The End of the Journey

We had four days in London to just rest, relax, and regroup. Our first night we had an interesting dinner experience. We had wandered around Putney (just across the bridge from where we were staying) and were looking for a place for dinner. We settled on Putney Pies, as we have a deep affection for meat pies! It looked fun, and claimed to be the best pie shop in the UK. Well, the food was good but the place was weird, chaotic, and a little uncomfortable. The server kept apologizing for all kinds of things, including complaints about the chef's inability to read an order. (He did get mine wrong.) The owner and the barkeep were all over the place and the owner was putting away a lot of ale. That crew looked like the Putney motorcycle gang had just taken up residence.  The owners car was illegally parked across the street, and he kept going over there. It was all quite unsettling. Not a place to which we will return.

The next day we walked along the Thames on a beautiful part of the Thames Path. You'll see the signs all over London along the river. It's not continuous (it's a long river with a lot going on!), but is a wonderful walkway wherever it is. We noted, as we looked across to Putney, that this seems to be the rowing club section of the London Thames. Boathouses everywhere, and at noon time there were lots of crews training. They looked like high school students - doubles, fours, and eights.

This part of the Thames path goes along the Bishop's Park, part of the grounds of Fulham Palace. Fulham Palace is the former home of the bishops of London, the last having lived here as recently as 1963. The community has taken it over and, with money from the UK Lottery which funds a ton of stuff, has a wonderful history and community center. We walked through it (a free thing) and especially enjoyed the walled garden, again with tons of things still blooming! You can read all about Fulham Palace at their website: www.fulhampalace.org. 

There are some wonderful modern paintings of the bishops over the years by a Swedish artist named Kenneth Andersson. Here's one of his whimsical pieces:

Larry had left his camera at the flat, so we walked back so he could get it back and take flower pictures in the walled garden. I headed off to the Putney Bridge Tube station to top off our Oyster cards so we 'd be ready for adventures the next day. On my way back, I took a different route and walked by a commemorative plaque in the pavement marking the regular rowing competition between Oxford and Cambridge which takes place each year at Putney.

When we met up again at the flat, we headed out for a lovely pub meal at the Boathouse in Putney.

The next day was very rainy and bleak, but we set off to see the Chelsea Physic Garden. This tiny bit of acreage along the Thames started life as the place where the apothecaries in London came to get plants for medications. It is a very wonderful little garden. I had visited here in 2013, but Larry had never been and we had an enjoyable time. They have docents who do free tours, and the leader of ours was excellent. We truly enjoy visiting all these places where there are volunteers who simply love the place and the topic. Their passion shows and makes it all the more enjoyable for us.

The small crisis on this day was the fact that my phone was all locked up, and even thought I know how to do a hard reset on my iPhone, it wasn't working. So, after a nice tea and sweet and the purchase of our dinner at Partridges in the Duke of York Square, and the requisite walk through Peter Jones, we headed off to the Apple store on Regent Street. Both Oxford Street and Regent Street were totally crowded and the Apple store was just jammed. But a very helpful young Apple clerk in his lovely grey shirt (much nicer than the blue ones at University Village) got my phone started again and we were on our way. It was just enough to get back on the Tube before rush hour and head back to our lovely flat. Dinner was the Shepherd's Pie we bought at Partridges and the next episode in the new Lewis season.

On Wednesday we headed  out again to do some shopping - back to Regent Street to Hamley's for treats for Lucca and Nico. Larry had not been there and was amazed at this huge and energetic toy store. From there we went to the British Museum for lunch and for our reserved time to see the exhibit Celts; Art and Identity. It was a perfect coda to our trip. As we saw the ways in which the Celts made their way from ancient Turkey and Hungary across Europe to the now identified Celtic places, I couldn't help wondering how the Syrian migrants will shape Europe now.

We ended the day, this last night on our trip,  with dinner at Ruth Rogers' River Cafe. This is a very famous restaurant, and it did not disappoint. We had a fabulous experience all around. It was lovely that we could walk to it from our flat - about a mile.

On Thursday morning we got up early to pack up and take our suitcases upstairs to our landlady for storage. Then we headed off on the massively packed rush hour tube to Islington for coffee with dear friend Alastair Hume. It was great fun as always, and we were happy to have that brief time with him.  He shared with us the news of the death of David Willcocks,  noted King's College Choir director (among many others things.) There will be a memorial at King's on 22 November. Alastair will be playing his string bass for the orchestra assembled.

We arrived back at the flat just in time for the arrival of our car to the airport. The whole timing was just right, and soon we were winging our way back to Seattle after a really wonderful trip.

