one by one they popped up their heads for a stare-down.

We went on our merry way, however, and headed to the information center in search of an historic walking tour that I had found online, but had no way to print.  The friendly woman there was surprised to hear of such a walk, and she took down the web address to check it out.  (A lot of help that was too us.)

Since it was pouring down rain anyway, a long walk really did seem out of the question.  I was already drenched, and we hadn't even begun our tour!

We walked to the end of the harbor where we viewed the spot where the Harvey emigrants would have embarked for their journey to America in the 1890's.

The Atlantic ocean is in the distance.

Along the coast at this point stands the ruins of a Franciscan Friary that had been built in 1474 and had been endowed by Nuala O'Conner and Nuala O'Brien, wives of O'Donnell Chieftains.

It was here that four Franciscan monks wrote the History of Ireland from 1632 to 1636.  The documents covered the history of Ireland from its beginning to 1618.  

We walked into town towards Donegal Castle.  When we walked into the entrance, the proprietor told us that we were in luck, because he was not charging visitors to tour the castle that day.  There had been an event the night before, and the staff was still cleaning up, putting away chairs, etc., and they hoped that we could overlook that as we toured the castle.

Let me just say that we didn't see one chair or anything out of place on our tour, but we weren't complaining about the "freebie"!

The history behind the castle was fascinating, and we enjoyed walking through the grand hall and the manor house.

On the way out, when we went to thank the proprietor, we were introduced to Paddy Meehan, a former mayor of the town of Donegal.  This is when we learned that the "event" that had taken place the night before was actually a concert commemorating James McKay Rorty, an Irishman from the town, who had been killed in the battle of Gettysburg.  It turns out that Paddy will be in the US in June, with the intention of touring the battlefield.  Of course, Marty couldn't help but pass along a few interesting tips about the place, having been there numerous times himself.  Kind of funny to be discussing the American Civil War with an Irishman, but apparently many emigrants lost their lives in the Civil War shortly after leaving the country for America.

Walking around Donegal Town can be quite a challenge as there are no crosswalks and the drivers are not too eager to let anybody cross the street.  This road sign actually describes things quite well.

Doesn't it look the the car is out to hit the running man?  I suppose that this must be fair warning to be cautious.  In any event, never walk too close to the edge of the sidewalk!

Today we decided to stop off and visit Annie once again before making our way back to Larne.  We are scheduled to take the ferry back to Scotland on Saturday.  She was thrilled to see us and to hear all of the excitement of the previous evening.  Annie looked so much better than yesterday!

I had taken the photo of the three of us to the local pharmacy and had a print made for her.  The girl behind the counter looked at the photo and explained, "I know that woman!  She's such a dear soul".  I explained the happenings of the day before, and the young lady became so excited and she said, "Why not buy a wee frame to put the photo in for Annie?"

Now, was that a great idea, or what?  She found a wonderful frame that said "Family" on the top, and the photo fit inside perfectly.  Then this young girl wrapped the frame in some pretty paper for us.  (Really.....can you beat this hospitality?)

When Annie opened the gift, she looked at the photo and said, "I look terrible!"  Now, that brought a laugh out of me.  Imagine being nearly 92 years old and worrying about how you look!  But, she popped it up on the table, smiling.....and I knew that she was thrilled with it.

We once again chatted through visiting hours, and when it was time to leave, I looked out the window and saw this

Isn't that just lovely?

It was time to leave, and we both hugged Annie.  Then, she looked at us with her big eyes and said, 

"So, when are you coming back?"  What a hoot!

It was time to head to Larne, but we had decided to drive north to the Giant's Causeway.  (This has no connection with the New York sport's teams).  But, we never actually did figure out what it was supposed to be, because we showed up 10 minutes prior to the Visitor center closing.

But, we did manage to capture a few photos of the shoreline.

Beautiful, don't you think?

