Our Trip To Ireland

After the tour, we walked to the National Library of Ireland and did some genealogy research and maybe we have some info to use on the next leg of our journey.

Ivy wanted to take a picture of us standing at the entrance of the library. You need to know that the library is beside the Irish parliament buildings, which is surrounded with a big wrought iron fence with guards at the gate. Ivy thought it would be a good idea to stand on the other side of the fence to take the picture. When she went to the gate, it was open so she started to walk in and take out her camera. Before she took another step, the not so nice security guard told her with gestures to get out!. She came back and took the picture from our side of the fence.

Next door to the libray, on the opposite side to that of the Parliament, is the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ireland and we walked down to take a picture. When we got there, we discovered that tonight is a special night in Dublin called "kosher night". That is what Duane thought that the person at the door said but she had actually said "culture night". All the museums, art galleries, cultural centers are open to the public until 10 pm. It was crazy downtown. People everywhere.

The next stop, as we walked through the crowd, using our GPS, was Dublin Castle. We could have gone to a free concert on the castle grounds but we wanted to see more of the downtown and have a meal. After the meal, we used GPS to get back to the car to find out that Ivy's cell phone had zero battery and that was our GPS device. We drove out of the parkade and sat at the side of the alleyway waiting for the phone to recharge so we could find our way back to our B&B. We sat for about 10 minutes using Alison's portable USB charger and we able to make it back with only 1% battery power. We are home and going to bed. Ivy just came back from the bathroom and said she just saw a mouse scurring around. Alison is going to hold it till morning.

September 17

The day began around 7:00 am when we started waking up. We had breakfast and packed up to leave for our next stay over. As we were driving, we saw a sign indicating the Hill of Tara. Our guide book said it was a first century sight for the Druids so we decided that we would visit the area. It turned out to be an area, where over the years, different people groups had used it. One group used it as a royal court yard where the High kings of Ireland were crowned. Another used it as burial grounds. It was a nice hike after which we had a little breakfast. The country side is lush and green. In the distance, looking from the little restaurant/souvenir shop we could see a turret of a castle.
This is the girls walking through the meadow on the top of the Hill of Tara. The trees are old and big.
   
The turret is off in the distance as we stand in front of the restaurant.

We arrived at our new B&B and it is a beautiful home with a gorgeous yard. We were welcomed by Catherine and she offered us coffee, muffins and other goodies.

A view from outside.

This is the view from our room window into the backyard.

We walked into town and back which was over 11730 steps. Bailieborough is a small town with hundreds of people living in acreages around the town. We saw a couple of chickens on a side road wandering freely about. This side road had a speed limit of 80 kilometers as you can see in the following pictures. It is our opinion that people drive way to fast for the road conditions.
   
This is a look down main street.

We ate supper at the Baillie Hotel and it was excellent. Ivy and Duane had a mixed medley of black pudding, white pudding, pork sausages, mushrooms, steak, bacon, lamb chop, fried tomatoes and an egg served with a side (french fries or potatoe wedges) You should google black pudding. Ivy loved it and Duane was ok with it but would never order it from a menu. Alison had a chicken stir fry which was good. Duane trying his first bite of black pudding.
   
A view on our way back. This is in the yard next to our B&B.

We are relaxing in front of a nice warm fireplace anticipating tomorrows visit to Cahans church. This may be the place our ancestors came from.

September 18

Alison and Ivy were up at 7:30,showered and had breakfast and then waited in the family room until 9:58 at which time they decided to come back to the room to see what had happened to Duane. They tried to make a little noise to see if that would ruffle him. No movement. Ivy started to look in her suitcase and this woke him up. Duane thought that someone had set the alarm and in his mind he was sleeping till he heard it. Alison and Ivy thought it would be funny to catch Duane sleeping so late into the morning.

After Duane showered and had an excellent Irish breakfast consisting of an egg, two slices of bacon, two sausages, mushrooms, a small tomato and two slices of toast. The night before we had called Elizabeth Steenson to see if we would be able to see the Cahans Presbyterian Church and she said that she would phone in the morning to confirm that she would meet us at the church at 2:00. She had not called by 11:00 so we called her and only obtained her answering machine. We decided to leave for the church anyway and if she didn t show up we would be able to touch base with her later in the week. We found the church after about a 45 minute drive. GPS is great if you don t run into construction with a detour. Fortunately, the GPS has a map and our navigator, Alison, found another road that put us at the church without much delay. We walked around the church yard and explored the different grave sites to see if there were any Stewarts buried. Some markers were unreadable and the ones that were did not reveal any Stewarts. There was a drizzle the whole time we explored and the following picture shows the results of an afternoon in the rain.

Pictures outside the church.
   
Alison wanted to see inside the church and at this time we were unable to get in as the door was locked. Tourists can always improvise.

Elizabeth phoned us at 1:51 to see if we still wanted to meet with her. We told her that we were already at the church and she said she would be there in 10 minutes. Elizabeth and Graham pulled up and let us into the church and gave us a little history of the church and a tour of the inside. Graham is on the board which is responsible for restoring the church. He and his wife are very enthusiastic about the project but are hampered by funding. Like all good projects there is not a lot of money from heritage funds so they depend on individuals to contribute. The two were very helpful in giving us possible places to look for information about the Stewart family and we will pursue these in the next few days. The following picture is Graham and Duane discussing the restoration that has taken place and the projects that they will be working on in the future.

After touring the church, Elizabeth phoned David Nesbitt who was the author of the book called Full Circle . The book gives a 300 year history of the church. Elizabeth arranged a meeting with Mr. Nesbitt who was a minister of the church. What a wonderful couple, the Nesbitts are. We talked about our family history and asked for a copy of the book which we paid for. Mr. Nesbitt was kind enough to autograph it. What a treasure!
He was also kind enough to pose for a picture with Duane.

We left the Nesbitt's and headed for Monaghan City where we located the library which is not open on Sunday but we now know where it is. As we were walking down the street we asked two young ladies if they knew a restaurant that would be good to have a meal at. One responded with a very heavy Irish accent saying the "Squimpy" restaurant. We later found out that it was the "Squealling Pig" restaurant. Alison and Ivy were not very hungry and didn't need a full coarse meal and Duane didn't need a full coarse meal as he had a big breakfast just before lunch waking up so late therefore we all had the same thing, a salad and a bowl of mushroom soup. The mushroom soup had the mushrooms blended into the broth, there were no whole mushrooms. We did not eat at the Squealing Pig but found another restaurant that had a bit more class.

It was getting late and the girls like to get home before dark as the roads are very narrow. So narrow that every time a car is approaching, Alison flinches. Not to be offensive to people with turrets but it is as if she now has this syndrome.

Came home to our CALM warm comfy home and enjoyed a cup of tea and some scones. What a great day! The Roughrider games is on so will get back to this tomorrow.

September 19

The alarm clock rang at 7:30 and no one shut it off. Duane laid in bed for a few minutes listening to the alarm repeating itself and still no one shut it off. Finally, Duane sat up and saw two individuals standing, showered and dressed, staring at him. They got up before the alarm and were waiting to see if Duane would hear it. They thought this was quite funny.

Duane had another great breakfast of bacon, sausages, white pudding, black pudding and an egg. Alison and Ivy had cereal. We were also given ten slices of toast to eat. Needless to say we did not eat it all. (Toast here is only toasted on one side as the toaster's inside elements do not work or are not there. We have to put the toast in again and toast the second side.)

After breakfast we got in the car and set the GPS to go to an area called Slieveroe which is close to the Cahans church and is supposed to be the area that our ancestors may have left. The GPS took us to this area shown in pictures below.

Here Ivy and Alison are standing in front of the field that the GPS told us to stop at.

We are going to walk to the top of the meadow and take a picture of the country side.

The ground is very soft and wet. Ivy's runners and socks were soak and wet when we got back. Duane and Alison were wearing waterproof hiking boots. Ivy commented that she should have just walked in bare feet which might have been a good idea. You would think as you climbed the slope the area would get dryer. It didn't.

This is the view from the climb up the hill. What a beautiful lush land it is! Note the farm house at the bottom of the hill. We talked to the farmer and he suggested we talk to the Allen's as they had bought some Stewart land. He then gave us directions to get there which took us onto a one car wide road. The farm house was huge and there were at least 4 tractors at the huge barn and storage shed in the back. Unfortunately, there was no one home at the Allens. As we drove down the road to get back to Monaghan we met a farmer and asked if he knew the Allens. We told him that we had just been to the Allen's farm back down the road and no one was home. He said he did not know that particular Allen but he knew his brother, Jim, and gave us the brother's phone number. The last thing he said was if you can't drop the money off there bring it back to me and I will take care of it. He must have thought we were bringing an inheritance from Canada for the Allens.

