Tuesday, 5th August BALLYDEHOB - CLEAR ISLAND

Robyn writes: This morning dawned foggy and cloudy and quite cool - a change after several nice sunny mornings. First, we headed over to Skibbereen in pursuit of family history information. On the way though, we decided to go via Kilcoe to check out the burial ground there and it's also where Jeremey Irons has renovated Kilcoe Castle. We had a really good view of the castle, which he's done an amazing job on. It's been finished in an orange limestone wash which was very controversial at the time and many people moaned about it, but I really like it and think it fits well in the countryside. If you're a Jeremy Irons fan (or a castle fan), you can read his account of the controversy at:
http://www.jeremy-irons.com/press/archive/56.html

The highly controversial orange Kilcoe Castle - I like it!

Baltimore Castle - Shakespeare the Parrot!

Inside the castle - they've turned it into a beautiful family home

View over the harbor from the castle roof

Other view from the castle

The castle itself

We checked out the burial ground there as well, in and around a very old church. Extremely picturesque but a bit scary underfoot with huge mounds and dips all covered in long grass. And no Connolly graves, of course (but a nice view of the castle).

Then we headed on to Skibbereen and back to the Heritage Centre where we were able to talk to Margaret, who is in charge of the genealogy section there, about Connolly family records. She had someone coming in shortly but promised to research the sources she had and we're going back on Thursday morning to see if she's been able to find anything.

After that, we drove down to Baltimore, a little town on the bay, to see about a cruise out and around Clear Island. Unfortunately it was ten past eleven by that stage...and the eleven o'clock cruise had just left. There was another one at 2.30 so we rang and booked it. It was starting to rain lightly by that stage, so we went up into the small town area to see what was to be seen there.

The most interesting thing in the town was Baltimore Castle, dating back to the 1100s originally when the Normans came to Ireland. It was almost a complete ruin by last century but in the 1990s it was bought by the McCarthy family who have done a wonderful job of renovating and rebuilding, and it's now their family home. It's much, much smaller than English castles tend to be and we really enjoyed looking around it and finding out the history of it and the district. The area was a haven for pirates for hundreds of years, mainly based out of the castle - they specialised in attacking Waterford, where we were the other day! Finally they did one too many attacks on ships and goods bound for Waterford, so the town retaliated by destroying most of their ships. Greatly deserved, I may add. On the other hand, during the 1600s the town was attacked by Algerian pirates who carried off over 100 of the townspeople - men, women, children and babies, and sold them into slavery in Algeria. None of them were ever seen again.

We were talking to Mr McCarthy about their rebuild of the castle - a massive job but he said that they were lucky that the original stone walls were still in very sound condition. He of course knows Jeremy Irons (being neighbouring castle renovators, they've used the same expert craftsmen, compared notes etc) and was saying that Kilcoe still has a massive problem with damp and they constantly have dehumidifiers running in every room.

Following our castle visit, we found a nice pub across the road (The Waterfront) to have a very enjoyable lunch of barbeque chicken, salad and chips. Then we still had a bit of time to kill before our trip so wandered around the harbour before going over to the boat, the Liscannor a bit before two o'clock. To our surprise, the captain was busily checking the waiting group of people to see who had booked - it could only take 12 people and we were all there by about 2, so we left very early! The weather by this stage had really turned on us - it was getting greyer and greyer and by the time we'd been underway for about 5 minutes it was raining, and continued to rain all the way to Clear Island (about 45 minutes). My theory is that he knew the rain was coming and wanted to get us underway, as if it had been pouring rain we might have all bailed on the trip at 2.30! The boat only had a small cabin (Lex and I were very sensibly inside) but most of the rest were German tourists who stoically stayed outside and got SOAKED despite their rain jackets. It was really quite rough and the boat was bouncing up and down and of course you couldn't see a thing. Not enjoyable. I'm a reasonable sailor but was starting to feel a bit yuck when we thankfully reached the island (still raining) and got off for our fun-filled three quarters of an hour visit. There was one small cafe open and nowhere else to go. Did I mention it was still raining? We contemplated a cuppa but it was packed and we decided we'd rather go walk in the rain! Thankfully it finally eased off and then stopped, so we looked at the holy well (St Ciaran was born on the island), the pillar stone and the church ruins and then it was time to head back to the boat. The trip back was much better, as the rain held off and we were able to sit out the back and actually see the islands this time. There were even a couple of dolphins jumping nearby. We were back in Baltimore Harbour at 4.30 and were very glad to head home for a cuppa and a good lie down! At 25 Euros each it was the most expensive boat trip we've been on this trip and the least enjoyable. Definitely not a good day for it.

