Today has been a long but eventful day. We started with a delightful breakfast at our B&B in Bushmills. Afterward we toured the Bushmills Distillery, which unlike Jameson’s was an actual functioning distillery complete with the hot and aromatic fermenting rooms. Very cool! We even got a complimentary Bushmills drink and I gladly gave mine to Stanley since I am not a whiskey fan. After we completed our tour and sample, we made our way back down the road to Dunluce Castle which was now open and it was really cool. It is a ruined castle which sits on a rocky island on the Causeway Coast and you could roam around freely within the contained areas. There were roped off areas but that’s because it is a steep and sheer cliff on all edges of the castle… describing doesn’t do it justice and neither do the pictures. Hopefully, when you look at them you can get the idea. We spent some time here and then drove back to the Republic of Ireland and over to Northwestern Ireland to Glenveagh National Park. On the way and just after the Northern Ireland border, we came across a little town called Letterkenny which had a beautiful cathedral that we stopped and took pictures of. Just past Letterkenny and a long way up into the mountains is Glenveagh National Park. Right now the landscape is yellowish brown with green moss mixed in, but I’m sure in the later spring and through the summer, this area is lush and green and even more beautiful. In this National Park is a large estate that was once owned by some of the richest men in the world and on this estate is Lough Glenveagh and on it sits Glenveagh Castle, a castle built in the early 1800’s as a residence for the first owner. It is now a museum of sorts in which you can take a tour and freely explore the castle grounds, gardens, and many hiking trails around the estate. Stanley and I took a nice stroll up the path along the lake, explored the garden grounds and took a tour of the castle, it was really lovely. What a cool place! After exploring Glenveagh, we had only about 1.5 hours of daylight left so we drove as quickly as possible on the extremely narrow, extremely curvy and bumpy Irish roads to Donegal, the city where the first McLaughlin’s came from. In this area of Ireland, the Northwest part and what is all part of County Donegal, the main language for a great many of the people is Gaelic. In some areas, it is all they speak and in some areas, that is the only language written on the signs. These parts are called “Gaeltaughts” and it is very cool to see and hear. Gaelic is one of my favorite languages to listen to, particularly in song (since I adore Celtic Music), so it’s a treat to hear it spoken in real life and not just in an Enya song. Anyway, this day was filled with quite a bit of driving on stressful small roads and when we finally made it to Donegal just before sunset, we found a B&B called “Drumholm House” on the road just before town and decided to stay the night. It’s not as nice as the other two B&B’s we’ve stayed in… it’s a large house with several bedrooms, and it is family run with what I can tell is 4 or 5 children from about age 10 to late teenage years. The younger ones are quite noisy and it is now 10:15pm here and they’re still going stong. The room is nice though, with two twin beds pushed together and a bathroom attached which is nice. After we checked in, we walked into town to find some food for dinner and ate at a little bar/pub that was playing a soccer (football) game on the TV which was being watched by ALL the patrons of the bar. I ordered Fish & Chips and Stanley had Seafood Chowder, both were exceptionally yummy. They were going to have live Irish music at 9:00pm, but because of the game, it was delayed until 10:00pm and Stanley and I didn’t want to wait, so we walked back to the room and now I’m writing this blog and uploading our photos for the day. Stanley is sleeping (he did a great job today driving and navigating and keeping us on the road) and he’s worn out. So am I and soon I’ll go to bed. Tomorrow, we check out Donegal, then drive to Galway, with several little sights to see along the way. We’re actually hoping to make it past Galway tomorrow into Lower Shannon Region which should be exciting. –Michele
Points of Interest
-The Northern Ireland portion of the UK and Republic of Ireland make almost no distinctions about boundaries at their border crossings. There are NO border crossings, no checkpoints, not even signs. The only way I knew we’ d crossed back into The Republic of Ireland (and earlier into Northern Ireland-UK) was the currency exchange centers attached to gas stations (of all things!) or upon going into a business establishment, the expected currency had changed. “That’d be pounds please, sir.” Right. Honestly there’s more of a distinction at state borders in the US.
-On Glenveagh National Park: It was once a private 30,000 acre hunting ground for a wealthy transplanted Scottish Landlord (he also had massive holdings Texas too 1.5 Million acres, bastard) called Adair. He built Glenveagh ‘Castle’ to resemble Balmarol Castle (the UK royal residence in Scotland), not a real castle by historical standards, it was built as a residence from the ground up in the 1800s- no battles, no sieges, etc. The place is astonishing in its remoteness and old-school flavour. Each room (including the Master Bath) is equipped with a fireplace and a writing desk (regardless of whatever else) as its successive owners were a businessman who fancied himself a scholar, a Harvard Art History Professor (a scholar), and a wealthy art historian and collector (and scholar). The ‘wild’ grounds, formal gardens, wine-cellars and staff accommodations were extensive and plentiful, too.
-More on Glenveagh: Let’s see… hunting, hiking, paddling (on the massive private Lough [Lake] Glenveagh), reading, writing, smoking pipes, fine dining (all private in your very own ‘castle’), a fireplace and writing desk in each room, absolute isolation, fishing, a heated swimming pool (by the late 1800s!), a private boat, hanging about with exceptional guests (everybody from Greta Garbo to John Knowles) AND it’s in Ireland. It think (once again as in the Long Room at Trinity College in Dublin) I have discovered a succinct definition of Heaven- if such a place exists, surely this is what it would look like to me. Bliss.
-To quote the reprehensible Rolling Stones- “Hey, you get offa my cloud…” BY ORDER ~SEA
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