We phoned Jim this evening and have made an appointment to meet with him on Thursday. He said his mother was a Stewart and he would share his history with us. Looking forward to this meeting even if it is not a relative.

Our next stop was in Monaghan to do some research at the Library. There wasn't anything useful. Duane is looking through Tithe Applotment books in the following photo.

When we were done at the library we stopped at the Hive restaurant and had a soup and sandwich. The bread was multiseed and the filling was cajun chicken, cheese and carmalized onion. The soup was a mixed vegetable. It sure hit the spot. We then set the GPS for the Cabra Castle and arrived there 40 minutes later. The drive into the castle is through a golf course and the castle itself is now a 107 room hotel. You are allowed to walk through and see the different rooms that are not being used by the hotel for guest or other functions. We were not allowed in the ballroom as there was a wedding reception being held there. The rooms that we were allowed to see were like museums each having antique furnishings and artifacts that fit that particular type of room. We met a few of the guests from the reception as we walked around and visited the drawing room which had a piano, an antique chess set, antique figurines and lots of big paintings on the wall of pictures of people that used the castle in the past. We also visited the restaurant where each table was decked out in a white table cloth, silverware, china and glasses. It was very elegant. There was no one eating as it was 4:00 in the afternoon. We found our way to the courtyard which is surrounded by stone cottages that serve as rooms for the guests. The stone cottages looked like they could have been the blacksmith shop, stables, and other areas used by the castle in the early part of the century. This is probably a very expensive place to stay and have a holiday. The picture below is the entrance to the hotel and this is where you would register if you wished to be a guest.

Alison is having fun with one of the guests at the wedding reception.

This is a panaramic view of one room.

September 20

We forgot to relate a story that happened the night of the rider game. The riders were playing and the time in Ireland was 11:58. Ivy and Alison wanted to go to bed but Duane wanted to finish listening to the game as there was about 6 minutes left. The problem is that the night light is on the girl's side of the room. There was a plug near Duane's bed where he could plug in the lamp. When the lamp was unplugged the light went out and then we noticed that the alarm was at 0:00. Did the unplugging of the lamp also unplug the alarm clock? We plugged the lamp back in and the lamp came on but the alarm clock remained at 0:00. We finally realized that it was 12:00 midnight which in 24 hour clock time is 0:00. We had a good laugh again.

Once again no one set the alarm and Ivy and Alison let Duane sleep till 9:30. The girls were up at 7:30 and had showers then sat around and visited while drinking coffee till Duane was up. After breakfast we made a few phone calls to nearby communities to see if there may be some resources for family history. Nothing turned up but we are still waiting for a phone call from a gentleman in Armagh.

Since we were not travelling today we decided to do laundry. The laudromats are called launderettes.

After dropping off our clothes, because they do the washing, we went to the town library to see if there might be some resources for family history. Alison found a CD case on the shelf that was labelled "Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858" We thought we would be able to look up a will for George Stewart so we opened the case and found that the CD was missing. The librarian said it should be there but it wasn't. She said you could get the information at FindMyPast website which needs a subscription. It is disappointing when the information is available at the library yet you have to access a pay site. We left that project for another time. As we were sitting a young gentleman, who had over heard our conversation, came over to talk to us and said that the second Governor General of Canada, John Young or Lord Lisgar, was from the town of Baillieborough and that he would take us to his former residence and estate just outside of town. We have arranged to meet with him Friday morning for a guided trip of the area. He insisted it was not for pay. The librarian then pointed out that there was a talk tonight at the library of people leaving Ireland and going to Canada in the 1950's. We decided after we picked up our laundry we would go to the talk. It means driving at night but we feel up to it.

After dropping off our laundry, we walked around the town and ended up at an old chuch and graveyard. Alison has an obsession with seeing inside. Here she is trying to get a good look.

When we got back to the town center we went for an ice cream cone. The parlor was also a Texaco service station.

From the service station we walked to the library and each used a terminal to see if we could find more information about the Stewarts in Ireland. It was not very rewarding. It is very hard to find records that date back to the early 1800's. We attended the meeting that was about using your smart phone to take a picture of an old residence and record it's location using GPS and then uploading it to a database so that other people have access to the information.

We made it home from the talk but missed our turn into the bed and breakfast so had to drive down the road aways to turn around. We met a man at the meeting that is going to take us around the area to a couple of Presbyterian churches tomorrow. The lights are going off tonight at 10:45. Did someone set the alarm???

September 21

Everyone was up before 8:00 and enjoyed a big breakfast before heading into to town to do some more research at the library before we meet the man we talked to at the meeting last night. There was nothing new to be found at the Library. The man, Tony McCabe, was right on time and he drove us to a church called Corglass Church which is Presbyterian. Jim Stewart was waiting there as Tony had invited him along to see if there may be a connection to our Stewarts. There was no connection but they took us into the church and showed us around. It was very interesting to hear their stories of the church. Each family in the church has their own pew and one of the stories is ....

Two brothers, one of which was married, had their own pew. The other brother was newly married and came to church with his new bride. They sat in the family pew but the one wife pushed the new wife out of the pew and things got heated between the brothers and escalated to a spilling of blood. The church had to be reconsecrated.

This is inside the church. Tony is on the left and Jim is on the right.

Tony then took us to Corranearry church where some Harpers are buried. This was interesting but did not give us any information on our Stewarts either. We also visited the manse for the church as this was where the congregation would gather for a barbeque or picnic. The highlight of the expedition was going to the house owned by Lady Sylvia Townley-Peeler. Tony is the caretaker of the home and no one was currently at the home. Lady Sylvia lives in Los Angeles. This place is a mansion. We walked into the house and wanted to take our shoes off but Tony insisted that it is ok to leave them on. As we were walking about in this huge house, we felt that we should have removed our shoes as the home was in immaculate condition. There were four bedrooms on the main floor and each had a name. The name used was the name of one of her sisters. The kitchen and dining room are on the second floor. The living room and sunroom were also on the second floor.
This is the stairway that you see when you first walk in that takes you up to the second floor.

Off to your right is the party room. When we walked into the room we could see a disco ball in the ceiling and then Tony turned on the music.
This is the room as you walk in and as you walk out.
   
Tony said this was the representation of Lady Sylvia s sisters. The sisters did not like it.

Two of the bedrooms had their own bath and the other two shared a bathroom. These are the bedrooms.
   

The second floor has the kitchen
   
dining room

and family room.

Also on the second floor was a ladder to get to the third floor which was used for sleeping and there were at least three more beds up in the room. There was also another ladder to get up to the attic.

And what you have all been waiting for, the outside of the house as you drive up to it. The house has a two car garage and there was a 1973 red cadillac parked in it. Tony said it was used for weddings and he was the driver. There were two more buildings on the grounds that could also be used to park cars.

After the tour Tony dropped us off at our car and we went for a coffee break and had a chocolate pear tart.

We asked the waitress to put our coffee in take away cups so we could drink and drive. Duane drank all of his tea before he got into the car so that he would not be distracted and could concentrate on the road. We were off to Clones to visit the library. The lady at the library was very familiar with genealogy and told us that we have probably come to a dead end as to finding records. She showed us the Cahans church records which we already knew about and could not show us anything else. Maybe our visit with Jim Allen tomorrow whose mother was a Stewart will give us oral history that will help us.

Our plan was to go to the location where we were to meet Jim just to make sure we knew how to get there. This meant driving to Ballybay. When we got there, it was time to have something to eat. The Kieran s Restaurant looked interesting so we went in. Ivy ordered a salad. Alison ordered potatoe skins and Duane ordered a large seafood soup. Everything was great.

After we ate we started down the road to find Douglas glass as Jim's home is right next door. Unfortunately, we did not really remember the name of the company and were going on memory. We did have the name correct as it turned out but ..google maps disconnected and we were without GPS. We made a left turn to get off the road and decided that we would just go back to our home base and make sure of the name. At the same time we were reconnected and Nellie as we call her, our GPS, was reprogrammed to take us back home. This is the road she took us down to get us back to the main highway. We travelled for about 4 kilometres on this road and fortunately did not meet any cars.
   
When we got back onto the main road and sort of knew where we were going as we had been down this particular highway before, Ivy said, I don't remember this road being so windy . Duane replied, I don't ever remember it being straight. We got back at 6:15, before it was dark. That was our goal. We sat at the dining room table and had coffee and tea to relax in our nice comfy home.

September 22

Everyone was up this morning by 7:30 without using the alarm clock. For breakfast, Ivy had toast. Alison had cereal and Duane had porridge. The full Irish breakfast is a huge meal and having it every morning is just too much. This is the pasture on the other side of the fence from our bedroom.

