Blogs from County Sligo, Ireland, Europe
September 15th 2011
Why Hallo there! This last week Dan and I spent the week travelling to Ireland with a group of kayakers from London. We convoyed in two cars and with walkie talkies proving lots of fun. We made our way to Strandhill, on the ocean from Sligo. Unfortunately for us hurricane Katia was leaving America and heading directly our way. We made our way down to Easky, famous for good surf where we pitched our tents on a cliff under the old Roslee Castle! Huge winds drove us out after two nights of horrible sleep and two days of paddelling. One sight on my list was to visit Grandad's home where he lived before he shipped to NZ. We hired a car and found Cartronamarky Lane in County Longford amongst some beautiful lake country. The old house ... read more
August 13th 2011
SOUTHERN IRELAND The pace of the tour since we have been in Ireland has slowed down a bit. The weather is still a mixture of rain and overcast conditions. In Scotland the temperature ranged between 9-15 degrees, its definitely warmer here, despite the unsettled weather it would be high teens/low twenties (no wonder they are the emerald isles). We left Derry at 10.15am, before leaving we had a bit of a walk to the shopping centre to pick up a few things. Everything was quiet but there was a strong police presence around town. On the way out of town we also saw police on almost every corner. DONEGAL We travelled from Northern to Southern Ireland as we headed to Donegal – there were yellow and green Donegal flags everywhere - supporting their All Ireland Football ... read more
July 16th 2011
Day 28 16th July 2011 Ballycastle to Glenarm Departed 0645 and arrived 0915 We did this 22 mile hop in 2.5 hours!!!! We planned our passage to use the flood SE going tide. This was to start soon after 0700. As we approached Fair Head in a calm sea we were doing 4.5 on the log. I asked Sally to check our speed over the ground (S.O.G.). We were doing 10.8 knots. Six knots of tide…. We rounded Fair Head and for the next hour we had a very rough ride. There was a F4 against us and a mad tide with us. The sea was piling up in to a short 4 metre swell which was breaking in places. At times our log was showing 1.5 knots while our SOG was 8.8 knots. It got ... read more
July 12th 2011
I am writing this from beside the fireplace in the Common Room of Dracula's Castle, listing to tourists from Wisconsin talk about ghost encounters on the Castle grounds. It's the only place in the entire building that there is an internet connection. Okay, it's actually Markree Castle - but I swear if I didn't know any better, I would think it's Dracula's Castle. Even the man currently working the reception area is from Romania... I'm a chicken, so I'm not sure how well I am going to sleep tonight - I also think I'm 100% ready to come home. Anyway, just a few highlights of the past couple days and some photos, since I haven't had an opportunity to update recently. July 10th: - Took a car ferry over the River Shannon - Visited the Cliffs ... read more
June 29th 2011
Dublin to Sligo We left Dublin, driving towards Boyle Abbey – a monastery founded in the 12th century by the local ruling family ‘The MacDermotts’. Although currently in ruins, it is being restored using interesting engineering techniques such as stone numbering to ensure each particular stone that comprises the Abbey is returned to its original position. The lush green Irish countryside rolled on and on, and we came across Tobernalt Holy Well where legend has it that Saint Patrick used this sacred area to bring the Christian God to a pagan people. We drove along the coastline near Mullaghmore Castle and stopped at Sligo for the evening. As we were planning to cross the border into Northern Ireland, we made sure we had pounds handy rather than Euro’s which is the currency of Southern Ireland. ... read more
Adventure's what I came here for right??
Published: June 25th 2011Europe » Ireland » County Sligo » Mullaghmore
June 25th 2011
Well, another week gone and it's officially (as of 3 days ago) my third month anniversary of living in Ireland! I think I may bake a cake tomorrow to celebrate.....I can't believe that the time has been going by so fast and although I still have plenty of time, I'm starting to hit something similar to a "mid-trip" crisis. I'm frantic to go see and do as much as I can, but seeing as I sprained my ankle this week (more on that later!) I clearly need to slow it down a bit. I somehow got the notion that time was running out and I needed to do more, see more and this is the result. Never fear, my ankle is already starting to look slightly better and I'm taking it easy; resting, icing and pretty ... read more
June 18th 2011
Saturday June 18th, 2011 Irish Countryside- County Sligo We have become completely at home here in our new Irish community. Days are spent doing odd jobs around the holding (small farm) and evenings are for conversation and stories. Neighbors drop by to see the progress on our projects and “meet the Americans”. Tonight we are going to a Party for about 12-15 people and will meet many more of our charming hosts’ friends. The friendliness and warmth of the Irish people is legendary and I have to say we are thoroughly enjoying our firsthand exposure. We had a day off on Thursday and went driving around Sligo County to visit some sites that have significance for my family history. The old Corcagh Church and Burial Ground near Aughris Head has the graves of over 500 years ... read more
June 13th 2011
Early morning today. 5:00am wake up for a 7:35am flight from Dublin to Sligo in NW Republic of Ireland. The plane was delayed by an hour. Aer Arann was lovely, only 3 passengers on a Damier? Turbo prop, not unlike a Dash 7. The airport reminded me of somewhere out in the bush, but both Avid and Hertz are represented. We reserved with Hertz. The lady was lovely, the car a Jetta with manual transmission. This driving on the left is bad enough but a left handed stick shift as well. Andrea is a great navigator, however I was keeping too close to the shoulder and hit a curb, very hard. FLAT TIRE! Pulled off into a driveway and sent Andrea up the road to borrow a phone. She came back with a lovely retired policeman ... read more
September 28th 2010
My mum moved to County Sligo in Ireland a few years ago when she remarried. A place she had always told me was of outstanding beauty...she wasn't wrong! After promising for over twelve months we would go and visit I finally got round to booking the flights for my daughter, son and myself. We flew from Manchester in rather a smaller plane which I was used to and in no time at all we landed on Irish turf. There was no huge airport, just a couple of buildings, a small landing strip and a cafe! Mum met us on the runway!! We had a light lunch on the beach which was just around the corner from the airport, then climbed in mums car to make the journey to mum & Johns. They were renting a cottage ... read more
June 19th 2010
The Lake Isle of Innisfree We weren't up so spritely this morning funnily enough but another big breakfast had us fired up soon enough. First stop on the Lough Gill drive was Dooney Rock quickly followed by the fabled Lake Isle of Innisfree. The closest point to it is up a small lane so no coach parties get here but it looked like not many others were heading that way either. The Millennium Sculpture is falling down and the paths are starting to get overgrown. However we persevered and managed to take a longer walk through the heather to get an impressive view of the whole Lough (although noon it was the wrong time of year for the purple glow). Looking over to Parke's Castle and the Sleeping Giant on a warm sunny day was great. ... read more