A damp welcome on the island....

Not a lot to do there....

Farewell to Not-So-Clear Island!

It's been a very quiet evening here since; my stomach was not happy after the whole bouncing on the sea thing, so we had soup and toast and I'm finally feeling a bit more normal. There's been a lot of lying around! Lex has been naming photo files (which I have done very little of). The rain appears to have departed, hopefully, so we should have a nicer day tomorrow.
 

Monday, 4th August      BALLYDEHOB - MIZEN HEAD

Robyn writes: This morning we actually managed to wake up a bit earlier and decided that we should try to get to Mizen Head again but go as early as we could (having noticed that no-one comes out here until after noon!) So we headed in that direction about 9.30, and this time there was much less traffic. We got there around 10.30 and congratulated ourselves that there were only a few cars in the carpark - vastly different to what yesterday would have been like! We had a nice cuppa and cake in the cafe there before buying our tickets (6 Euros each) to go out to the headland.

Mizen Head is the most south-westerly part of Ireland, and there has been a radio communication station there for many years. You can walk across a bridge (the original was condemned some years ago and the replacement one - an exact copy, but made of concrete, was opened two years ago) to the old station which is now a museum, with some interesting displays on Marconi (his mother was an Irish woman) and how the men lived on the lighthouses and radio stations. Also a very scary list of shipwrecks in the area and a huge list of those sunk by the Germans in WWI. Harrowing reading. As we headed across the bridge, we could see a rain squall coming our way from the Atlantic and sure enough, as we climbed the stairs to the top lookout it came right in and we had 5 minutes of huddling under my umbrella in blowing rain (no shelter at all - this is Ireland - why would they build a shelter?!). Thankfully it soon passed and that was all the rain we saw today until after we were home this evening! The view more than made up for it though - it was amazing looking at the cliffs plunging into the sea, which was a beautifully clear blue-green in colour. The area would be a geologists's dream - you can see every fold and layer in the forces that formed these mountains. Then we went down the steps and along to the museum and lookout there before heading back. In the couple of hours we'd been there, we had noticed that the crowd had built up a bit, but we couldn't believe it when we walked out to find the carpark absolutely chockablock and a big bus had also just dropped off a load of people. Unfortunately, it left before we did, which meant that we were following it - slowly, and with constant stops for oncoming cars to negotiate their way past it on the single lane road. Several of them had to reverse for quite a long way to get back to a safe passing place - at least then we could just sail past in its wake!



Stunning scenery at the Mizen Head

We had decided to go and see the little town of Crookhaven around the bay and have some lunch there. Amazingly, we got a park easily when another car moved off, and found a pub which looked like a lovely place to have lunch by the bay. The little town was very crowded but we hoped we'd be able to get fed....but after Lex had stood for ten minutes waiting to have our order taken and still not been served, we ended up deciding we would go home for lunch instead! So we headed back towards Ballydehob, calling in at the information centre in Golleen again to check our emails. The nice girl there very helpfully checked out the Skibbereen Heritage Centre for us, called them to see if they would be open, and assured us that they were, so after a flying visit into the house on the way past, we headed for Skibbereen again.