Today we are going to travel up to Jim Allen's place. In our GPS we entered a business that is supposed to be very close to his home. The name of the business is the Ideal Glass and Stone Company. Nellie, our GPS, would have taken us right to the place if we did not have to detour. They were tearing the road apart and there was no way to get through. We could see Ballybay just up the road but in this area there is no road every so often like in Canada. We could not just jog over a few hundred metres and get around the construction. We reprogrammed Nellie to take us to the glass store on an alternate road. An alternate route means following very narrow roads that we would call back roads. These are paved with grass growing in the middle and only enough room for one car. We arrived at the store and Duane went in to ask if they knew Jim Allen and their response was that he just lived across the road and pointed out the window. We thought we were very close and this confirmed it. When we arrived at his farm we knocked on the door and we were greeted by Jim. He reminded us of Uncle Bill in Melfort but a younger version. He had some papers that had information on the Stewarts going back to about 1830 but nothing that said he was a relative. His mother was a Stewart.

We are finding that the people here are so friendly and helpful. Jim said that there may be a records office in Monaghan that may have some information on births, deaths and marriages. He told us to get in his Isuzu truck and he would drive us to the records in Monaghan. The building we arrived at used to be a psychiatric hospital but is now their vital statistics offices. We realized as we were walking in that we had phoned this place earlier in the week with little success. Jim asked at the desk but they were too busy to help us. Jim is going to pursue this later and we might hear something in the distant future as we exchanged emails early in the day.

Jim's next mission was to take us to a few Presbyterian grave sites around the area where he lived to see if there were any Stewarts buried. Of course, we found his mother and father's graves. While we were at the one grave site, we could see an old bridge in the background.

He explained that this was an old railway bridge and that the railway has been abandoned for years. On one of the buildings in the church yard there was a part that was an extension of the roof. Jim wanted us to guess as to what we thought it might be. We did not have a clue. Here is what we saw. Can you guess?

When people came to church on their bicycles they would park them under the overhang to keep them dry. One of the churches he took us to was the Cahans church and we told him that we had been there early in the week. We understand from what Jim said that one part of this particular church split off and formed its own congregation. Jim's father, who was an elder of the Cahans church, was the one that left the Cahans church and helped to begin a new church in another part of the county. As we are travelling around the back roads to find these churches, Jim took us to his old home.

It was not being used anymore but when we were stopped, he said that there may be a man down the road that may have information on the Stewarts. We were off again, down the side roads to this man's house. We don't remember his name but he said that Archie down the road may have some knowledge of the Stewarts. As we were leaving Jim said, he'd talk your ear off in a day if you'd let him. We all laughed. We were off again down the side roads to Archie's home but he wasn't there. In the yard, by his house, there was an old piece of machinery that we did not recognize. We asked Jim what it was but, again, he would not tell us. He said we had to guess. Alison said it was for picking potatoes. Jim smiled and said she was correct. Here Jim is explaining how the blade lifted the soil and the tongs rotated around and flipped the potatoes off to the side.

We got back into the truck to drive to another location and walking down the road toward us was Archie. Ivy mentioned later that we should have taken a picture of him walking down the lane with his cane as it reminded her of what she thought was typical of an Irish scene. Archie mentioned a few Stewarts and we asked him if there were any Harpers associated with the Stewarts he knew. He said he did not know of any. In Ireland we are looking for information relating to George Stewart who was born in 1799 and Mary Harper born in 1804. His comment to us was that "I am not that old". If we can find some marriage information we may be able to find out who their parents are. Archie was not able to shed any light but he was very interesting to talk to. We were glad we met him. We finished the day with Jim at his farm. He invited us in for tea and cookies where we met his wife. During our snack, Jim's brother, Keith walked in. It was Keith's house we were at earlier in the week and found no one home. After tea, we went outside and took a picture of all of us.

Ivy Duane Jim Keith Alison are standing outside his home. Before we could leave Jim, he had to take us around the farm. We started in the barn where the milk cows are kept and fed. As we are walking out of the barn we notice a dead crow hanging from the barn door casing. Jim said it was used to keep the birds away.

Just after this picture was taken, we hear a big blast like a shot gun go off. Ivy and Alison jumped and Ivy let out a big screem. Jim laughed. He took us over to another barn and sitting on the floor is a gas cannon. It is used to frighten the crows away.

Jim then took us into the milking barn. The cows walk into their station on the right and someone in the middle attaches the milking machines that are hanging. They only take a certain amount of milk from each cow. It is piped to a big storage tank at the end of the barn. A truck comes and takes the milk to the processing plant.

We offered Jim money for all his driving around but he refused to take any. We left him a pin with the flag of Saskatchewan and a pin with the flag of Canada. He was much appreciative of the small gift. He had spent about 3 hours with us and was tickled pink to have helped us.

We drove to Rock Corry because Alison had a premonition that there would be some Stewarts buried in the Presbyterian grave yard. We were also going to get a bite to eat. We toured the grave yard of the Church of Ireland and found a Stewart but it was probably no relation. We were going to have something to eat in this town but they did not really have a place to sit and eat. There eating establishment was like a grocery store/subway store combined with no seating. We asked the lady if there was a cafe in town and she said that there wasn't and that we should go down the road to Cootehill. In this town, we found a place called Side Street Cafe . We sat down and all had fish and chips. While we were sitting Ivy told the waitress we were from Canada and she laughed and said I would never have known that . She then asked us what we were doing in town and we told her we were looking for Stewart relatives in the County of Monaghan. While we were eating our meal she came back with a piece of paper with a name of a person we should go talk to in Drum, a small town about 4 kilometres from where we were eating. She also introduced us to another couple in the cafe and they suggested some people we could talk to about the Stewarts also in Drum. The people are so eager to have you make a connection. As we are paying, the waitress was on the phone to a friend who knew the lady from Drum and gave us the directions to get to the house. We leave no stone unturned. We jumped in the car and set Nellie to take us to Drum. This lady happened to live across the street from the Stewart store. We talked to her but she had no information to give us. It was time to head back to our bed and breakfast as it was getting dark and we do not like driving at night. Here is what you see coming at you in the day time.

September 23

Everyone was up before 8:00 again today. We all had a hardy Irish breakfast because we are supposed to meet John at the library for a hike into the forest. Ivy is on skype with Leah and trying to explain black pudding, one of the elements of our breakfast. It is not a dessert pudding but a sausage. Black pudding is a type of blood sausage commonly eaten in Great Britain, Ireland and in other parts of Europe. It is generally made from pork fat or beef suet, pork blood and a relatively high proportion of oatmeal, in some recipes mixed with grits (hulled oats) and sometimes even hulled barley. It was about 10:00 o'clock when we left for town. We were too early to meet John so we decided to look for some souvenir shops and buy a thank you gift for our hostess as our bed and breakfast has exceeded our expectations. Catherine has been so kind and generous.

We met John at the library at about 10:45 and we all jumped into our car. The first stop was the Church of Ireland at the top of the hill where Lord Lisgar was buried.
   
Who is Lord Lisgar you say? He was the second Governor General of Canada and his real name is John Young.
   

Remember John, our guide, is filling us in on all this history as we are walking about. He is truly a gifted young man with a remarkable memory. From the church we proceeded down the road by car to the forest.

The reason John is giving us the tour today is because of the questions we were asking at the library earlier this week. He heard us talking about finding Stewarts in the area which made him take notice as the castle/house that we are hiking to was once owned by a Charles Stewart. Charles Stewart died in 1740 and left the estate to his son, William Stewart, who was High Sheriff of Cavan for 1749 and MP for Cavan county (1766 1768). He was followed by his son Charles, who was also MP for Cavan (1783 1793). He was killed in an accident in 1795, (it is rumoured it could have been a murder according to John our guide) when the estate passed to a nephew, Thomas Charles Stewart Corry, who sold it to Colonel William Young in 1814.
Colonel Young laid out the town of Bailieborough in its present location and was made 1st Baronet Young of Bailieborough in 1821. He died in 1835 and was succeeded by his son John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar, who was at one time Chief Secretary for Ireland and, at a later date, Governor General of Canada. He was made 1st Baron Lisgar in 1870 and in his retirement renovated the house. After Lady Lisgar's death in 1895 the estate went into Chancery and some of the land was sold to the tenants under the Ashbourne Act.
This is what the castle/house looked like when John Young would have been living in it.

We copied the above information about the house from Wikipedia, but John gave us this history and much more while walking through the forest and telling us about the castle/house.

John did not stay on the path that the locals might use but took us off the beaten path into the lush green forest to the remains of the house. There were branches, moss, leaves, stinging nettle, wild ivy and wild ferns. It was like we were in fairy land, very mystical. There were no leprechauns or pots of gold. Drat!!!

When we reached the place where the house used to be, it was overtaken by nature and you would not have known it was there unless someone had guided you to it. Probably, many locals have never seen what we experienced today because of John. This is just a portion of the lower base of the wall of the house.