London!

We arrived in London last evening, and are happy to be here in a great flat in Fulham. I'm working on updating the blog and adding pictures! Look back at Ireland for more pictures, with more pictures and text to come!

Friends

Our dear friends Sharon and Steve Swanson have been around the UK since August 15. Sharon is pastor at Faith in Bellingham, and this is sabbatical for her. It’s much more than that, however, as this is home territory for her. She is English, spent much of her childhood here in North Yorkshire and is very happy to be back here. She is writing a terrific blog at www.revinthewild.weebly.com. Check it out!

By a wonderful coincidence of schedule, Steve and Sharon are in Whitby while we’re in Beck Hole - a huge less than 10 mile difference! They came over today in the late morning. We started in the Beck Hole pub, the Birch Hall Inn. Here’s info about Beck Hole and Birch Hall: www.beckhole.info/bhi.html


After a pint each (two of Black Sheep, two of Beckwater) we walked back to the cottage for a wonderful afternoon of travel stories and great fun. We had tea and chocolate digestive biscuits around 3:30, then joined together to cook Cumberland sausages, potatoes, mushrooms, salad and garlic bread. A lovely meal and time together. They got out of here (it is a hole - 600 feet down from the top of the moor!) before dark. A great time.

In the Pub at Beck Hole

Now we’re getting ready to watch the last episode of Midwinter of the Spirit. Sharon and I are not totally sure it’s up to snuff. We'll be meeting up again tomorrow in Whitby.

Durham

On Tuesday we went to Durham to meet with a friend of Seattle friends Eldon and Marcia Olson, The Rev. Canon Penny Martin. We met at a café in a nursery south of Durham. We had a great visit over coffee and scones, then Penny took us up to the cathedral. (It helps to have friends who have parking passes for difficult places in English towns!) We had a wonderful tour of the cathedral through her eyes. She loves this place, and loves to show people around.

I’ve always been interested in seeing Durham Cathedral, and had never had opportunity until now. It certainly did not disappoint! (One great hazard is that it has a terrific shop!) There has been Christians worship on this site for well over 1000 years. It is the final resting place of St. Cuthbert. When Cuthbert (who was resident on Lindisfarne) died, his colleagues put him in a feretory (this trip’s new vocabulary word) and carried him around for seven years until they found this place as his resting place. They came to this hill based in the directions of a young woman with a brown cow. So they built a church over Cuthbert. On the outside of the building there is a carving of a young girl with a cow to commemorate the place.

This is also the resting place of the Venerable Bede, whose 9th century ecclesiastical history of England became the benchmark for all English history after. It was humbling to be in the presence of these two great saints, and to mark this vast span of Christian faith and life. I was impressed by the faith and commitment of the current people of Durham as they honor all the rich history of this impressive place.

Durham Cathedral

Very Cool Lego Model of Durham Cathedral

The Girl with the Cow Is on This Wall (Somewhere)

Penny took us out to the country to St. Laurence, the last parish she served before her retirement. It was the model for part of Durham Cathedral, and there has been worship on this site since 400. One side of the church has a sun dial carved into it that it over 1000 years old. The church site used to have an infectious disease hospital next to it in the Middle Ages.  That side of the church has two slots - now filled in - where the hospital residents used to come and put their hand in to receive the sacrament.

Medieval Sundial in  the Wall of St. Laurence

With Penny at St. Laurence

Baptismal Font that Was Found in a Field. There are indentations where the cows rested their heads to drink from it!

We said farewell to Penny back at our car at the nursery, and headed back to Beck Hole. It was a beautiful late afternoon, and we were able to see hills and valleys previously obscured by rain and clouds. We watched the first episode of the new Lewis series. (Sorry to keep referencing all this TV that won’t show up on our TVs in Seattle for a couple years. Well, maybe I’m sorry...)

North York Moors Late Afternoon

Friends and Relations

On Monday, Cliff Lightfoot came to the cottage for coffee in the morning. It was good to get caught up on everything and to encourage him and Joan to come to Seattle again very soon.

After Cliff went, we drove to Whitby to meet Ron for lunch. We parked the car (no mean feat in this popular North Sea town) and arrived at the Marine Café in pretty good time. Ron was behind us a bit. It was raining cats and dogs! We were finally all together and, over a good bottle of wine and excellent fish and chips (with the best mushy peas ever!) We had a great two-hour conversation.

