Ireland Day 8: Connemara

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Our home for our time in the Connemara is tended by a British couple, the Skeltons, who have been doing the B & B thing for many years, first in their native Portsmouth and now in Ireland. We really enjoyed interacting with the couple. While Dave is the front man and the one we interacted with most often, it is pretty obvious that Diane rules the roost. Although he is well into his sixties, Dave has not outgrown that decade and continues to wear his hair as long as it probably was when he went to Beatles concerts! Diane keeps an absolutely immaculate house and you could bounce a penny off those well-tucked bed sheets…and we should know.
We began our day in the Connemara with a huge breakfast prepared by our hostess. Diane made us a big omelet with farm fresh eggs and herbs from her garden. After some hesitation, we decided to take up our hosts on eating dinner at Ballywarren House this evening. Diane is something of a gastronome of the first order. Nevertheless, she fretted endlessly about her ability to cater to Laurie’s vegetarianism and Axel’s Frenchness. We laughed…and told her we expected her to deliver!
Today was primarily filled by a driving tour of this craggy and wild part of Ireland. We headed west from Cong towards the principal town of Clifden on the coast. The road took us through green valleys carpeted in a thick layer of peat. In many spots, the peat was cut away for a depth of 3-4 feet and piled nearby to dry in long rows of neatly stacked bricks. The mountainsides on either side of us were laced with the silvery strands of streams glinting in the occasional ray of sunshine. Hundreds of little white sheep perched improbably on the very steep slopes.
We spent the remainder of the day admiring the magnificent coastal scenery. One location that we especially liked was Kylemore Abbey, former grand residence of the Henry family and now a religious house. The big house is located in an idyllic setting nestled at the edge of a lake in a steep valley. The panorama from the house is stunning, especially because you can’t see any man-made structures. You can imagine yourself transplanted to the heyday of the great house in the early 20th century, when it played host to lavish parties of Britain’s industrial and social elite. The park contains a small church built when the house became a convent. It was thoroughly restored within the past decade…and is a precious gem of the English gothic style. On a different note, Laurie was tickled when she discovered that one of the former Abesses was named after Saint Scholastica, Laurie’s Confirmation name.
Tired and hungry, we made our way back to Ballywarren house in time for dinner which was at 7 pm sharp. Diane had insisted that we not be a minute late! We had a fabulous feast which included leg of lamb for Axel and a baked pasta primavera for Laurie. The lamb was incredibly tender, “falling-off-the-bone tender” as Axel describes it, and dessert was a caramelized pear tartlette with homemade custard cream on top…mmmh! After our meal we made our way up to our snuggly-made bed and slipped into the super-soft sheets with the weight of several Irish wool blankets to keep us warm until tomorrow. Dublin and Patty await!!

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Photos

Kylemore Abbey
Great house-turned-convent.

Convent Chapel
Newly restored during the past decade.

Scholastica & Scholastica
Lady Abbess Scholastica Lynch, Mother Superior from 1783-1799, and the Duck herself.

There are sheep in Connemara.
They make sweaters here. And socks too.

Connemara picturesque
Peat is laid out to dry before processing into hard bricks.