This is what the area looked like when the Marist brothers, who were monks, bought the land in 1915.

You will notice that there are fields in the foreground on the slope of the hill. There was a wall built down this slope that seperated the fields from the orchard.

Legend has it that a young boy would gather sticks from the forest and use them as fishing poles. Some say he was gathering firewood. Lord Lisgar was not pleased and had the boy hung for not asking permission. John said it was a legend as Lord Lisgar was known more for benevolence than punishment. John then told us the story of Lord Lisgar when he was Governor General of Canada. An Irish group was trying to undermine British rule and were caught and imprisoned. They were to be executed but Lord Lisgar intervened and had their sentence reduced to life in prison with hard labour.
This is the tree that is supposedly the place where the boy was hung. These types of trees only live for about 80 years. How could it still be living from the time that legend has it?

As we travelled through the mystical forest we came upon the walled area called the "brothers graves". There are seven monks buried inside a walled enclosure. They would have died when they lived in the house and this was to be a grave yard but only seven of the monks were buried here as the monks moved back to the main monestary to continue their work. They were the last to use the house and decided to sell the house to the Department of Lands who demolished it soon after.

You will notice that there is a space between the markers in the middle of the enclosure with a white sign. A tree limb fell and broke the iron marker off which marked one of the brother's grave. It is away being repaired by a welder in town.
   
This is Ivy on a tree before she had her guiness.

After the hike is was time to eat again. We decided to go back to Lorela's (we have been calling it loralees up to this point) for a late lunch as our hike took about 2 hours. The menu had something called cottage pie and vegetables. It turns out that the cottage pie is almost exactly what we had earlier in the week called shepherd's pie. So we are not posting another picture of what we ate. Scroll up the page to view picture. LOL This is a view from our usual table as we have become regulars there.

We walked around town looking for souvenir shops and popped into a few of them and bought some items. We thought there might be some more opportunities to buy souvenirs if we went to the Tesco store, our version of a Superstore. Ivy found the Tesco using Nellie. From the next picture you can see that she was excited to tell us that she could see the Tesco at the corner.

On the walk to the store we passed by the Lady Sylvia's mansion and were able to take a better picture of it and the grounds from across the street. The lions standing on the grounds are valued at 7000 euros or 10,500 dollars each.

There were no souvenirs to be had at Tesco but there were lots of snacks that Ivy and Alison could buy. We found a pamphlet at the Texaco station earlier in week while we were eating our ice cream that had ways to deal with stress. It said that eating was a way to deal with it. We do our fair share of eating to reduce the stress of driving around on the roads of Ireland. We found a short cut back to town centre from the Tesco store. It was a walled walk way that took us from a parking lot through the buildings back to mainstreet where our car was parked.

We picked up the flowers that we were going to give Catherine and headed back to our bed and breakfast because it was time for our tea and sweets break.
This is our last night in Bailieborough and we head off to Tubbercurry tomorrow.

September 24

Everyone was up before the alarm went off as we were moving to a new bed and breakfast. All of us had porridge as our last meal at Catherine's. We packed our bags and said goodbye to Catherine. We came to Ireland to find new Stewarts but are finding many new friends. We drove to the north west part of the island called Donegal which meant skirting through the most westerly part of Northern Ireland. We were in Northern Ireland for about 30 minutes. The speed limit changes from kilometres per hour to miles per hour as they are a part of the United Kingdom and use the Imperial system. If we needed to buy something, it would have been in British pounds. Fortunately we did not need to spend any money. At this time Alison had two cell phones going and two maps. One cell phone was Nellie, our GPS and the other was a calculator to convert the speed limits from mph to kph. The maps were used to identify any interesting places along the way that we might want to see.

The first place we stopped at in Donegal was the Donegal Craft Village. We saw a weaver as she was finishing a blanket that she had made for a wedding present for someone in the USA.

The next little craftshop we stopped at was one that made fused glass bowls, jewellery, hairpins and necklaces. When we were done in the glass shop we decided to stop in the Aroma cafe where we each had a bowl of carrot orange correander soup. It was very tasty and hit the spot. Duane stayed in the cafe and finished his tea while Ivy and Alison continued on to the different shops. The shop of John McCabe had some amazing paintings according to Alison. There was another artist, a jewellery store, a paper artist (she cut intricate designs in paper and mounted them in a frame) and a wood carver. It was a very expensive place to shop so we did not buy anything. So no one is getting any gifts from here.

We got back in the car and headed for Donegal Castle which was in downtown Donegal. It cost each of us 4 euros. It was an interesting stop as part of it had burned and only the shell of that part of the building remained. Some of the castle had to be restored as part of a heritage project.
A river runs along the side of the castle and you have to walk over a bridge from where we parked the car.

As you walk closer you can see how old and majestic it is.

When we arrived at the door of the castle, Duane and Ivy knocked to see if anyone was at home.

The king of the castle opened the door and invited us all in to visit but only if we paid our admission fee.

When you first come into the castle grounds you see the castle on the right and the lower area called the manor house. The manor house was burned in one conflict by the owners so that the victorious English could not use it.

Also on the grounds is a chair that has been carved out of a stump of a tree that was cut down. I don't think that this chair had anything to do with the ancient castle and its inhabitants as it looked pretty young.

Inside the manor, you can see how thick the walls were and where the different floors would have been. There are old fireplaces on each floor.
From the mansion we walked through doors into the main floor storerooms of the castle which had floors that were constructed of cobblestone. To get to the second floor one could use a spiral staircase.

At the top of the staircase was a room that was used as the toilet. It is said that the pipe are angled to the outside so that enemy archers could not shoot you while on the seat.

The second floor of the castle had a huge fire place with an ornate stone border.
   


The third floor had static displays indicating the different occupants of the castle over the years.

When we left Donegal, we headed to our bed and breakfast. Duane noticed a road on the map that would take us to the ocean side. There was no indication that there would be anything interesting except probably being on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. The name of the little town was Mullaghmore. We were presently surprised when we arrived as it was a quaint little fishing village with a little history. In the pub/hotel that we went into for lunch there were pictures of Leonard Cohen, Prince Charles and Lady Camilla all who had visited the area and stayed at the hotel. We had a typical oceanside meal. Ivy had mussels. Duane had prawns and Alison had smoked salmon.
   


This is what the town looked like as we drove in. The hotel is the building at the end of the street on the right.

This is the hotel as seen from the pier.

We walked out to the pier and took a picture back through the wall into the harbour. Notice the wall on the right. There are stairs leading to the top of this wall on the other side.

This is Alison standing on the top of that wall. She used the stairs to get to the top. As we were walking towards this area from our car a couple of gentlemen in wet suits climbed to the top of this wall and jumped into the water. You will have noticed that the wall slopes out at the bottom so the jumpers would have to make sure they missed his area.

This is the picture Alison took from the top of the wall back down the stairs.

After leaving the pier we drove down to the other end of the bay as there was a sandy beach there. We collected a few shells and then headed down the road.

We saw this building in the distance and found out it was a home that Lord Mountbatten had used. It is called Classie Bawn Castle county house. It was built by Viscount Palmerston. It is this bay where Lord Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA in 1979. The boat he was on was blown up. We thought you could drive up to the house but it was on a private road that was gated.
   
Our last stop of the day was at the Banada Stables where we are staying two nights. This is where we could not connect to the internet with the little laptop we brought with us and therefore could not update this webpage. They had not turned the heat on in the house and it was very cold as you can see from the right hand picture as we rest on the bed and type up this information.
   

September 25

Everyone was up by 8:30 and ready to eat breakfast. Caroline told us that there was cereal on the shelf and that we should help ourselves. Alison said that she was going to wait as she felt that Caroline was making us something in the kitchen. She was right as Caroline brought in a plate that contained all the fixings for an Irish breakfast. There was fried eggs, scrambled eggs, sausages, white pudding, black pudding, bacon and mushrooms. Then Caroline brought out the Fremch toast with berries on top. There was too much to eat but it was great.
   
While we were having breakfast, Kevin brought in the part of the beehive where the bees leave their honey. He explained how they seperated the honey from the combs.

After breakfast we headed out to the rugged coast. Kevin said that there were cliffs as amazing as the Cliffs of Mohr but with less tourists than the more famous cliffs. He also said there were long stretches of sand beaches that we would be able to walk along. We drove for about an hour and a half and we came to Downpatrick Head.

We were able to drive to the top of this out cropping of rock. At the top is a blow hole that is a hole that is produced by the ocean through an underground cave. The tide was low so there was not a lot of spray coming up through it.
   
