Our Lady of Knock....Marty's dream come true

When we awoke this morning at our B&B in Ballymote, the weather for the day didn't look promising.  But, we had certainly come prepared for rain, so we donned our rain jackets and headed southwest on the highway to Knock, the sight of the famous shrine.  

It was drizzling, but that didn't dampen our spirits.  We explored the grounds, which, as you can see, are quite lovely.

The stations of the cross are each nestled in a yew, and surround the recreation of Calvary.

And the chapel features a recreation of the events that occurred on an August night in 1879, in this very small village. 

A word wasn't spoken, and there is no indication as to just why Mary appeared with Joseph and John,  with the lamb and cross, surrounded by angels. But, testimonies were taken from more than two dozen people who saw the apparition take place over a two hour period.  And, when questioned years later, the stories remained the same. 

The words from Our Lady of Knock beautifully portray this event, and one can easily see the connection between the song and this beautiful memorial. 

Marty looked around for a spot where he could play the song on his ukulele, and we found a place that offered some shade from the rain.  He set things up, and began strumming and singing.  He is working on uploading it to UTube should you be interested in seeing his musical abilities.  

In the meantime, a grandpa named Paddy, a mum, and 3 young girls stopped to listen to our rendition of the song, and we soon began chatting.  The next thing we knew, the little girls were entertaining us with their steel flutes, each one of them playing a Irish tune for our enjoyment.  

Of course, Marty couldn't pass on taking a selfie to commemorate the event. 

Since it was still raining, we opted to drive to Boyle, to check out Kings Castle which stands in the middle of the town.  It was built in the early 1700s by an Englishman who had been granted the land in Ireland by the King and is of Georgian design. 

The man's surname was actually King, and  he only lived in the residence for 40 years prior to determining that it was too small for his needs. So, in 1795, the house was purchased by British Army as the headquarters of the Connaught Rangers.   It was converted into an infantry barracks for 12 officers and 260 non-commissioned officers. It was used until 1922 when the rangers were disbanded. 

The house almost underwent demolition when purchased by the local council, who originally wanted to make a parking lot!  But, luckily, someone had a change of heart and it has been refurbished and opened to the public to offer a peek into the history of this area of Ireland. 

The interior features a dining room that holds possessions of the original owners, the King family.

And the tour of the house takes one through many rooms set up with dioramas that explain the early history of this area of Ireland, through to present day. 

Mention was made of the Book of Kells, which had been written by the monks at the local abbey, and are now stored in Trinity College in Dublin. 

The Abbey stands not far from the house, and you can see just how enormous it is.

Wasn't it nice of the sun to peek out for us? 

There is a river that runs behind the castle and along the Abbey, making for some lovely vistas. 

And the town itself is really quite charming.

What would be a "castle" without a tea room?   We enjoyed some delightful scones with real clotted cream, and a delicious cup of tea.

With the sun popping out, we decided to venture north to Sligo and check out the sites there.  We passed Lough Quay on the way, and stopped to take a quick photo. 

Sligo was not at all what we had hoped.  It was super busy, loads of traffic, and just not all that appealing to us.  So, we decided to head north to Yeats Tavern for dinner, mostly because it was the only place nearby that we could find open. 

Yeats, the famous Irish poet, is buried nearby, and Marty had us walk down to the graveyard to see his grave.  I opted not to trek all the way to see it, but did capture this photo of a 9th century Celtic Cross that stands in the cemetery. 

We headed back to our B&B, just for some chill time.  Tomorrow, we head north and are staying outside of Donegal Town, in the same B&B where we stayed many years ago when we made a quick trip out to visit family.  We're looking forward to even more adventures! 

T

A Man's Home is his Castle

 Today we bid farewell to County Tyrone and headed towards County Sligo, but not before enjoying one last amazing breakfast at the Mellon Country Inn Hotel.  We had a delightful stay there, and the only issue that I had was the hair dryer, which required one to constantly push on the "on" button while drying hair.  It can be a bit difficult to hold a dryer, push a button AND style one's hair.  Now, my husband tells me that it's a safety feature, so that people don't leave the hair dryer on.  

Just a few things to note:  

#1: We've traveled a LOT in the past, and I've never taken my own hair dryer.  I've used some great ones and some not-so-great ones, but I've NEVER used a hair dryer that required the button to be held down while drying.  Well...at least not until now.

#2: This particular hotel has a set up where the room key card must be left in a slot in order for the outlets to work.  So, it would be impossible to leave a hair dryer running unattended if one removed the key card while existing the room. 