Our destination there this time was the Heritage Centre in the old gas works - it has a display about the Potato Famine, as Skibbereen was particularly badly hit by the famine - in fact, it's generally held to be the worst affected area in the whole of the country. Which was very, very, very bad. It was very harrowing reading - the misery and sheer horror of it is hard for us to comprehend. I must say, though, that on the brighter side, they had Jeremy Irons on video explaining various parts of the famine and I'm rather ashamed to say that I greatly enjoyed listening to him telling me how bad it was! He is very much an adopted local since he bought and renovated Kilcoe Castle across the bay and it is great to see that he puts in for the local community like this. Lex had hoped to talk to someone in the genealogy section, but being a public holiday, she wasn't there, so he has her email address anyway.

Jeremy Irons can make anything sound good!

This old building was the Skibbereen soup kitchen during the famine

After the Heritage Centre, we walked across the road to the very attractive West Cork Hotel where we had a lovely afternoon tea overlooking the river. Even better, they had free wifi so I was able to do yesterday's blog while Lex checked out family history sources. We'd decided to go and visit another prehistoric monument, the Drumbeg standing stone circle - couldn't find an exact location in any of the tourist leaflets except that they were near Glandour, so we used the satnav to get there, along winding, narrow hilly roads....no sign of them, no signs leading to them. So I tried "Drumbeg" and the satnav found it - 22 km away. Now, 22km is nothing in Australia where there are lovely straight roads, but in coastal Ireland it could take a good hour! As it was already after 5.30, we decided that really, stone circles are possibly overrated, and turned and headed for home.

We came via the Lidl in Skibbereen to pick up some beer and fruit, then home to cook tea (delicious baked stuffed pork chops from the EuroSpar). We sat out the front in the deck chairs on the lawn overlooking Ballydehob and had a drink while we watched the end-of-long-weekend traffic zoom by on their way home as the rain came back in over the mountain. Thankfully our washing was dry - not something you take for granted here. Then we watched the Anniversary of the beginning of WWI service live from Belgium - William, Kate and Harry were there, the Irish President and the English PM but I am quite miffed on behalf of Australia because I certainly didn't see Tony or Julia there (and we should have been; we were in from day one). Oh well, I'm sure there will be many, many more ceremonies before the end of 2018. It's been another big day - we are loving County Cork (all of it except the roads!)

Sunday, 3rd August

            BALLYDEHOB - BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND

Robyn writes: Cork is absolutely FULL of people this long weekend - in fact, we've decided that Ballydehob is about the only place which isn't, because unlike the other towns around the bay, it's not having a festival at the moment. The perfect sunny weather is bringing them out in droves everywhere else!

This morning we both managed to sleep in until quarter to nine - must be the good, fresh country air! So it was a very slow start to the day, but we managed to get out the door by about ten thirty with the aim of finding the last of the local burial grounds that we didn't visit yesterday. We followed the map carefully to where it should have been, but there was no sign of it. To make up for it, the scenery was quite stunning around the bay, and the water dazzingly blue. Even better, across the bay was a castle, and I realised that it is the one just outside Ballydehob owned and renovated by the actor Jeremy Irons! Sadly it was too far away to see if anyone was home.

Jeremy Irons' castle across the bay from Ballydehob

The view of Ballydehob from our driveway!

Then we set off towards Mizen Head. We headed first for Schull, a nearby village, to see if they had a tourist information centre, but got there to discover that the Sunday Markets were on and the town was absolutely packed - bumper to bumper cars, people everywhere and not a park within miles! Of course the very narrow old streets just add to the traffic nightmare as only one car at a time can get through, so you're constantly reversing or getting up on the footpath to get out of the way of oncoming traffic. Lex dropped me off at the tourist information centre and fought his way around the block while I ducked in to get some info, then we got out of there!

