Finding a place and a trip to the Irish Heritage Park

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The breakfast, which is included in our room, turns out to be quite substantial and we get to try new things like “Black Pudding”. After breakfast, we call the phone number given us by our landlord. His sister tell us that in fact, the place is not available tonight, but that her sister has a place in the same complex that might be available. As her sister is at work, she says she will call her. We check out of the hotel and head over to the local mall to buy a few things.

Later, when I call her back, she tells us that her sister doesn't have her cell phone with her and we will have to phone her later in the day. Just in case she is not able to rent to us, she gives us a number of someone else who also rents. We call this number and leave a message. Once again, things are not looking good.

We are not sure what to do now. Our plan was to visit the Irish heritage park today, so we decide that we may as well go, as we have nothing else we can do. On the way, the Golf and Country club contact returns our call and says we can have a cottage (and at a better price than the first people had advertised). Finally, we have someplace to stay !

At the heritage park, we arrive about half an hour before the next tour and so we have our lunch on some sheltered picnic benches as the rain starts to fall. Shortly afterwards, a large school group, all speaking Gaelic also join us.

The tour starts with a movie, which does a great job of explaining how Ireland was settled. After the film our tour guide comes to join us. He explains that the park is a series of recreations of various dwelling and structures, demonstrating life in Ireland from the stone age through to the arrival of the Normans. The tour is mostly senior citizens, so we are sort of an oddity.

Our first stop is a neolithic structure, dating from the first people who were nomadic hunter gatherers. Our guide is dressed in period costume and is quite good. We next see how houses changed when people arrived from England and brought farming with them. We then see how some houses evolved into more fort like structures with several buildings inside a fenced yard. We see a re-creation of a early Irish monastery after the Romans brought Christianity to Ireland. We also see various burial structures some dating from the bronze age.

Next we cross under the roadway and visit the recreation of an Island fort as well as viking buildings. After a quick tour to the gift shop, we head back to the golf course where we found ourselves yesterday, to get the keys for our rental house.

At the golf course, they are quite nice and give us the keys along with directions to finding the unit. When we get there, it is huge and very modern. Benjamin and Joshua are delighted to each have their own bedroom and there is a large deck out back, a BBQ, and a view of the ocean. It is a great find and I only wish we had arrived here yesterday without all the hassle.
Evy and I head back to town and buy food for dinner. After dinner the boys and I went down to the seashore and explored the coast line. The bodies of huge crabs have washed ashore and the seashore reminds us a bit of Vancouver Island. They both have fun carving their names in the sand along with a huge Canadian flag. After this have a quiet evening watching tv, happy to have found a place.

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