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Published: April 10th 2011
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Kylemore Abbey
So incredibly beautiful This morning we ate another great breakfast at the Ardmore House B&B she even had little menus of all of the options and it was just great, with a child seat ready to go for Zoe. We headed out with a lot to do and see, first stop was Kylemore Abbey – it is as lovely as every picture I have ever seen of it. So pretty, we didn’t go inside just did the photo of the outside. Then on into Letterfrack where I had read about this store that is wonderful called the Possibility Shop (of course that is not its real name, but the name the locals call it), well, it was nowhere to be found, I am guessing maybe I should have looked into more details other than near Ballinakil Bay and a white building. Again, I have probably done enough shopping and craft areas. This drive is different scenery, not the fields of green with hedgerows; but lovely all the same.
Now just outside of Sligo we were looking for signs for Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery but didn’t see a single one, it is strange how that happens. I should also mention that the sign posting in Ireland
is very different from the states. There are no signs on posts for streets, they are put up on buildings (if at all) and about 1 story up. This makes driving very difficult for the navigationally challenged. We just drove through Sligo no stopping. We did see a sign for Drumcliffe which was great, so we stopped in there to see where Yeats was buried in 1948. So we stopped in here for some pictures and so Zoe could walk it, hysterically how she says that. Also, they had a great little café with delicious teas and treats, also tons of books all by Yeats of course. They also have the typical touristy things, Guinness stuff, leprechaun items etc. But a great little place to get a cup of tea and snack. Oh yeah and pay homage to a great poet. On the way out of Sligo you see the Ben Bulbens, which are these odd mountains, apparently you could climb to the top, and I prefer to gaze from afar. Very beautiful.
We arrived in Killybegs around lunch time which was by far faster than we had anticipated. Killybegs is a really small little town on a harbor, so
we ate lunch at a café and then went out to do the Slieve Leagues. These are cliffs that are stunning; some even say they are more stunning than the cliffs of Moher. We were able to get to them with ease; again we had read in a travel blog that someone had taken all day to drive there and that it was just horrendous driving conditions. We found nothing of the sort. We drove up to them on smaller roads and found a parking area, there is a fence, and the fence can be opened and driven through. I would really recommend this as it is a long walk, uphill, then when you get to the top you want to walk to the top of the cliffs as well. Just drive, really, open the fence its okay. (I say this because we did it and others were walking and fighting and looking like they might have thought about opening the fence but then decided against it).
Anyway, the cliffs are gorgeous, there is even a man there selling doughnuts. I was able to walk up to the top of the cliffs in my lovely blue suede peep toe shoes,
yes, I did it in the most ill advised shoes and did not fall off the cliffs or even slip once. Back to the cliffs, they are just gorgeous and if time allows when in Ireland they should really be seen. We headed back over the Glengesh Pass – which is where the treacherous driving happens. Well again, we were not terrified of impending doom – there were some hairpin turns, but it really was fine. It is a beautiful valley with tons TONS of lambs, so cute.
We then entered Ardara, the tweed capital of County Donegal, I agree, there is a lot of tweed. We stopped in a store and found a great hat for Chris and then were on our way. This is where we had a great idea, let’s get a B&B over here and not in Killybegs. So we called around and found one in Glenties, it looked lovely in our B&B book, when we got there the outside looked grand. We got in to find a woman who showed us to our room which was not great and her son who was putting together a crib for us, when he looked up to say
hello it fell apart. We told her we were getting dinner and didn’t come back (I realize this is poor form, but words cannot adequately describe this woman, the room or the decrepit crib). Then we got a call literally 5 minutes later from the woman in Killybegs (the B&B we were to stay at) saying that her husband was wrong before that we will either need to pay for the night or commit to a night in the future. So back we went to Killybegs. We figured we were leaving one hellish place to go to a new place it had to be better.
Wrong…we got to the town quickly, about 20 minutes from Glenties. We arrived and ate and then went to the Seawinds B&B which is right in the heart of town. It was a Friday night so lots of people were out. We arrived and were told to sit in a waiting area, about 15 minutes later the hostess returned, she showed us to our room and there reality hit us…we were in yet another dump. We looked around the room which housed 3 beds (Double and two twins) and a cot, which was wrapped up
in twine. We thought okay we are just sleeping here it will be fine. The hostess told us that her husband would be back within the hour to put the crib together and left. She then, I assume, hid somewhere in the house because I couldn’t find her for the life of me. We wanted to put the cot together so we needed the parts – when her husband arrived he began taking the cot down and putting it together with TWINE! Chris and I were just standing there shaking our heads; however, while all of this is happening he is telling us about his 20+ year fishing stint in the US, so we both were at least pleased with his knot tying skills.
The sleep was horrendous because people were coming in and out all night long from the pubs. We had decided to eat breakfast there because we had paid for it – even though we both wanted to just get the heck out and move on to something better. We went down and walked into the breakfast room, and there were spots, so we went to sit. The host told us to go back out and wait
for 2 minutes. We waited at least 15 and then decided to go. Ironically enough the hostess called about 30 minutes later as we were leaving the grocery with our breakfast to tell me it was our fault we weren’t seated right away since we did not fill out a breakfast card the night before (this is the first mention of cards we had heard). It was ridiculous, she then argued with me a bit, unbelievable. Worst stay on our entire trip.
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