Sligo to Castlebar
A really nice run through Connemara, which we thoroughly enjoyed, even though the weather was very iffy.
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O'Dowd's Pub at Roundstone
We had lunch here in early June.
I looked at their cafe and thought the pub a better bet as it had more atmosphere.
O'Dowds is what you imagine an Irish pub to be, dark, embracing and a nice place to sit and contemplate.
The food, we both had fish, is good, without being exceptional . And they have some interesting things like a Seaweed Moss Pudding (a sort of creme caramel) which was worth the try.
If you come here for the atmosphere, and for a typical Irish pub serving better than average food, then you will go away happy
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Kylemore Abbey
Kylemore Castle was built in 1868 as a private home by Mitchell Henry, a wealthy doctor from London whose family was involved in textile manufacturing in Manchester. He moved to Ireland when he and his wife Margaret purchased the land here, after having travelled there on their honeymoon in the mid 1840s. He became MP for County Galway from 1871 to 1885.
The construction of the castle began in 1868, and took one hundred men and four years to complete. The castle had over seventy rooms with a principal wall that was two to three feet thick. The facade measures 43 m in width and is made of granite brought by sea from Dalkey to Letterfrack and from limestone brought from Ballinasloe. There were 33 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4 sitting rooms, a ballroom, billiard room, library, study, school room, smoking room, gun room and various offices and domestic staff residences for the butler, cook, housekeeper and other servants. Other buildings include a Gothic church and family mausoleum containing the bodies of Margaret Henry, Mitchell Henry and a great grand-nephew.
In 1874 just a few years after the castle was completed, the Henry family departed Kylemore for a luxurious holiday in Egypt. Margaret was struck ill while travelling and despite all efforts, nothing could be done and after two weeks of suffering she died. She was 45 years old and her youngest daughter, Violet, was just two years old. Mitchell was heartbroken. Margaret’s body was beautifully embalmed in Cairo before being returned to Kylemore.
The Henry family eventually left Kylemore in 1902 when the estate was sold to the ninth Duke of Manchester. Mitchell Henry lived to be 84 years old but died with a very meagre sum of £700 in the bank. The castle was sold to the Duke and Duchess of Manchester in 1903, who resided there for several years before being forced to sell the house and grounds because of gambling debts in 1920. They lived a lavish lifestyle financed by the Duchess’ wealthy father, the American businessman, Eugene Zimmerman. On arrival at Kylemore the couple set about a major renovation, removing much of the Henry’s Italian inspired interiors and making the castle more suitable for the lavish entertainments that they hoped to stage in their new home. The renovation included the removal of the beautiful German stained glass window in the stair case hall and the ripping out of large quantities of Italian and Connemara marble. The Duke and Duchess divorced in 1931 and Helena went on to marry the 10th Earl of Kintore, of Scotland.
In 1920, the Irish Benedictine Nuns purchased the Abbey castle and lands after they were forced to flee Ypres, Belgium during World War I. The nuns, who had been based in Ypres for several hundred years, had been bombed out of their Abbey during the war. They were rescued by men of the 8th Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, a scene that was later reproduced in the Freeman's Journal. After they left Ypres they were evacuated to England where they remained until 1920. At Kylemore, the nuns opened their international boarding school and established a day school for local girls. The school acted as the main educator for most girls from Renvyle, Letterfrack and further afield for almost a century. Local girls were invited to receive an education, free of charge. Day pupils studied alongside the paying boarding students They also ran a farm and guesthouse; the guesthouse was closed after a devastating fire in 1959. In 2010, the Girl’s Boarding School was closed and the nuns have since been developing new education and retreat activities.
One mile west of the main Abbey building are the 6-acre Victorian Walled Gardens, built by Mitchell Henry at the same time as the construction of Kylemore Castle between 1867 and 1871. We took the bus to get there from the main house.This garden was one of the last walled gardens to be built during the Victorian period in Ireland and is the only garden in Ireland that is located in the middle of a bog. The garden was so advanced for the time that it was even compared with Kew Gardens in London. Huge engineering feats were successfully employed to heat the 21 glasshouses that were originally built to house exotic fruits and plants. These glasshouses were heated by three boilers, one of which doubled as a limekiln, and a complex system of underground hot-water pipes measuring 5,000 feet in length.
However, in later years, under the ownership of The Duke and Duchess of Manchester, the garden went into decline. In time the Flower Garden became a wilderness and the glasshouses collapsed, leaving only their brick bases. In 1996, the Benedictine Community, who have always used the garden, began restoration works with the help of grant aid, large bank loans and the generosity of donors. To date, two of the glasshouses have been rebuilt along with the Head Gardener’s House and Workman’s Bothy. The Garden was re-opened in 1999 and won the prestigious Europa Nostra Award in 2002. Uniquely, only plants and vegetables which grew in Victorian times are grown in the garden today. Currently, they have a vinery, banana trees, vegetables and herbs that are used in the restaurant for lunch as well as an array of plants and flowers.
We were very impressed by the walled garden. Though our visit was not helped by the frequent heavy rain showers. There was no time for the tea room unfortunately as we had to crack on to get to our next B&B at Castlebar
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Westbrook House, Castlebar
The first trick in staying at Westbrook House is actually finding the place. I thought I had good instructions, complete with a detailed map. However it took four excursions up and down the road to and from Castlebar to actually find Westbrook House. There is NOTHING outside the house to indicate that you have reached it. All that exists is a small sign actually inside the gate that you can only see if you enter the property, which we did with some trepidation. It was not just us - at the communal breakfast the next day, the two other couples staying admitted that they too had problems finding it.