At the end of the cropping is a military hut that was used in World War II as an observation post. It had windows on three sides and a small fireplace. A cozy little home for the servicemen. As you can see in this photo there is a person who has gone beyond the signs that say "Do not go beyond this point". It was not one of us. At the end of the point is a column of rock that is standing seperated from the mainland. They say there used to be an arch that connected it to the mainland and that it collapsed with people on the other side. One story has the people making ropes from the plants and lowering themselves down to the bottom to be picked up by boats. Another has boats going and managing to get ropes up to them and then they lowered themselves down. It is interesting how facts change and soon you don't know the truth.

In order to get out onto this cropping of rock we had to go through a fence as the farmer used this area to pasture his sheep. Alison is standing among the sheep. Can you pick her out?
   
As we were traveling away from Downpatrick there were signs nailed to the telephone poles advertizing Molly's Cottage Kitchen so we decided to stop and have a bowl of soup.
   
When we were done eating we travelled to Ceide Fields, which was an archeological dig that goes back 5000 years. However, before we went into the dig, there was an outlook that was positioned on the edge of a cliff. We could see Downpatrick in the distance.
   
The view was breath taking. You could see where the ocean had started to carve caves into the side of the cliff while the sheep grazed in the field above.

There was an interpretive centre here explaining how 5000 years ago a sophisticated society had built stone walls to keep their cattle in the pasture. They had used tons of rocks to build miles of fence. We did not take any pictures as we did not walk around the area because it was raining and there was not a lot to see.

September 26

We left Carrick-on-Shannon and headed down the road looking for a cafe to have our lunch. A sign appeared at a round- about indicating that there was a place to get something to eat at Roosky. It turns out that most places are closed on Monday in Roosky. Alison needed to mail a couple of postcards so we went into the post office and bought a couple of stamps. When we asked if there was a cafe in town that we could buy a meal at he just smiled and said we would have go to the next town called Drumod. To our surprise as we are driving back over the bridge into town we were stopped by a red light. A portion of the bridge was lifted and two boats passed under the raised part of the bridge. When they had cleared the bridge the attendant lowered the bridge so we could cross.
The bridge is up and the boat approaches to go under.

The bridge is fully raised with a gate in front to prevent cars from proceeding.

The bridge is almost lowered to its normal position.

The night before, Kevin was putting dried peat moss on the fire. He said that they dug the peat moss out in strips and stood them up against each other in a teepee arrangement. This allowed them to dry. When it was dry they stacked it on pallets and shipped it to be sold. The reason we mention this is because as we are getting close to the castle we see "stooks" of peatmoss and a pallet loaded with the dried ones.

We arrived at the castle.

The tower has three bedrooms that are accessed from a spiral staircase. Each has its own bathroom. This is looking down the staircase from the top floor. You can see Alison at the bottom of the stairs (or is it?????).

There is also one lone bathroom that has access`from the spiral staircase. It looks more primitive than the rest of the bathrooms in the castle.

There is a guest staying in the top floor of the castle and she had to take her luggage up numerous steps to get to her room. There is also another guest staying on the first floor so he needed to negotiate his way up the staircase with his luggage. We are staying on the ground floor. There are three rooms. One has its own bathroom. This is one of the bedrooms in the tower.

The other two rooms share a bathroom. Tonight we have the main bathroom to ourselves. The other guests are leaving very early in the morning so we are not going to see them leave. Alison is worried about the ghost stories that have been told about the castle. As a matter of fact, there is a medium, who is staying at the castle and is doing a presentation that same evening at the local hotel. While we were seated to have our meal, Alison had to go to the bathroom. When she came out, Ivy was ready to frighten her and Duane snapped the picture just as she did. Alison will not probably sleep tonight.

Our meal started with a salad. Then we were served roast beef, broccoli, purple cabbage, beets, butternut squash, roasted potatoes and gravy. Dessert was possett.
   


Here we are at the dining room table enjoying this beautiful meal.

This is a view of the lake that is down the hill from the castle.

After supper we finished typing up the days activities and then headed to our bedroom. There is a huge trunk in the room and the girls thought it would be a good idea to check it for a body. We tried opening it but it was locked. We were ready for anything to jump out.

You can see from the above picture that Ivy and Duane have their pajamas on. Alison slept with with her clothes on all night just in case she had to run out of the castle and hide in the car. we went to bed.
Duane's bed on the left       Alison and Ivy's on the right.
   
During the night Duane got up to go to the washroom. He could not open the bedroom door right away as there was something wrong with the mechanism. Alison and Ivy awoke because of the noise that the door made as Duane tried to open it. They bolted upright in the bed and scared the living daylights out of Duane. The light was on all night. Ivy did not get much sleep. It is weird how we can make our selves afraid of a perfectly normal situation.

September 27

Since we have WIFI that works with the little laptop, we are finishing our update and it is now 11:55pm and we are going to bed.

September 28

6:45 Ivy and Alison woke up early and Duane woke up shortly after, at 7:30. Duane didn't snore!!! Yay!!! We had planned to go to the Aran Islands but due to the gale forced winds they prevented us. We decided to explore Galway. We drove by the harbour in Galway, parked the car and plugged the meter.

Our adventure began! 2 hours to explore. After deciding which direction to go, we walked and shopped. Here is where we bought a few souvenirs.

Shopping with indecisive people can be quite a challenge as many who know us would agree! We were all so focused on making decisions that we forgot about time! Duane informed us that if we go over our timed meter they clamp the tires and you can't leave until you pay the fine. We hustled back as quick as we could noting that Duane could move quicker than we had thought. We made it! We moved the car to a scenic area in the city that overlooked the ocean. We decided it was time to eat. Lunch was at the Galleon. Ivy had Golden Fried Fillet of Plaice (Flat Black Fish), Zingy Citrus Salad and Chips. Alison and Duane both had Traditional boiled Bacon and Cabbage with Creamed Potatoes and Parsley Sauce. They both had dessert. Alison tried the Bread & Butter Pudding and Duane had the Sticky Toffee Pudding. Alison wished she had had the Toffee Pudding again.
   


While we were eating we had noticed a glass jug of orange liquid on a nearby table. Duane and Ivy had noticed this before at a couple of other restaurants. They were curious as to what it was so they asked the waitress. She said it's Mywatty Water. It's a concentrated syrup that you mix with water. It's free to anyone that wants some. We had a Blackcurrant flavour. The common flavour is orange.

Our next stop was at Spiddal Craft Village. We met a friendly storeowner, Eric Byrne of Celtic Coin & Jewelry. He has a brother that lives in Edmonton that owns an Irish Pub there. He remarked,"You're not leaving here without these green earrings! They match your eyes!" He gave Ivy and Alison each a pair. We now have gifts to give! We had coffee and tea at Builin Blasta Cafe which is one of the shops in the village. We then set off further down the coast to a beach called Tra'an Doilin at Carraroe. To our surprise it wasn't a sandy beach. It was more like gravel. As we looked closer we realized it was tiny shells and bits of corral and algae.
   
Alison scooped up a bag of it hoping to bring some home and hoping customs doesn't have a problem with that. Definately not the day to go to the beach; so windy, wet and cold but so happy we did! Never would have seen or experienced this! At around 5:00pm we headed back to Kinvara.
We drove by a home where the roof was thatched and we stopped and took a picture.

Up until this point we have had no problem on the Round Abouts. Somehow the sign wasn't marked for what we needed to see so we went around, and around, and around the round about 3 times! We found our way to a small quiet restaurant overlooking the harbour of Galway Bay called Gentian Cafe and Wine Bar. We whipped home for a little while and registered our Tax Free cards in order to get our tax back when we leave. We then went out at 9:30 to the local hopping pub, O'Connelley's, to experience a Traditional "session" night. There were 4 people playing instruments: 2 fiddles, 8 string guitar and a concertina.
   
Duane was the only one to have a Guiness, his first ever.

It was after 11:30 by the time we got back to our home away from home. That is one of the reasons our updates have been slow in coming. We don't have time to do them. We are also experiencing internet problems again with the little laptop connecting to the WIFI but not able to download pages from the internet. We need to find a coffee shop or pub that has free WIFI so we can upload our new pages. Be patient as we know you are anxious to hear from the Emerald Isle, E I R E.

September 29

We had a light breakfast before leaving Teresa's B&B (Wild Atlantic Way Self Catering).

We left at 9:30 for Portmagee. The drive was very scenic and not quite as stressful as previous days. Most of our day today was travelling to get to our next destination in Portmagee. We are further south along the coast and today's drive is our furthest drive yet. We took a coffee and scone break in Rathkeel at a little restaurant called Cafe V. Not one of our favorite stops. This little town looked a little rough and not kept up like the others we have stopped at. Have we ever mentioned that these little stops we make along the way after about an hours drive is what we call our calming stop. You have to experience the drive of windy narrow roads in order to understand why we seem to stop and eat so much!! This is where our drive becomes very scenic. Lots of mountains, trees, rivers, greenery and sheep. Here were are going through a tunnel that goes under a river. We had to pay a toll to use this road.