Stunning scenery at Toormoor, where we found the prehistoric tomb/altar

We kept driving towards Mizen Head around the bay and saw a sign for a prehistoric site - a wedge tomb/altar which dates back to 3000BC in yet another picture postcard perfect inlet, so we stopped to explore around it. We continued on and went through the little town of Golleen, where we saw a tourist information centre with free wifi, toilets and tea and coffee, so we found a park in the yard of the shop next door, went in to pick up some groceries, then into the information centre where I was finally able to send yesterday's emails, blog etc, while having a cuppa. Very handy! The girl there was very helpful and told us about all the things in the area you can do. At that stage we were still intending to drive on to Mizen Head, but we came out to discover that there was now a stationary line of cars bumper to bumper right through the village going in that direction - apparently everyone else had the same idea!

Right about then, we decided to leave Mizen Head until another (non weekend) day, so we turned left and headed back home to Ballydehob, where we had lunch before setting out again. This time we went to the Gurtnagrough Folk Museum, about 3 miles out on the Bantry Road, where the old couple there have a huge collection of all sorts of wonderful historical items (like a genuine huge 1760s bible and a child's penny farthing bicycle) interspersed with all sorts of junk, old clothing, ancient farm machinery, books, historical photos, newspaper clippings etc etc. It was exactly the sort of place my dad would just love! I have to say I was so glad we are in Ireland - if it was in Australia I would have been terrified of snakes the whole time...Old Tom showed us around and is very proud of his collection. We had a lovely hour or so poking around, then gave him ten Euros (he was most impressed) and continued on to Bantry.

Amazing original penny farthing

Sooooo much stuff!



Cemetery with views - Bantry Bay



Old church and cemetery at Bantry

St Finnbarr's at Bantry

Bantry is a really pretty town right on the bay and was in festival mode, so there were fun fairs and street singers and barbeques all over. Lots of Irish music too. Our first stop there was the cemetery, which was HUGE and up the hill, so we spent quite a bit of time there and did find a lot of Connolly graves, including that of a Daniel Connolly born about 1840, so he's nearly the same generation as Lex's great-grandfather Daniel Connolly, and others from that time. We found so many Connollys that Lex is now thinking they hailed from Bantry, rather than Ballydehob originally.

Then we went into the town centre for a look around - the man at the tourist information centre told me about the ancient church ruins and graveyard, so we went there for a look. It's the old Garryvurra Church of Ireland (Protestant church) and dated back to the 1400s. During the potato famine, it was the site of several mass graves of both Catholics and Protestants. It's a very evocative place to visit - striking and a bit spooky. I couldn't work out where the mass graves were - there was nothing to identify them. Then we visited the Catholic Church on the hill, St Finnbarr's, which dates back to 1825. It is a huge, impressive building and is just beautiful inside. Lex's great-great-great grandparents were married there.

Following that we finally headed home - Lex went out for a walk up the hill while I cooked tea (chicken pasta) and did another couple of loads of washing. It's been brilliant drying weather (this is very good for Ireland!) Here's hoping that the perfect weather continues on for the week.

 

Saturday, 2nd August         CASHEL TO BALLYDEHOB

Robyn writes: The alarm woke us at 7.30 this morning (most unhappily, I must add - we were sound asleep!) as it was moving day again. We dragged ourselves out to get dressed and get the day underway. First we went down for another of Bernice's delicious breakfasts (she makes the best fruit salad we've tasted anywhere on our holiday), then it was back upstairs to finish off the packing, pay and check out. We ended up saying our fond farewells and leaving by about nine thirty on our way south.

The first part of the trip was very uncomplicated - we took the motorway south as far as Cork. When we were near Fermoy, Lex realised we were getting a bit low on petrol, so we decided we'd pop into Fermoy to have a look and get some. Then, as we were leaving the motorway, we went through a toll plaza! There was a mad scramble for change and yet another 2 Euro coin (no change given) was handed over for the 1.90 Euro car fee. I bet they make a fortune out of that. We found a service station, got petrol and luckily I thought to buy a paper so I could get change, because almost immediately we got back onto the motorway, we went through another toll plaza! Another 1.90 (at least this time we had the right amount....) Had we known, we would certainly have filled up before we left Cashel. Unlike their British equivalents, we've learned that the Irish motorways don't have the 'online' services - you have to get off and go into the towns to find food and petrol (and pay the bloody tolls on exit!). Anyway, we were on the motorway as far as Cork, then onto more minor roads and we got to Skibbereen by 12.30. The roads down this way were fairly busy as it's a bank holiday weekend and lots of holiday makers around.

