Rose's 78th birthday today... all day long!!!!!
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| View to Ashford Castle, Cong |
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| Rosie and I on the bridge to Ashford Castle |
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| Another famous guest at Ashford Castle! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Mom! |
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| 'Tis himself! |
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| Sunrise, Achill Island, County Mayo |
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| Rose, Rosie, Ursula and John Malloy |
Got up relatively late, 0715. Rose and Rosie went down to a fine continental breakfast with tea in the hotel's restaurant. I wasn't hungry and stayed back to do some typing.
By the time the girls got back, we packed up, checked out and loaded the reasonably priced car, it was 0915. There are no primary roads up to Cong. You take 2 lane, varying width roads, all the way up - the N84 and R334 to the R346 into Cong. Traffic this time of morning is still quite heavy with all the workers driving in to Galway. I was happy to be headed out. Did need to stop for petrol just outside of Galway off of the N84 and did so.
Although the weather wasn't great on this morning, it wasn't raining, just overcast and gray. Every now and then along our route, it's all scenic, Rosie would ask me to pull over so that she could take photos of her favorite subjects in Ireland (and, honestly, everywhere else), the animals. Horse, donkey, sheep, badger, cow, avian... doesn't really matter, she loves them all, so we pull over marvel at her love and excitement of encountering animals in the wild, wonder if we'll ever get to our next destination and then just kiss the delay up to God - we're on holiday. :-)
Around 1000 and just outside of Cong, we spied a sign to our left that said: Ashford Castle. Quite the famous locale. Quickly braked and turned left going through another gray stone, castle-esk, archway only wide enough for 1 vehicle. The single lane winded through lush green trees and well manicured lawns that turned out to be a very nice golf course. We drove in a couple/3 kms and as we crested a rise, magnificent Ashford Castle lay below us on the banks of a large lake, Lough Corrib. Stopped right there to take some wide angle shots of the Castle and facing property before driving down to park in the visitors area. We planned on touring the property.
You reach the castle either walking or driving over a bridge that fords a fast flowing river that empties in to the massive lake. The Castle, which has over 80 rooms, was converted to a hotel many years ago, has changed owners numerous times over the years and, boasts many a celebrity and head of state on it's guest list. To name a few: The entire cast of the Quiet Man starring John Wayne and Maureen O'hara, Brad Pitt, Christina Ricci, Omar Shariff, Prince Edward of England, Pierce Brosnan, John Lennon and President Ronald Reagan. The property is huge, over 26,000 acres, and even has a helicopter pad for those that have the time and means of forgoing driving to this off the path location. There's a replica of the 'Red' Will Danaher's farm house from the Quiet Man on the property (we visited it) and right next door to it, the Irish Falconer's training school. You could spend all day just wandering around, playing golf, fishing, boating, shooting or just relaxing. We only had time to check out the main entrance rooms of the castle, buy some gifts from the gift shop, did some walking and headed back to the car to make Cong.
The single lane road you drive in on also takes you just outside of the village of Cong, physical location for many of the scenes in the Quiet Man. The village is so tiny you might not notice it as you drove by or through it. This was the only ask I really had of our trip to Ireland. Can't tell you how long I've wanted to visit the site of John Wayne's Irish classic movie. And... here we were! Entered the town a bit disoriented. Rosie first noticed the Celtic cross in the middle of the tiny village square right near Cohan's Bar - just like in the movie except for the nicely paved road. I pulled over and parked just up the sloped street from the cross and we got out to stroll about.
After taking a bunch of photos at different angles ensuring we'd captured proof of all 3 of us being there, it was time to go into Cohan's. Just prior to going in, I noticed a blonde, slender middle aged woman come out and sit on one of the benches outside of the bar for a smoke. When she noticed I was pointing a camera in her direction, she got up and went back in to the bar... turns out, she's the new proprietor of the bar and was a wealth of information, as we got to know her - that is, as well as a strangers can in only 30 short minutes! Not sure why we missed the niceties of exchanging names...?
Turns out that Cohan's was never a bar even during the time of the movie's making. Was a hardware store then. Hollywood magic altered the shop's facade while on location for shooting purposes and all of the interior scenes were shot in studio. This lady had purchased the shop 3 years previous and had invested a lot of time and money to restore the outside and turn the place into a bar. She and hers did a great job! As you walk into Cohan's and look to the left, she'd had a corner of the bar from the movie faithfully recreated in her bar! Ahhh, made my heart glad. :-) The recreation is the corner of the bar that has the flip-top opening entrance/exit to the barkeeps area, there's a chair by that opening that the 'general' sits at reading his newspaper and, the non-functioning beer taps used to serve out the port.
As we warmed up to one another, the proprietor let us know that a few weeks back that Maureen O'hara had just been in to kick-off the 60th anniversary celebration of the making of the Quiet Man! Awesome. One of John Wayne's daughters also participated in the event held right in the 'new' bar and both of them signed a copy of Maureen's book for her (that I took a photo of) commemorating the occasion. Maureen agreed to participate on 1 condition: that she be put up in the room John Wayne occupied in Ashford Castle back in the day - obviously, they accommodated her request. At 91 years of age and wheelchair bound, Maureen still had all her wits and mental faculties about her and was a joy to be around and have met... I could only wish :-).
Of course I had to order a stout (Guinness) but, only a 1/2 pint... still had a ways to go to get to Achill Island. Stout in hand, tea for Rose and Rosie, we took a bunch of photos including some behind the bar that the owner arranged with Rosie and I. Rosie holding a shillelagh and I wearing a copy of John Wayne's courting bowler. Was good fun. And, I'm sure to no one's surprise, I purchased some souvenirs including some photos of the 'Duke' and Maureen in 1951. :-) Mom bought me some postcards (I like to collect those).
