Blogs from County Mayo, Ireland, Europe

I had reserved breakfast at 8:30 am for Laura, Carl, Alex, and I. We met in the small dining room to get served from a small menu. We all got the Irish breakfast. Full from our meal, we collected Kyle and began our stroll to Westport House. Our goal was to walk through the estate to get there. Unfortunately, we were stopped at the edge of the property claiming landscaping was in work so the grounds were closed. Instead we had to follow the road and pathway to the front. Since we had planned to explore a bit, we had about 15 minutes to kill until the house opened and the tour began. We took pictures of the outside, the church in ruins in the distance, and relaxed on the stairway. Soon we were let in ... read more

Ireland the North 2. Day 5 Ballina Not much coastline today but a venture through cattle country with green grass. Starting off through the colourful town of Westport a climb was encountered before heading for Castlebar the country way and then an excellent cycle path into town alongside the main road. A bit early for us but we decided to have a coffee and a tiny piece of cake, just in case. As we got onto the Turlough Greenway we met Bill coming towards us on his borrowed e-bike with a big smile on his face. The Greenway has a sharp turn followed by a steep slope at the Turlough end. Despite my warnings this caught a few out and one lady toppled over resulting in a grazed leg and a bit of the red stuff ... read more

Ireland Wednesday 1 June Nice and sunny for most of the day with a mild north westerly wind which followed is for the first 20km in green cow country. The scenery was good with mostly better farm land, apart from the section alongside Lough Conn which was a bit wild and rocky. A nice cycleway took us alongside the river from Castlebar to Turlough and then past Turlough Tower built about 1000 yrs ago with a now abandoned church built alongside at a later date. The route north was undulating with no massive hills to make the day’s climbing of 760 metres. After a light lunch in Crossmolina we headed to our destination of Ballina along some pleasant minor roads taking us past the remains of Deel Castle and what looked like an abandoned church with ... read more

Breakfast at the hotel, à la carte in this establishment, then off to explore the Connemara peninsula. The terrain soon becomes quite rugged and mountainous. We are once again in bog territory on the Irish moors. The weather is unsettled; windy with brief downpours. One mountain in particular dominates the landscape. This is Croagh Patrick, where in July every year, thousands of Irish Catholics make a pilgrimage to the top on foot as a penitence. Tony gives us a history lesson on the Great Famine of 1845–52. The English version of this tragic episode is that a potato blight affected the Irish potato crop and caused widespread famine. This is in fact what I learned in school. Tony says that the potato blight was a factor but the real cause of the famine was excessive taxation ... read more

Our weekend began at a home named the Westport House, a beautiful home and gardens that was built upon the foundations of one of many castles that belonged to the famous Irish Pirate Queen of Connacht... Grace O’Malley. The original home was built by a great-great granddaughter of O’Malley. I immediately liked the tale of Grace, apparently she didn’t take any “umph“ from anybody and if they didn’t like what she thought she would just “take their head off” literally... LOL. In the home... the front hall was magnificent and included vaulted ceilings, a marble staircase and Waterford cut glass chandeliers. The welcome centerpiece was a marbled mythological Angel, where family tradition was to shake the angel’s hand for good luck upon returning from trips or visiting. What house would be complete without your typical dungeon, ... read more