They never warn you of a lookout soon enough and you have already zipped by before you are able to stop. We did manage to turn in at one spot because there were three stops within a couple blocks of each other to make it possible.

Another hour had passed and we are now at lunchtime and arrive in Killarglin. We spotted this quaint little place with a couple of police cars out front and figured it must be a good place to eat. So in all three of us bounced only to discover there were no police to be had. There was only one guy sitting at the bar and the bartender told us they don't serve lunch. He then directed us to another restuarant around the corner called something. Nobody really heard what he said with his Irish accent. Duane thought he said "the bonker" but it was actually called the Bunker. We are still struggling with understanding their language.

We are now in the county of Kerry and are on a road called "The Ring Of Kerry". Portmagee is one of the stops on the ring. Just over another hours drive further we arrived in Portmagee just afer 3:00. We thought we were at the right place and Alison and Ivy were a bit skeptical as part of the roof was missing and it looked like something out of a horror show. Nothing like the picture we had. Something didn't really seem right. Looking down the hill we could see another cottage that looked more like it. Whew, thank goodness! We pulled up to the right place and knocked but no one answered. However, the door was unlocked so we just let ourselves in. Ivy called Elizabeth (our hostess) and she told Ivy that the door was unlocked to just go right on in and she would be right down to greet us. Ivy didn't tell her that we already had let ourselves in and checked everything out. We were all very pleased with how cute the place was.

We have noticed one common thing here in Ireland. Most people keep their places so cold! We have turned the heat on and have a fire going and Duane is still sitting here with his red air canada blanket wrapped around him. After settling in it was time to go into town for groceries except Duane was strugging to get wifi working on our little notebook again so our blog is yet again late being posted. We head into town and have to stop and ask a lady where the grocery store is. Seems as though we drove right past it without knowing. We pick up a few things and drop them back off at our little cottage. Time to now head off for supper. Alison looks in a binder that is left for us with the sites to see around here and recommended restaurants. She finds a place that looks interesting and across the bridge in a little town called Chapeltown on Valencia Island. The menu shows it has Yorkshire pudding and both Alison and Ivy are excited cause that's what they are interested in ordering. We walk in and are not sure where we are going and Ivy says,"Oh, it's this way", not reading the sign in it entirety. She is off to have a smoke as the sign says, "Ring Lyne Restaurant smoking area", with an arrow pointing in the direction we are traveling. The funny thing about this is everytime we have a stressful time during driving Ivy says "Ok, I am ready for a smoke" all in good humor. So her unintentionally heading that direction made it more funny. We were hesitant to go in the restaurant as there was one guy behind the bar and another guy sitting at the bar and they both looked in our direction and said nothing. We kinda stood there hesitating to go in. Duane asks "is this a restaurant?" and Ivy asks "are you open?". The guy says "yes" and tells us to have a seat anywhere. We grab a table right smack dab in the center by the window. The bartender comes over with his pad of paper and pencil ready to take our order. Duane asks "Do you have menues?" The fellow says "No" and we are kinda in shock and he proceeds to say "Just specials for tonight". He mentions 4 specials. Thai curry chicken, deep fried cod or baked cod and chips, and some kind of pasta dish but can't remember what kind so we just went for standard Fish and Chips to be on the safe side. He leaves to go put in the order and wait on a couple more customers that have now showed up. At this point we are killing ourselves laughing. We look kinda funny being the only ones in this big restaurant/bar and feeling alone. Ivy comments its like a scene out of Corner Gas. Alison jumps up wanting to take a picture but then the bartender/waiter tells her to sit and he will get a picture of all three of us. We are still finding it hard to contain ourselves from laughing. The lighting wasn't great so the guy goes over and adjust two spot lights in the room right at us pretty much blinding us. He takes a few pictures and heads off to cook our meals.
   
Into the bar comes another gentleman. He had noticed our red Canada flag on the car and proceeds to asks us if we are from Derry. Derry is a soccer team in a final this weekend whose colors are the same as our Canada Flag. Duane tells him that we are not from Derry that its a Canadian Flag. Between the Irish accent and the guy having no teeth both Alison and Ivy could not understand a word the guy was saying. Alison and Ivy are laughing so hard by this point because Duane was having a full conversation with this fellow and having no problem at all understanding him. Guess Duane is more Irish than we think!! He told Duane that if you were going to the Skellig Michael, an island off the shore of Portmagee, you need to prebook. He must have told us to prebook at least 10 times in the short time we were there. We nodded our heads in agreement and then we left the restaurant as it was time to head home to bed. The guy told us again as we were leaving "Make sure you pre-book".

September 30

As you are reading today's report, you have to hum the theme to Stars Wars the entire time. Daaah Dah, Dadada Daaah Dah, Dah Dah Dah Daaaaah. Alison was going to keep notes for the day so we would have something to refer back to when we got home and had to type for our webpage. All she had in the book was "9:20 left the cottage". The rest of the page was blank. We laughed when we saw this as we did not need to write anything down anyway as it was an UNFORGETTABLE day.

The waves were rolling and the wind was blowing and needless to say we did get wet. You can see the island in the distance as we roll over the waves. This is where Duane was sea sick and lost his breakfast. Fortunately, no one got a picture. There was one other fellow who experienced the same thing a little earlier in the ride.
   
We arrived at the island and had to disembark. They pull up to a set of stairs and tie off the boat. As we are climbing the stairs Duane is thinking that this is it. We will stand on the dock a few minutes, take a few pictures of the scenery and then get back on the boat and head back to port.
   


John, our captain said he would be back in two hours to pick us up. WHAT! Two hours to do what????? We started walking down the path that looked like it was going to take us to the windward side of the island so we started walking. We came to a place where they had installed a roof so falling rocks would be deflected over you.
   
   
After going through this enclosure we rounded the bend and encountered a fence that said "no entry". It turns out that this area is for guides who live on the island and stay a couple of weeks at a time as they don't know what the weather will be like or when they will be able to leave. Now what. What are we going to do. As we are thinking this, a young lady dressed quite warmly approached us and told us that as we climbed the 600 steps we should take our time. There is no rush as your boat will be back at the time they said. She said to be careful as there are no guard rails and if you need to you can sit and move from step to step as the need arises. We looked up the side of the island and could see people coming down. They were way up the side of the mountain and were moving very slowly as they descended. Ivy did not want to go as she had a heavy backpack and did not want to carry it all the way up to the top of the stairs. There was supposed to be a monastery at the end of the trail. Duane and Alison decided they would go having come all this way. We climbed a number of steps and looked back at where Ivy was and here is the view we had.

This is the view Ivy had of us as we climbed up the stairs.

We kept walking up the stairs till we reached the monastery.
   
   
We arrived at the monastery and could not believe that people lived up here from 500 AD to 1100 AD. This is the Star Wars connection as this was one of the areas used in the filming of the seventh movie.
   
   

In the next pictures you can see another island in the distance called the "Little Skellig" known for the many ganets that make the island their home.
   
There was a guide at the monastery that would answer any questions that you had. She was the one that told us that she stays on the island for weeks at a time in the buildings at the bottom of the stairs where Ivy was waiting for us. It was now time for us to return to the bottom of the stairs. Going down is scarier than going up as you are looking down a steep flight of stairs down to the ocean below. Duane decided he would sit and move down one step at a time as the guide had suggested. We reminded ourselves that we had lots of time and going one step at a time was the cautious way of descending the 600 steps.
   
If you miss this corner you end up in heaven or the other place if you have been bad! Duane is still taking his time as this was the most precarious part of the climb.

Ivy sees us coming back and snaps a shot of us on the more tame part of the descent but one where you still had to be careful.

We returned to the dock and prepared to get back on our boat.
   
When we arrived we noticed a navy ship cruising around the island. We found out later that the American ambassador had been on the island the same time as us and we probably passed him on the stairs and did not notice it.

On the trip back, captain John took us by the Little Skellig and we got to see all the birds that make it their home.

It was a lot dryer going back as we were going with the wind. Only one person got sick returning and it was not Duane as he had taken a couple of gravol while hiking on the island. This has been an unforgettable experience.

We went from the pier then to grab a bite to eat and then to our B&B and changed our clothes into something dryer and cleaner as one's bum gets pretty dirty going step by step down stairways on a mountain. We went into a town about ten minutes back down the road as it had a very nice grocery store and it was not as expensive as the one in Portmagee. We needed some groceries for our breakfasts. After shopping we headed back to Portmagee where we were going to attend another pub night. The live music was to start at 9:45 but we went earlier as there was free WIFI and we would be able to update our many fans that are following us on this webpage. We arrived at 8:00 and ordered some food so we did not feel like we were imposing by using their free WIFI. We ordered nachos and cheese, wings and chips. We also had drinks, non alcoholic except Ivy, she had irish coffee to warm up as she got a chill waiting for Duane and Alison to come down from the mountain. We also had dessert. We had to move from our table as that was the location where the live music was to set up.

