Tuesday 15^th July                   SKERRIES  -  ARDGILLAN  -  SWORDS  -  RUSH

The theme of today has been castles – old and (reasonably) new!

We were up around 7 o’clock, after a good night’s sleep for everyone. Jo reported that she was awake for a while, but not too long, so she appears to be getting through the jet lag very well. After breakfast, we put on a load of washing and decided we’d head out for the day once it was finished. This took a good half hour longer than planned, as once again, my curse when dealing with front loading washing machines struck, and the door refused to open. It finally took ten minutes of having the whole thing unplugged before it reluctantly agreed to open (fortunately for us, as we’d realised it was too early to start drinking whiskey!) Anyway, the blasted thing did finally let us hang the washing out, and get on our way. The morning had dawned cool, very overcast and rainy, and stayed that way for some time.

Our first destination for the day was Ardgillan Castle, which is not far from where we are staying. It was built in the 1700s by the type of Englishman who obviously took seriously the ‘a man’s home is his castle’ thing. It’s a very imposing house, set with a wonderful view of the Irish Sea. There was a long walk down the hill from the carpark towards it, past a sweeping lawn of grass and a ha-ha (influence of Capability Brown’s landscaping ideas, one suspects.) Jo was thrilled at seeing her first castle, until we saw the note on the door which told us the house itself is closed until the beginning of August, as they have film crews there. (Which we could see!) Investigation reveals that they are filming a series of  “The Unreal”, which I’ve never heard of, but must keep an eye out for.

                                                  Walking down the hill to Ardgillan Castle

View from the other side, facing the sea. Note the film cameras.

At any rate, we decided, we could still visit the gardens, which are extensive and just beautiful. There are several walled gardens, to protect plants from wind and frost. We spent a very happy hour and a half or so exploring them, and were in awe of the flowers, many of which we’d never seen before. There was a lot of photographing and getting Google to identify plants. There were several greenhouses, and separate fruit, vegetable, herb, rose and flower gardens to wander around. They have 30 varieties of apple trees there; some dating back to the 1500s. The vegetable garden had a huge section of peas, so I couldn’t resist trying a few, and the tiny wild strawberries you see here. Jo reported that they were delicious! In the rose garden, there was a family of little fledgling robins with a parent, and they were just adorable. The weather was very kind to us while we wandered, and it warmed up enough to take off several layers. Unfortunately, just as we’d decided to head off, the rain came down again, so we raced for the nearby café and decided that it was a good time to have lunch! Lex and I had the soup and Irish brown bread (very nutty and grainy and quite nice), while Jo had egg sandwiches. They had an array of cakes and slices that looked so tempting that she and I both bought a piece of cake to bring home for afternoon tea.

                                             These reminded me of Van Gogh's sunflowers!

                                              Beautiful formal walled gardens

                                                                    Rose garden

Adorable baby robin

Thankfully, by the time we’d finished, the rain had departed and the sun was shining, so we hauled ourselves back up the hill (Jo and I complaining bitterly) and back into the car. We set out next for castle number two: the Bishop’s Palace or Swords Castle, about half an hour’s drive away.

Getting parking in Swords proved to be very difficult – we actually had some coins, but the machine wasn’t accepting them. Lex walked to another machine but found we didn’t have enough. (We REALLY need to get a stash of Euro coins – they make you pay for parking everywhere, and most of the machines don’t accept cards.) So, he decided to go online and pay with the app. This took quite a while, and involved the help of strangers, but finally it worked, and we headed for the castle.

                                                          Swords Castle in Swords

Swords Castle is very much right in the middle of the town. It’s owned by the council, and admission was free, which we were very impressed with. It seems to be used as a public venue for concerts and activities; in fact, the Boomtown Rats are playing there on July 26^th! (Jo was sad that we will be gone by then.) It was actually built as a Bishop’s Palace in the 1200s, but Bishops in those days were often militarily inclined, and this one had big, defensible walls all the way around it. They’ve been doing it up, and it’s wonderful to see how much they have achieved. We really enjoyed walking around the battlements, and Jo met her first spiral stone staircases and coped very well! The castle fell into disuse in the 1500s, and in the 1800s it was acquired by a rich landowner who farmed there, including an orchard. The remnants of that are still there – old apple trees, and one plum tree which had ripe plums. We really enjoyed nibbling on a few of these! While we were in the rooms above the church, the rain came pelting down again, so it was a good place to take refuge. Once it had finished, we headed off to look at the main street of Swords.

                                                   Walkways along the battlements

                                                    This is the main room in the above tower

                                                 Remains of the old manor house on the site

                                                             The renovated church  

The rain started pelting down!

Unfortunately, once again the rain came down, this time not passing over in a few minutes as per usual, and we heard a few rumbles of thunder. We headed back to the car – luckily, as just as we got in, it poured down for quite some time, so we sat there and waited it out. Then we headed for the Tesco’s in Rush, which was on the way home. We grabbed enough groceries to get us through the next few days, and headed home.

Since then we’ve done a load of washing and hung it out (the machine behaved itself this time), had afternoon tea (and delicious cakes), a nice rest, and Lex has been for a walk. The weather has fined up again and the sun is now beaming down. It may even stay that way, as tomorrow’s forecast is for sunny and 21 degrees, so we’re very much on board with that idea. The plan is to go and explore Dublin!