Skibbereen is the nearest big town to Ballydehob, and Patsy, our landlady, had advised us to get groceries there before we came. We found a EuroSpar which had a cafe, so quite happily went there. We had a nice lunch in the cafe (sandwich/roll and excellent pot of tea) then did a grocery shop of meals etc for the first few days. It's nice to be self catering again. Then we set off for the last few kilometres to Ballydehob.

We arrived here just after 2 o'clock and rang Patsy, who told us where to find the key. We have a lovely two bedroomed terrace house, built around 2002. It's very nice and roomy and very comfortable. In fact, it's perfect in every way except it doesn't have internet access :( It is on a hill looking down towards the bridge into Ballydehob so is very convenient and has its own parking. We unpacked and I put some washing on, then Patsy called in to say hello. After that, I stayed home to wash clothes, wash my hair and laze about (re-reading my fourth Maeve Binchy book this holiday) while Lex walked into town to look for a map. We've been sooo lucky with the weather today - apparently Tipperary, which we left this morning, and everywhere north of that in Ireland and the UK has been absolutely soaked with driving rain causing all sorts of flash flooding. We've had a bit of cloud but basically a lovely afternoon with a good stiff breeze for drying the clothes, and our first load we hung out is all but dry already.

Old burial ground outside of Ballydehob where many McCarthys are buried

Are these old gravestones? Impossible to tell.

Above and below: Shronagree, where Lex thinks the Connollys come from. That's Ballydehob in the distance in the photo above.

Beautiful wildflowers by the roadside

Lex was successful in finding a map, so this afternoon we went for a drive navigating with it and visited two of the local burial grounds (I know, we DO know how to have a good time on holidays!) in search of his family - found lots and lots of McCarthys but no Connollys. In fact, Patsy, who is a local, doesn't think there are any Connollys around here any more. We also drove out to Shronagree, which is the little townland that Lex believes his Connolly ancestors came from. It's a patch of farmland perched on the side and in the valley of some extremely rocky and inhospitable looking hills. When you see the rocks in the land around there, you understand why this area was particularly badly hit by the potato famine. The poor people were probably barely existing anyway, and the famine would have just wiped them out. When we can get some reasonable internet access, we can check this further, but there's not even a McDonald's in town to give us free Wifi!

It's now 8.40 and the sun has finally disappeared but it will still be light for a while yet. We've had a nice meal of beef roulades, baby potatoes and veges followed by our standby dessert, fruit and yoghurt. The strawberries in the UK and Ireland have been magnificent this summer; I've never eaten so many in my life! It's so nice to have our own little house to relax in again and not have to move for a week. After this, the next two weeks will be hotels or B&Bs for two or three nights at a time so lots of packing and moving. Will enjoy this while we can!

Friday, 1st August     CASHEL - GOLDEN - WATERFORD

Robyn writes: August? How can it be August already???? But August it is, and here in Ireland it's a Bank Holiday weekend. This means that there will be people everywhere and parking will be at a premium wherever we go! We've been very lucky with the weather once more today - the forecast was for a maximum of 18 and rain, but there's hardly been any rain at all, and it's been up around 22 for quite a bit of the day, so very pleasant.

Today is our last full day in Tipperary, so this morning (after the usual lovely breakfast) we headed out to make the most of it. Our first stop was back to the Thompson's ancestral village of Golden, where I wanted to go to the agricultural museum there. This turned out to be a real experience! The man we met (his wife, who usually runs it, was out) was definitely shades of my Great-Uncle Harry Labudda - a real collector. They have assembled a huge amount of old farming equipment and memorabilia from all around the Golden area, so I was especially interested in the type of tools the farmers such as my great-great-grandfather would have used on his farm. Most of the stuff they had was from the 1900s but it was still very interesting and Liam himself was such a character - we were invited in for a cuppa and a great chat and it was after midday before we left there! Unfortunately apparently the best of their old agricultural pieces are currently off at a local show being displayed there, but we still had a great time poking around it all.