By this point the sun was nearly setting, and we still had quite a drive ahead of us, so we began the journey to Larne.  The last 10 minutes of the drive snow was falling.  And, the lady who owns the B&B told me that we are actually heading into snow when we get to Scotland tomorrow.  Now, how lucky is that?

It looks like we're leaving Ireland just prior to all of the St. Patrick's Day festivities. And believe you me, there were plenty of places gearing up for the big event.  Shamrocks abound!  And Donegal was bursting with anticipation.  We'll have to see if the same enthusiasm greets us in Scotland.

Let me just share a few photos of the place here in Larne.  Once again, we can see the boat in the harbor.

The place is right near the harbor, so getting to the ferry should be fairly easy.

But let me just say that the decor here is quite a bit different than the elegant place where we stayed in Donegal.

Want an example?

Ok, here goes......

Isn't it what you've always wanted?

Genealogy at Its Finest!!

Was today the best day ever, or what?

Did it rain?  Sure it did.....buckets........ as a matter of fact.

Did we get wet?  You betcha!

So, what made the day so wonderful?

We managed to finally meet Annie Harvey Burke!  And, she was SO excited to finally meet us.

After a morning spent touring Donegal town (which I'll have to detail in another blog, later),   we headed to Letterkenny, which is about an hour away from Donegal, to the hospital where Annie had been admitted two days ago.

Two of her daughters were there, Mary and Rose,

and they informed us that nearly everyone in the hospital had been made aware of our impending visit.....thanks to Annie.  We had a grand time discussing the family genealogy, and we soon found visiting hours to be over, and it was time to bid this lovely lady farewell.

Rose was so eager to show us the lands of the Harveys. so we followed her back through Donegal town, out to the little village of Frosses, where we were able to visit the very Church where the Harveys and Burkes had been baptized and married for generations.

Quite simple, but certainly lovely.

She drove us by the dancing hall, where family members would have met so many years ago.

Then we found ourselves driving down a very narrow country road, across an even narrower bridge, up a hill, around some curves, and we stopped at the original Harvey homestead.

No one lives in the home now, and Rose wasn't quite sure who actually owned the land, but it was still awesome to find it still standing.

Then we headed to the house where Annie lives, and right behind it stand the original house where William Harvey, Annie's father was born.  The roof used to be thatched, but was modified over the years.  And, another house stands in front of this one, facing the road, relatively new, overlooking the hills in one direction, and a wee bit of the Atlantic ocean in another.  It place was beautiful inside and out.

The view from the front window makes you wonder why anybody would have wanted to leave.

Several of the Harvey siblings emigrated in the 1890's, but many stayed on the same homestead as well.

Annie married James Burke, and together they had eleven children that they raised on this farm, while carrying for both of their parents in their old age, at the same homestead.  Pretty amazing, if you ask me.

We met Rose, Angela, Mary, Theresa, and Tom as well as Angela and Theresa's husbands.  Rose set out a delightful meal that she had thrown together of scrumptious quiches, brown bread and butter, and of course...tea to go with the meal.  We were amazed at this hospitality, considering the condition of Annie in the hospital and the concern by all for Annie's health.

But, they had promised Annie that they would show us a good time...and so they did.

All joined in the family history discussion around the table, each with their own family tree. Annie has taught them well, and they showed me a book that Annie had put together......brimming with all of the items that genealogists drool over.

There were birth certificates..

and census sheets

marriage licenses

not to mention old family photos

Annie was certain that she saw a strong resemblance between her dad, pictured above on the right, and Marty.  (We'd need a hat, to decide for sure.)  It was the mustache that really intrigued her.

Aye....it was a grand time that we had with this family tonight

and midnight before we actually headed out the door!

oh..... and I almost forgot to mention Annie's wee dog, Darky.

He was extremely eager to meet us as well, and what a sweetie he was!

Yep.......I do have to admit........it was certainly Genealogy at its Finest!

Adventures in Ireland

Our morning started out great, with Margaret, the delightful B&B proprietor, treating us to fresh fruit salad with honeycomb yogurt, followed by poached eggs on toast for breakfast.  The eggs were fresh from the hens roosting in her backyard.