The dancing was done by local residents who had been taught the traditional Irish dances that are done in a square like our square dancing. There were about 16 who were able to set up two squares. The head couple and the couple across from them would dance different patterns to the music. Then the side couples would repeat what the head couple had done. Sometimes the whole group would do a maneuver in different dance patterns. When the dancers got tired, the musicians would play music for other people in the crowd to dance. Ivy got asked to dance by one of the locals who had explained some of the dances that they had done. The fellows name was Pat. We found out after that he was one of the workers that Ivy had chatted with on the Skellig Island while Alison and Duane climbed the stairs.

We left at 11:30 and got back home and typed up what we had done on the previous two days so we can post it to our webpage when we go back to the restaurant tomorrow for lunch.

October 1

As we said yesterday, it was unforgettable, but we did forget a significant part of our day. After we had lunch we did not go back to our B&B but headed over to Valencia Island which is across the inlet from Portmagee. We travelled to the end of the island where a ferry picks up cars and takes them across the bay to Reenard Point. The little town is called Knightstown. There is a tourist information in the town that we visited and she told us about the different sites to see on the island. The first location of interest was the Grotto. This was an old slate quarry but someone had made it a shrine to Our Lady and St. Bernadette. The statues can be seen above the quarry entrance.

Right beside this opening is another that is much smaller and is fenced off so that no one falls into the open pit that was probably another vacated slate mine. Duane hiked up to the fence and on his way down, Ivy snapped a picture. Can you find Duane in this picture. Where is Waldo? er Duane. Scroll down in this webpage and see a close up picture.

From the Grotto we drove down to the lighthouse. We were not able to get in as the gate was locked. Here is a picture of the lighthouse as we drove up the side of the hill to reach the top of Geokaun Mountain.

There are two views from the top of the mountain. This is the marker for the top of the mountain.

One view is called Shepherd's View as it overlooks a field filled with sheep and expansive farmlands below.

The other view is called Miner's view. It is directly above the grotto and you can see out into the bay below.

There are plaques situated at each view that give some interesting facts. One being that the transatlantic cable started here and was laid across the ocean to North America in 1865. They did not reach North America the first time as they lost the end of the cable in the ocean along the way. They tried again in 1866 and were successful. Another fact noted on one of these plaques is that Charles Lindbergh flew over the island when he reached the European Continent on his non-stop transatlantic flight. Islanders waved as he flew by.

This is the view of the road as we drove back down the mountain. Our little cottage is at the end of the road across on the other side of the water. We could pick it out as we sat and looked but it does not show up in the picture very well.

That was our trip to Valencia Island that we forgot to mention in yesterdays update.

Today the girls were up at 7:00 and Duane was up at 8:30. It should be noted that Duane was up the night before trying to complete the three previous days of updates but decided to pack it in at 1:30 and finish in the morning. While Duane finished the updates for Sept 28 to Sept 30 Ivy and Alison made breakfast and did a little bit of wash. They then went outside and took a bunch of pictures of the sun on the hillsides. They caught another rainbow arching over the bay.

After we posted the updates at the local pub because they had free WIFI, we ate our lunch which was beef stroganoff, hamburger and mussels. When lunch was finished, we went to the beach. Nellie, the GPS, took us over the hill on narrow local roads for about 10 km to the Blue Flag beach.

There was a castle out on the point and an old monastery on the opening to the point.

We hiked out to the monastery.
   
The sun was setting so it was time to head back to Portmagee and have supper. Ivy and Alison had ribs and Duane had scampi Prawns.
It was time to get back to the B&B as we needed to book our next night's stay over and a hotel in Dublin so we can catch our flight home.

There's Waldo er Duane!! Can you see him now?

October 2

The day started off with a bang. We were up before 8, packed our bags, paid for the fuel oil that we used over the three days and then drove over to our hosts home. We wanted to let her know that we left her payment for the oil on the washer back at the cottage. We had to turn around in the driveway of her home so Duane pulled ahead and needed to inch a bit ahead into a bush. As it turned out the bush was the edge of a stone wall. B A N G. The bumper now has a little ding in it and we will need to deal with this when we get back to Dublin.

We are a little paranoid now because of this little incident. As we are driving, Alison suggested she pull in the mirror so that it didn't get dinged passing some of the hedges and walls that you get so close to in Ireland. This is when the quote of the day was uttered. Duane said "I would rather loose the mirror than scratch the side of the car". After two and a half weeks it is still unnerving as traffic is so close on one side and hedges so close on the other.

We are now heading more toward the southern part of Ireland toward the Cork area. We decided to take the more scenic route and travel along the Ring of Kerry. The roads are way more windy and mountaneous. A little more stressful for Duane as we are travelling along more of the edge of the mountains. We made a few more stops than we normally do to take pictures of the mountaneous terrain.
   
   
   
   
We stopped for a coffee break in Kenmare and made sure to go somewhere that had wifi so we could post to the blog and not be late! We also did a bit of shopping. We finished the Ring of Kerry driving through the Killarney National Park and took some incredible pictures of the beautiful scenery along the way.
   
   
We planned to stop in Killarney for lunch but it was crazy with tourists so instead we did the touristy thing. We went to another castle called Ross Castle. When we got there we noticed a couple of fellows that would take you for a carriage ride through the park.

We took a couple pictures of the castle before boarding our carriage as Duane needed to do a pit stop.

During our carriage ride we were able to take pictures of Ross Castle, the Monastery and Muckross house which was a mansion where Queen Victoria visited and had tea. We also saw a herd of wild red deer.
   
Our carriage ride was very relaxing. We could also see Carrauntoohill mountain, the highest peak in Ireland at 1038 meters.

Further down the highway we stopped at Macroom and had a very late lunch. Alison had the best Toffee Pudding dessert with extra sauce. The friendly waitress said she orders extra sauce when she orders it so that will be how it's ordered from now on!

It was a challenge for us to cross the street. Anyone know the game Frogger??? Need we say more? Once we got in the car and started to back out we realized we were pinned in by a big bus that was parked behind. At this point Ivy and Alison decide it's best for someone to help direct. Ivy hops out to help. Success! There was also a little castle here that served as the tourist information centre. We took another "Where is Waldo er Duane" picture. Can you find him?

We then follow "Nellies" directions to our next B&B. We are a litle skeptical as to where she is leading us. We travel down even more narrow roads and come upon a tractor heading up the hill towards us. We scooched into a driveway in order for him to pass by and this time Alison hopped out to instruct Duane in order to avoid hitting another brick wall. Success! We arrived to find a very nice welcoming note telling us our hostess would return in about an hour and that we were in the "pine" room.

We had tea and scones when Marian came home. Very pleasant lady. We have booked our next nights stay at Stradbally.

October 3

Just a few kilometres from our last B&B was a place called "Old Head". Out on the point was a golf course and a lighthouse. It was very windy as we stood and watched the waves crash onto the shore.

We did not stop in the next city, Kinsale, as it was a very busy place but it had a beautiful harbour.

We arrived in Cobh, pronounced cove, at about 12:15. We headed straight to the Heritage Centre to see if they had any information about boats that had left in the 1820's. All they could do for us was to send us to a genealogist who had lists but charged 50 euros. This was too much money to put out to someone that probably has the same info that we can find on the internet. So instead of spending 50 euros on a genealogist we spent the money we saved on souvenirs. After shopping we went for lunch at a restaurant called the Quay and had some soup and sandwiches.

There was an old Presbyterian church on the hill above the heritage centre that was converted to a museum. We thought that they might know where we could find info on the boats. He had ship lists but they were the ones that are readily available on the internet. We went through the museum that highlighted the sinking of the Lusitania in World War I by a German submarine and the 1916 rebellion for Irish independence. It also had displays for different people that had competed throughout the past in Irish dancing.

Since we did not find any family history we decided to head to our next bed and breakfast. Alison noticed a red star on the map by the road we had to follow to get to our new home. The red star is a place of interest and Alison suggested we check it out. We were headed to an old monastery that dated back to the 1100's that contained romanesque architecture and had a circular tower something like one we had seen earlier in our trip. It is located in the town of Ardmore. There was also a building on the sight that actually dated back to the 400's. A Bishop Declan was supposed to have predated St. Patrick in bringing Christianity to Ireland.
   
This location inspired another "Where's Waldo er Duane" moment. Can you find him?

We continued on to Dungarvan where we had supper at the Anchor bar. This is a view we saw from our table.