Old farm machinery



Us at the musuem



I loved the collection of tractor seats up on the wall - all painted in the correct colours, Liam assured us!

Liam and Lex at the old 'bar'

From there, we were heading into Waterford, down near the coast. This was about an hour's drive away, so we got to see a lot of lovely new scenery along the way. We found parking in Waterford quite easily (it's quite a big city and there are heaps of big car parks stretching right along the river front there) and went to look for lunch. This was in a lovely little cafe nearby called Thirty Three The Mall, which is the very spot the Irish Tricolour was first raised in 1848 by Thomas Meagher. He was a real character - an Irish nationalist fighter who was sent to Tasmania as a convict, escaped from there to America and ended up becoming a US citizen, fighting for the North, leading a brigade of Irishmen and becoming a Civil War hero!



Cool bridge we went past heading into Waterford

Thirty-Three the Mall, where we had lunch

Following lunch, we went across to the famous Waterford Crystal Factory, and booked in for a tour (13 Euros each). This was really interesting to see how all of their products are still man-made. In this day and age it's nice to know that real craftsmen still exist. Even more exciting is that this month several new apprentices are starting so the craft will continue. We went right through the factory seeing all of the stages and watching the craftsmen blowing, moulding, cleaning and then cutting the crystal. They were very nice and happy to answer any questions too. When the tour had finished, we had a look around the shop at some of the amazingly expensive items you can buy (anyone for a crystal grizzly bear at 30 000 Euros?!) I was looking at their crystal vases about the same size of the one Mum and Dad gave me a few years ago, and they were about 600 Euros!!! Will take very good care of the one I have! We decided we needed a piece to remember the day, so chose the 'Edythe' bud vase, which is now being sent home to Emerald. It will be a lovely souvenir of our Irish visit!

"I'll just have one glass, thanks...."  -  the world's largest champagne flute!

They use wooden moulds for special orders (this one was for the Irish Open Trophy) and cast iron for the set items.

Shaping

Blowing it into the mould

Cutting the glass. This man was really nice and let me come into the area and hold the glass when he'd finished cutting the base.



An amazing array of special items

Our "Edythe" bud vase!

After our factory tour, we went for a walk around the city centre, which is often called "The Viking Triangle". There is a huge round Viking tower dating back to the 1100s and in front of that is a replica Viking boat (Vikings were big in Waterford!) and a Franciscan friary. We enjoyed a wander around the CBD and along the river front, then our parking was up, so we had to head back to the car at 5 o'clock.

By the Suir River

Old Franciscan Friary



 Reginald's Tower and the Viking replica boat

Seaside fun in 18 degrees at Dunmore East with a stiff breeze blowing. Brrr!



We went over the cool bridge coming back! Unfortunately it turned out to be a toll road, which our satnav hadn't told us - cost us 2 Euros for this photo....

Tea time in Carrick-on-Suir

We decided to drive down towards the sea to actually see the Irish Sea, so (after a while stuck in Friday afternoon traffic), we finally made it down to the little seaside town of Dunmore East, where, despite it being about 18 degrees with a wind blowing straight off the Arctic, there were families frolicking in the water and on the sand! Then we drove around to have a look at Tramore, and finally headed home. It was getting late by this stage, so we stopped in Carrick-on-Suir for tea - we had a lovely Chinese meal at the Far East there, then home to Cashel by about half past eight, just as the rain was setting in. It's now very overcast and drizzling/raining on and off, and once more it's very nice to be snug and warm inside! Tomorrow we are off to Ballydehob in Cork for a week - will be so good to be back self catering again, nice as our B&B has been.