#3:  My husband hasn't used a hair dryer on his head in the 42 years that we've been married.

I think the last point reflects my strong opinion that he has no idea what he's talking about.  In any event, it really wasn't a big deal, just an inconvenience, and a small price to pay for what ended up being a delightful place to stay.

Our first stop this morning was Castle Coole. 

It stands on Lough Coole near the village of Enniskillen and can be viewed from across the lough, although I will admit, it's kind of tricky to get the shot with the plant growth blocking the view. 

This former home is not a castle at all.  It is a manor house built in the Neoclassical style.  It has a stunning collection of original items within its walls.  Photography was not permitted, so you'll just have to take my word on that.  The castle was built in 1790.

It dawned on me today, that none of the recent castles that we have toured are the traditional buildings that we associate with that word.  They are all stately homes, but certainly considered a castle by the owners at the time.  Here you see the stables that were part of the estate.

Our house tour was extremely detailed, and we finally exited the building well over an hour after we had entered.  We hopped in the car and headed to Florence Court, which is somewhat of a "sister" to this house.  There is a family connection between the two houses but I can't recall the exact details.  I do know that this house was built around 1740, and that it shares a set of hand painted china with Castle Coole, a tidbit that we picked up on that tour. 

We headed to the stables to get a cuppa with a scone

Today's choice was treacle.

We then headed inside for another personal tour of this estate. 

Once again, photos were not permitted as the items are still the personal property of family.  But there were certainly some amazing pieces in this house as well.

There was a walled garden on the property, although not all four sides are surrounded by that wall.

But, as you can see, the vistas were stunning.  And, here is the front of the Georgian style Florence Court.

Once again, our tour guide was fabulous in presenting a wealth of information in an entertaining fashion.

From here, we were back on the road  with  Castle Parke as our destination, located on the shore of Lough Gill.  We twisted and turned our way up and around hills and dales on the way to get there.

I have forgotten to mention that we have a split personality, Dr Jekyll - Ms Hyde,  GPS that we are using for directions.  (I say Ms because both voices are female.)   It's actually been quite comical as the soft voice of Ms Hyde will begin to give a specific instruction only to be interrupted by a quite stern sounding Dr. Jekyll who begins by saying: "SORRY, starting over..."only to repeat exactly what the former instruction had been. 

There's no rhyme or reason as to when she will interrupt the instructions, although Marty has his own theories.  So far, none of them have offered a satisfying explanation to the craziness. No surprise there. But I do have to admit, it sure does keep us on our toes!

Driving along, we were awed by the landscape.

But we came to a spot where road construction prohibited us from continuing down the desired road.  Marty asked the workman if he could go through.  He shook his head no, then went on to tell Marty to "just take the wee road to the right and it will get you to the same spot". 

"Wee" was an understatement.   The road was barely wider than the car.

And, just when Marty felt that he was handling things fine, a large deer popped out right in front of us before scurrying into the woods on the opposite side.  This was the best shot I could muster, as he was certainly wary of us.

We finally made it down to the lough where the view was spectacular, as you can see here.

Finally, the castle was in front of us.

Believe it or not, this is actually considered to be a semi-fortified manor house of the plantation period.  However, historic Ireland does classify it as a castle.  It was built by Robert Parker in the early 17th century, and it had many of the defensive characteristics of a castle. 

There had been a tower house right smack in the middle with the original construction in the mid 1500s, which had been built by Brian O'Rourke. This man had sheltered a shipwrecked captain of the Spanish Armada, and consequently, O'Rourke was executed for treason. This was when Parke was granted ownership of the land. The tower was dissembled by the new owner, and he used the stones to add pigeon tower as well as a tower house to adjoin the castle walls. 

A tour group showed up shortly after we arrived, but we managed to get through the grounds in plenty of time to avoid any commotion.  We took a quick peek down at the lough. 

The edge of the lough laps very closely to the foot of the castle, making it clear why this was an excellent location for a fortification. 

By this point, we were castled out, so we made the drive to our lovely B&B in Ballymote. Unfortunately, there were no restaurants serving in the town today, so we headed back up the road to Strandhill, where we enjoyed an amazing meal.  And the views along the way weren't too bad, as you can see. 

That's all for today.  Tomorrow involves a trip to Knock with a Ukulele that Marty carted all the way over with him.  Not sure what that will entail but I'll make every attempt to keep you informed.

Until then.