Once arrived the owner, Mary, seemed less than pleased to see us, and did not offer the traditional hospitality that we have had in most Irish B&Bs. However we did have an enormous bedroom and an enormous bathroom - whose only problem was that they were freezing cold - the small electric fire supplied did nothing to raise the temperature.
Westport House is about 4km outside Castlebar and over 12 from Westport. So one has a long drive for dinner
Breakfast was odd. Overcooked, with poor quality ingredients. So in spite of the big room, we were not happy here, and I felt uneasy, felt that we were intruders. The room was ot serviced on a daily basis either.
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Cians Restaurant, Westport
Owned by a local chef one expects the food to be good and to get the service that good food deserves. Cians is certainly busy, certainly popular, but seems to have become too popular for is own good
Tables are pushed together and the flow of people entering and leaving gave a constant cold draft from the front door. The under-pressure serving staff timed the food to suit them, and not the customer.
So at the end of the evening I did not feel that I had really enjoyed the experience, no matter how good the food was. To me a meal out is the culmination of good food, good service, a good ambience and good value for money, and Cian's did not tick all the boxes
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Along the Mayo Coast
On our day trip from Westport House we followed the Wild Atlantic Way along the Mayo Coast. The high point of this section of coast is supposed to be Downpatrick Head, with its photogenic offshore stack. Though I got the photo, it was taken while shielding the camera from the driving rain.
We ended the day on Achill Island (accessed via a causeway) and opted for dinner there as it was getting late. The first pub we tried did not serve food, the second, Ted's, was well advertised along the road. Ted's is only a few miles from the bridge from Achill to the Mainland, which makes it convenient if you are having a day on Achill. It is a typically good Irish pub. Friendly, warm on a cold day and serves pub food. Not really a lot more to say about it
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Mary's Cottage Kitchen, Ballycastle
Having been thoroughly frozen on Downpatrick Head, we followed the adverts and found Mary's Cottage Kitchen in nearby Ballycastle.
The Cottage Kitchen (and it really is a cottage) serves good fresh homemade food. We enjoyed a plate of warming fish chowder and some excellent scones - oh, and a slice of cake too. All cheerfully served by the staff. If you visit Downpatrick Head, then remember to stop at Mary's - I could have done with a few more Mary's along the Wild Atlantic Way
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Ceide Fields Bog Museum
We came across this site by accident. Ceide Fields is a neolithic site which contains the oldest known stone-walled fields in the world – dating back nearly 6,000 years
In the 1930s, cutting turf, drying it out and burning it for fuel was the normal way for heating homes in this area. The local schoolmaster, Patrick Caulfield, kept coming across large numbers of stones deep down in the bog during the turf cutting process. What got him interested was that they appeared to be placed in a regular formation. Also the depth at which the stones were found indicated that they must have been placed there centuries ago.
Years later, his son, Seamus Caulfield, who had studied archaeology, investigated further and discovered evidence of cultivated fields, houses and tombs which had lain hidden for many centuries. By using iron probes (traditionally used for finding ancient trees under deep bog), Seamus and his team traced out a pattern of walls. The walls were “mapped” by the insertion of bamboo poles after using the iron probe and this gave a visual display on the surface as to the pattern and direction of the stones over many acres.
Thousands of years ago, our Stone Age ancestors constructed houses, walls and fields that created an early farming community complete with megalithic tombs. One of these communities was Ceide Fields. Over the years, with climate change, agricultural land changed to bogland. Bog builds at about 1mm per year, when the grasses do not decay in soil that has become waterlogged. So, at a metre every 1000 years, the bog grew, tracts of the previous Stone age farmers disappeared, until in recent time it was worked out what had happened.
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Rhododendrons in Mayo
We were impressed by the vivid and dramatic displays of rhododendron along the Mayo roads. However it is a weed, and is causing problems in Ireland
There are more than 900 species worldwide, but only one type (rhododendron ponticum) is invasive in Irish habitats. It blocks light, reduces biodiversity, suffocates other species and poses a serious threat to national parks. As many as 7,000 seeds can be produced per branch and these are readily spread by wind. Methods of eradication include removal from the root base, chemical spraying of stumps and injection of shoots with herbicide. If you cut it, the plant grows back more vigerously. A 2008 manual on conservation published by the Irish Wildlife Service pointed out that in areas with sufficiently acid soils, and particularly where the mild climate allows, rhododendron has invaded woodland, plantation forestry and to a lesser extent, heath and bog.
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Mechanised Turf Production
Again, just driving along, we came across this sight. The days of a man and a shovel cutting peat seem to be numbered. Across Europe, as well as in Ireland, bogs have been exploited for centuries as a source of fuel. Bogland covers about 15% of Ireland. There are large expanses of "blanket" bog in County Mayo. Most bogs have moved on to a more mechanised method of cutting, often by a contractor.
A digger shovels peat into a special tractor trailer. The trailer mixes the peat, and spews out ribbons of turf which are allowed to dry on the ground. At the appropriate moment the ribbons of turf are cut into traditional sized piece. Then dried in stacks to get them ready for burning in home fires.
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And from Mayo, it was on to Sligo