We sat outside on the patio under an awning that had outdoor heaters. The food was excellent. Alison had grilled chicken. Ivy had the Anchor basket. Duane had a chicken burger.

Nellie got us to our new bed and breakfast with no bother. We are going to be heading to County Carlow in the morning to visit the town of Kilkenny.

October 4

We did not have a place to stay for tonight so the night before we booked a place through Airbnb and had to wait for confirmation. Ivy and Alison were awake before the sun came up again. Duane thinks they are anxious to get home. We were done breakfast and packed up the car by nine. There was no confirmation of our B&B before we said goodbye to our little cottage and our hosts.

We were heading to Waterford. As we were driving, Ivy received an email from Airbnb saying that our booking was not available.

The highway had four lanes most of the way and therefore it was a very relaxing drive.

We bypassed Waterford and encountered a toll on the highway. After paying the toll we crossed this bridge.
   
This is what it looks like from the river.

The mission we were on today was to find "The Sweater Shop" in Kilkenny as Alison has been eyeing a very nice sweater at different shops for the last two weeks and is hoping to find it at a lower cost. We were to have stopped at the Aran Islands earlier in the trip but the weather was not cooperative the day we were able to go. It is these Islands that are renowned for making these woolen sweaters. As we drove to Kilkenny, Alison was reading the Ireland book and found a tea room that sounded interesting. Setting Nellie on course for "Mocha's Vintage Tea Room" brought us to downtown Kilkenny and a very narrow road and small parking lot. As we were walking, Alison found a 20 euro bill on the ground. This is what we used to pay for our treat. Plugging the meter for half an hour gave us enought time for our refreshment break. We actually received 45 minutes because you receive an extra 15 minutes of free parking at this lot. Ivy coined a new name for the 2 euro coin, a turo.
   
We had a lemon drizzle cake with our coffee and tea. Later, We found a good size parking lot to park that was close to a mall. It was called the MacDonagh Junction shopping centre. We visited Dunnes and T. J. Maxx and some bookstores. At the same time we shopped, we were trying to find another bed and breakfast but once again it was booked. There were no stores that had the sweater so we walked towards city centre to find the store that Ivy and Alison had looked up on the internet.
   
Along the way we stopped at other stores continuing our quest for some other souvenirs. We finally arrived at "The Sweater shop" and Alison was able to make her long anticipated purchase. Ivy tried to book another B&B but once again it did not work out. We are trying to book places near Carlow which is an hour from Dublin. Our last stop will be a hotel near the Dublin Airport so we can catch the plane Thursday morning. When we arrived in Carlow, we looked up different hotels and settled on the Woodford Dolmen Hotel. The receptionist said the room was close. She directed us through a set of doors and then we walked through a maze of hallways and 7 more sets of doors at which time we arrived at out room. It wasn't very close at all! When we opened the door we could smell that someone had smoked in it even though the hotel's policy is no smoking in the rooms. We phoned reception to ask if we could get another room and they were very obliging to give us another one. Again the room smelled like smoke and when we looked out of our window we could see old butts laying on the ground. We decided that we would go out for supper and on our way out we ask reception again if they could give us another room. We ate at Reddy's Bar and Lounge. Alison had a stir fry. Ivy enjoyed stuffed turkey and ham. Duane finally tried the Bangers and mash.

Alison and Ivy went for a walk when we got back to our hotel room. Duane stayed back and typed up the day's activities. This is what they saw.
   

We are now relaxing in our room and finishing the update and hopefully go to bed early tonight.

October 5

Things did not go so well through the night. Duane spent a bit of time in the bathroom, probably, from his bangers and mash which may have caused an upset stomach and runs. Alison has the runs as well. Ivy is feeling fine. The girls got up and went for coffee before coming back to see if Duane was up at 9:00 am.
   
We all went for breakfast and then checked out as we were anxious to drop off the car to see what complicated process we had to deal with because of the little booboo our car had suffered on our 2777 kilometer trip. The highway we traveled on had a speed of 120 kilometres per hour so it did not take us long to get to Dublin. It probably took us longer to find a service station close to the car rental drop off than it did to get to Dublin. We missed more turns and exits today than we did in our entire 2777 kilometre trip. We filled up with gas and found the car drop off compound anticipating a number of hours determining the extent of damage and dealing with settling our account. As it turns out there was one form to fill in and sign and then the company emails the information later so that the insurance company can process the claim. It was nice to be done with the responsibility of driving in Ireland with a rental car and to now have someone else drive us to the airport. We thought we would be able to check in today at the airport and not have to hurry in the morning. We went to what we thought was departures and this is what we encountered.

It turns out there was another level that we were to go to. On this new level we asked where the Air Canada desk was at the West Jet desk. We then found out Air Canada had closed down for the day so we ended up checking in on line from our hotel room.

We caught a shuttle to our hotel room which was a two minute drive and checked in. Since it was still early in the day, we decided we would catch the bus into Dublin and see St. Patricks's Cathedral. We asked the lady at the reception desk what we needed to do. She said you could ride the bus for 10 euros and you needed the exact amount. We all had a 10 Euro bill so we were good to go. She pointed at some double doors and said we could catch the bus outside and down the street. We found the bus stop and stood there and a bus passed by. We stood there some more and another bus passed us by and a third and so on. After about the sixth bus we asked a pedestrian what we were doing wrong. He said you have to wave at the bus you want and then they will stop. He also said we were at the wrong stop if we wanted to catch the direct bus to downtown. We walked back to the hotel debating if we should just take a taxi. In the hotel, we talked to a very friendly young man behind the coffee counter. He told us that if we were to ride that bus we needed exact change and it had to be coins. He also told us an alernative way to get downtown using the bus by going back to the airport. At the airport there is a bus that takes you to specific drop off points downtown and all you pay is 10 euros return and it did not have to be coins. We took his advice and got on the double decker bus. The trip took about half an hour but it was nice not having to concentrate on driving.

Once downtown, we walked to St. Patricks cathedral. John Brady, from Bailieborough, had suggested we do this as he knew a couple of the tour guides as he was once one.
   
   
What an amazing structure and so much history. Jonathan Swift is buried in the cathedral. He wrote "Gulliver's Travels" but he was also Dean of the cathedral and would give lengthy sermons dealing with social injustice. Robert Boyle is also buried in the cathedral with his family and there are many others resting in peace here. Robert was a famous scientist that discovered Boyle's law, a relationship between gas pressure and volume.

October 6

Alison and Ivy were up before the sun. They layed in bed using their cell phones to entertain themselves till we had to get ready to go. The receptionist was going to phone at 7:30 to make sure we were up in time to catch our flight. Duane got up at 7:25 so we really did not need the wake up call. We finished packing and went out to meet the shuttle bus that was leaving at 8:20. We loaded our bags onto the bus and left for the airport but before we got out of the parking lot we were delayed. The gate would not open. The shuttle bus driver jumped out of our van and opened the container where you might insert a card to let you out. He pulled out the mechanism and jostled with it for about 10 minutes then put it back in. The gate opened and we were off to the airport. On the way to the departures counter we saw a mailbox. We needed to drop off our receipts for purchases that were made as we could get back the tax that we had paid. Alison had not finished filling in all her forms so we were delayed again. We were already checked in because we had done that the night before from the hotel room on our little laptop but we could not print out our boarding passes.

At the departure desk Duane's labels for his luggage would not print out correctly and we were delayed again as they tried two more times to print them out. Finally, the information was handed off to the next wicket and they were finally able to print out the luggage tag. Our luggage was checked and now it was time to go through security. Duane whisked through without any trouble but Alison and Ivy had a different person and he made them take off their shoes and they were also scanned for explosive residue. Nothing showed up and we were on our way to the departure gate. We arrived with a few minutes to spare so we sat down and had a coffee and a muffin because we had not eaten yet. We boarded the plane and endured a seven hour ride to Toronto. We landed in Toronto and we had to go through Canadian Customs. Once again, Duane and Alison were whisked through but Ivy had to endure another sniffing for explosives. With customs done we needed to find our next departure gate which was D34? Where is D34, you ask? So did we as we missed the sign that said take the elevator up to the second floor. We only found this sign after searching some of the first floor. We were not the only ones confused about this and eventually we arrived at the departure gate in time for the loading. We took off from Toronto on time.
   
It has snowed in Regina, which is a little unusual for this time of year but we are now all at our homes ready for a good nights sleep as it is 8:50 here but 4:00 am in Ireland. The final 2 days of our trip has left some of us not feeling well. Duane is over his bought of stomach problems. Alison is feeling better but now Ivy has come down with our flu type symptoms. We need a holiday from our holiday.

As we travelled around the different parts of Ireland we would comment on different happenings and experiences and one of us would respond with "really!". Well we are really home and we really had a wonderful trip. We really hope you enjoyed travelling with us. Good night from C A N A D A.