As they say in Scotland…..BRILLIANT!

Margaret was a real character, but, for the first time in my Scottish travels, I had difficulty understanding the language.  She spoke with a really unusual accent, but I'm not complaining, because somehow, through the course of the conversation, she decided to offer us the upgraded room at no extra charge. We had been perfectly content with our original reservation, but she insisted that we take the larger, more comfortable room.

Now…..how nice was that?  

You may be wondering what sparked our interest in traveling to Ireland.  The answer is a simple one:  genealogy.  Most of you know that I love researching family history, and, as it turns out, Marty has Irish blood in him.

Marty's great grandmother was Mary Harvey who was born in Frosses, just a short distance from Donegal Town, near where we are staying. Several years ago,  I had received the name and address of a woman named Annie Burke (nee Harvey).  She actually lives on the Harvey homestead.  She was delighted to hear from me, and we have been corresponding since.  Annie is actually Mary Harvey's first cousin, the perfect person to fill me in on the Harvey genealogy.

But, Annie is in her 90's, and Marty and I knew that if we wanted to meet her, we'd have to make the opportunity, so I set up this trip.  Annie has been frail, and, as it turned out, we received an e-mail this morning telling us that she was in the hospital.

But, the trip was already set up, so we decided to continue as planned and hopefully get to visit Annie in the hospital.  So, we packed up the car and got ready for our adventure.

As I mentioned, it was super easy finding the P&O ferry entrance. We arrived the required 45 minutes early, boarded and left promptly at 10:30, our scheduled departure time.

We had been concerned about sea sickness, but the ferry is like a luxury liner on the inside.  

You can see how beautiful the day was as we passed one lighthouse on the right

then another on the left.  

It took just about 2 hours for the journey, but with comfy seats by the window, and relatively calm seas, the time went by quicker than I had expected.

We approached the port of Larne, on the east coast of Ireland.

And then we watched the front part of the ferry rise up, so that the vehicles could just drive straight out onto the road.

Isn't modern technology awesome?  I never realized that traveling from Scotland to Ireland could be so entertaining.....and easy, for that matter.

Once in Ireland, though,  I was a bit surprised by the aggressiveness of the drivers. We hadn't seen that kind of craziness while traveling through Scotland!  It certainly takes some getting used to.

And, another point of interest to me, of which I had been unaware, is that some people in the western part of County Donegal speak Irish.  And, if you thought that Irish was actually English as I did then  you should know that it is actually a form of a Celtic language.  Many of the road signs here are written in Irish (which definitely explained our difficulty finding the location of our B&B, Ard na Breathe).

Here's just one example of the same town listed in Irish and in English.

Now, perhaps my blog followers will comment that they knew that these were two different languages, just like so many knew about Dolly the sheep and her namesake.  But, I was completely unaware of this language difference, and I certainly felt that it was worth sharing to those of you who just might have not known.

Our B&B, once we found it, proved to be delightful.

Here's the view from our bedroom window

 

We settled into our room, then decided to walk into town for dinner.  (Definitely safer than driving)

We passed the castle, which we'll probably tour tomorrow.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't post this lovely photo of a church all lit up in the town.

We decided to try the Castle Bar for dinner, which certainly had some entertaining wall decor.

And,  more importantly, the meal was Fabulous!

But the most entertaining part of the evening was the obvious excitement of the clientele in the bar at seeing white smoke on the tellie.  It was the buzz of the night, with the head waiter so excited to share the news that white smoke had been seen at the vatican.  There was a new Pope!  

Who knew that there would be so many religious enthusiasts in the pub? Wouldn't it be great if the average Irish driver was thinking about religion while driving down the road?  Perhaps it would be a lot less stressful!!

Scottish Coastal Beauty

Once again, I was treated to a fabulous breakfast at the B&B:

 Eggs Florentine

And, a lovely latte.