Left Cohan's in good spirits and just wandered around Cong for a bit. We split up the girls doing their own
touring and me, myself. I did drop $5Euro to get access into a small museum dedicated to the actors of Quiet Man. The museum, which is a replica of the interior of Sean Thornton's home, White a Morn, is located at the bottom of a 2 story facility located on a corner by a flowing river. You have to walk up to the gift shop, buy your ticket from the lady, she takes you back downstairs, unlocks the door to the replica, goes in with you to explain the contents, then leaves you to it and locks you in to the house so no one else can enter without buying a ticket first! It's kind of cute... once in, you can only go out. Didn't stay long and eventually caught up to the Roses who had been touring the ruins and cemetery in the town. Went for a bite to eat in the 'Hungry Monk Cafe' before continuing our trip out to Achill Island. Food was good... Mom enjoyed dessert along with Rosie.
The day had really brightened up and was as blue as any day we'd enjoyed to date. As with our leg to Cong, we made quite a few stops to enjoy the scenery and animals. Our route took us up through Westport and Newport before we cut over to the main road onto Achill Island, the N59 that turns into the R319 as you go over the small but sturdy, Achill Island Sound bridge on to the Island.
Our reason for the trip? To visit Rose's cousin Ursula and her husband, John, who've enjoyed living on the island for over 30 years. Ursula's mother, Josephine, was Rose's father, Gerard's, sister. They either live in or near a village called Bunacurry which is really just a spread of older and new solidly built homes dotting the island. Peat bog aka, the Turf, is all over the place. Huge rocks and ruins dot the landscape along with sheep, cows and donkeys.
As we got nearer to the island, we started noticing large tracts of land containing peat moss or as the Irish call
it, the 'Turf'. In fact much of Achill Island is covered in the Turf. We found out later from John that most all of the Islanders cut and harvest their own turf from land they own and use it for heating their homes. John and Ursula own several plots of land, 1 large plot of ~8 acres, full of turf. John cuts and harvests his own turf - the whole thing is just so cool to an outsider - enough to provide heating throughout the cold winter. Even thought the turf just looks like very dense, dark dirt it's not. Once cut and harvested it takes a few months to dry and once it does repels moisture well, keeps dry and burns easily - just like our wooden logs. There's a distinctive smell, not unpleasant, to the burning turf. That same pleasant smell, in my opinion, does not translate well to those Scottish Distillers who dry their scotch making barley with it in order to make their spirits. Don't care for the taste of Scotch made that way at all.
Sorry, got a bit sidetracked... back to our story. :-) Achill Island is pretty large and even though it only has
the one road with branches off of it, if you don't know where you're going - we didn't - very easy to feel lost. I couldn't find any of the location names on Achill in the Garmin, so, it was of limited use. Pulled over and Rosie called Ursula. Turns out we were only about a mile away and found our way to their home. As we slowed near their driveway entrance to turn in, we looked at the house and could see Ursula framed in their doorway with her arms crossed awaiting our arrival! Time of arrival was ~1445, a bit later than we wanted but, extremely pleased to be with the Malloy's.
What a great lady! We were warmly welcomed... Ursula reminded me a bit of Rosie's grandmother Nora, a wonderful woman, who I had the pleasure of meeting once. John, her husband, as nice as could be and quite the rugged fellow a match made in heaven. I was tickled to have made their acquaintance. While the women tee'd up hot tea to break the ice and start catching up, John joined me in a couple of pints of some German beer I can't remember the name of - a good pilsner variety. They were quite tasty. :-)
They've built the perfect house for the location and climate. Concrete, cinder block solid, well insulated, single story, made to withstand the cold and strong winds prevalent to the island. Plenty of rooms including 5
bedrooms and power/heating efficiencies built in to their design. Very cool. Wasn't long before John was gracious enough to give us a short tour of their road down to the rocky beach, it was low tide, with a running account of local and personal history. His late sister had lived in the house closest to the water and down the street from his home. That property is currently home to 4 donkeys with personality - Rosie was in heaven! After taking way too many photos of the donkeys, Rosie and I clambered down to the beach and acquired a rock to take home with us. Wasn't long before we made it back up to the house where Ursula had made a scrumptious dinner of salad, ham and chicken, breads, beet root (one of my favorites) and cole slaw. Enjoyed the meal immensely.
After more conversation, Ursula took the 3 of us on a late afternoon/early evening tour of their island home.
Population ~3,000 permanent residents spread out primarily over a handful of small communities including a village called 'Dooag'... with claims of being the largest village in Europe. Not sure what that means but, plan on googling it later. She also took us by an abandoned settlement built mostly out of stones on the slope of one of the island's mountains. Rugged terrain. No one knows why the settlement was abandoned but, it's eerie. We even got driven high up onto a mountain, can't recall the name, on the Western end of the island just for the view - spectacular! By the time we got back to the house, it was dark. We all retired to the living room for more conversation and dessert. The fireplace in the living room was providing some welcome warmth via burning turf logs. Ursula served up some type of chocolate cake drenched in chocolate syrup, warmed up and topped with vanilla ice cream...yum! :-) Took a bit of time to show Ursula and John some family photos we'd taken up to that time in Ireland.
I was starting to fade and turned in around 2200. Rosie soon followed. Rose and Ursula stayed up past midnight catching up.
Another fantastic day in Ireland!
Slan!
So did you ask for a Bar towel?!?
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