You're drooling, aren't you?  Well, you should be....'cause both were FABulous!

But, it was time to move on, so we checked out of Brambles in Inveraray and began our journey south, back through the Trossachs along Loch Lomond, and down the coast.

But first I managed to capture this photo of Inveraray Castle from the road.

I still can't get over how beautiful it is.

We had planned to stop at Ayr (pronounced Ear), but the traffic was crazy, and to be quite honest with you, we had no idea where we were going.  And, once on the road south, we both decided that we were perfectly content to keep on going.

Our plans were to head to Culzean (pronounced Coo-lane) Castle, which stands majestically right next to the coast.  I had the map, Marty followed my directions, and we arrived without issue.  

The castle is actually closed until April, but 600 acres of woodlands are open to visit year round.

We drove down the long lane to the parking lot, and were immediately entertained by the numerous lambs that were laying in the sun out in the field adjacent to the parking lot.  You'd think by now that seeing them would be second nature to us, but we both get such a kick out of watching them romp and jump around.  At one point, one little lamb couldn't find his mama and he kept turning around, bleating, over and over again.  Poor little thing!

We managed to pull ourselves away from this entertainment, and headed towards the castle, which stands along the shore.

The grandeur was pretty amazing.  The castle was originally owned by the Kennedy clan, but in 1945, it was purchased by the National Trust of Scotland, and, at that time, the top floor was renovated into a large flat, which was bequeathed to President Eisenhower as a gesture for America's support during the war.  He apparently stayed in the castle on four separate occasions, once while President of the United States.

And, if you are interested, you can actually rent out the flat for your own holiday.  I can't even imagine what that would cost you!  Plus, you'd have to deal with pesky tourists tromping around.

The view of the Isle of Arran was highlighted by the sun shining on it when I took this photo.

You can see the snow peaks in the distance.

We walked along the grounds, admiring the castle from a distance.

I took a shot of Marty standing next to this cannon.

Doesn't it look like someone is going to shoot right at you when you look at it?

Our walk took us to a Swan pond....

and through the woods we spotted Snowdrops, which are in bloom here in February and March.

While walking back to our car, we were surprised to see deer romping around the fields.  

We stopped in the bookstore for a 'cuppa' tea and had a lovely chat with the volunteer couple in the place.  It turns out that their son lives in Lewistown, PA, just about an hour north of Harrisburg.  He married an American girl, and ended up moving to the US.  

After enjoying our hot beverage to warm us up, we jumped in the car....me with the atlas and directions, and Marty behind the wheel.  The drive was phenomenal......kind of like driving along the Oregon coast, but the road is closer to the water.   The roads here in Scotland are much narrower, and sharing them with semi's (called Lorries here in Scotland) can be a bit nail-biting, to say the least.

And it doesn't help when the Grouse seem to think that it's perfectly acceptable to amble right onto the highway as if they don't have a worry in the world.  They are certainly beautiful birds, and easy to spot, but we still had two near misses, and saw several casualties along the road.  Makes you wonder just how one became famous on a whiskey bottle.  (The Famous Grouse whiskey is big here in Scotland....just in case you didn't know.)  And, considering that they are obviously fairly brainless, it makes you wonder why anyone would want to drink that brand of whiskey!

We found our B&B easily enough and had to laugh when we realized just how close it is to the P&O ferry that we are scheduled to take tomorrow to Ireland.  

Here's the view from our bedroom

We just have to drive out of the lot here, cross the street, and get in the queue for the ferry.  It doesn't get much easier than that.

In the meantime, Margaret, who owns the B&B, suggested that we dine at the Bay House Restaurant a few miles down the road.

The sunset over the water was beautiful.

And Marty enjoyed a fabulous Fish Pie with a Belhaven Best for dinner.  (Today was his birthday, and I'd say that he had a pretty grand time!)

And tomorrow we head across the water to Ireland for the much anticipated visit of the Harvey clan in County Donegal. 

Now this should REALLY be an adventure!