After lunch we headed to the Co-op for some grocery shopping. Then to Yorkshire Trading Company (hardware store, or ironmonger, depending on your location) to get an airing rack for clothes. (We had mentioned to Ron that laundry was next on our list, and he mentioned that the dryer didn’t work, and the drying/airing rack was no longer.) We headed home with our purchases and settled in to do laundry and watch the next episode of the new Doc Martin series. You won’t believe what’s happening with Mrs. Tishell!

Beck Hole

Beck Hole is a very tiny little village 600 feet down from the top of the North York Moors. Our friend Ron Lightfoot owns a beautiful little cottage here called Honeysuckle Cottage. I know the Lightfoots from serving an interim at Port Madison Lutheran Church on Bainbridge Island. When I went there, the congregation president was Arthur Lightfoot from Yorkshire. In my 8 months or so there, Arthur and Julie came to be great friends. Sadly, in 1992, Arthur died from a sudden heart attack while jogging on his beloved island. Although he lingered for a few days at Swedish Hospital, he never recovered consciousness. His brothers Ron and Cliff came to Seattle for his services, which were at Port Madison. Arthur and Julie had just spent a lovely time at Honeysuckle Cottage in the Spring of 1992.

In December, 1993, I went with Julie to Honeysuckle Cottage to help her prepare a festival to celebrate Arthur's life. The whole family gathered here to remember a truly great man. We have kept up the relationship with the Lightfoots ever since. Larry and I were here with our friends the Faddens in 1998, and we had a great gathering with all the Lightfoots on July 4. Sandy Fadden and I had fun making an American flag jello - wasn't totally appreciated!

So Larry and I are very happy to be back at this really lovely place. Ron no longer lets it out for holiday folk, but was gracious enough to let us stay.

On Monday, Cliff came for coffee around 10, and then we drove to Whitby and had lunch with Ron at the Marine Cafe. If was great to catch up with both of them. We did a couple errands in Whitby, and then came back to the cottage and settled in to see the next episode of the latest series of Doc Martin.

The Winders of Lancashire

We stayed the night before at the Redwell Country Inn near Carnforth, Lancashire. We drove down the M6 right on the edge of The Lake District, but it was so foggy we could not see anything! (A special note for Bev Christensen: we looked into driving over to Hawkshead for Beatrix Potter, but the timing just didn’t work!) The Redwell Country Inn was a real find - a great spot (remodeled old pub) and terrific food. We had a lot of fun visiting with the staff both evening and morning, and came away with some of their smoked meats and salmon to bring with us to Beck Hole.

We stayed in this place because it was near Warton, which is where I had noted my 6-great grandfather lived. However, as I looked more closely at the details before we set out, I saw that there are two Wartons rather close to each other! The Warton we wanted was the other one. (This one would have been interesting, as George Washington’s family came from there.) So we set out to drive another 20 miles or so near Lancaster. On the way we took a picture of a street called Winder Garth. I decided that if we saw anything “Winder” we’d take a picture and make a note.

We actually did not go to the second Warton, which is actually the place where my g-g-g-g-g-g grandfather got married. But we did find the village where he was born - Forton - and the church where he was baptized - St. Michael and All Angels in Cockerham. Very cool all around.

St. Michael and All Angels, Cockerham, Lancaster, Lancashire

On our way to North Yorkshire we angled across the Yorkshire Dales National Park. We stopped in the town of Sedbergh because it was in the shadow of a mountain named Winder! The woman in the tourist information was very interested in the whole thing, took me up to their history room to look at place names, and called a friend who knew a lot. It appears that Winder, among other meanings, is a place sheltered from the wind. (My best findings for my ancestors have to do with the wool trade - the "wynder," the person winding the wool around the spool.) The woman on the phone indicated Viking origins for the name, which matches my own research. The woman in the tourist info was named Elspeth and totally looked the part.

Mt. Winder

We had a beautiful drive through the Dales - amazing country. This is James Herriott country, and it looks just like the old TV shows! 

We headed north out of Lancashire to their white rose arch enemies in Yorkshire. We have the blessing of the Lightfoot Honeysuckle Cottage in Beck Hole in the North York Moor National Park for the next five days. It is a wonderful place where we have been before, and we’re looking forward to being in one place for five nights!

Honeysuckle Cottage

Hadrian's Wall

When we left Gatehouse, we decided to go a little past our route south to take in a bit of Hadrian’s Wall. We had not seen it before, and were eager to see one more masterpiece of Roman engineering. We got to the Roman fort just south of the great archeaological site Vindolanda. The museum there was very good, and we got an overview and history of the wall. Then we drove out to the Vindolanda site, which is amazing. It has been an active archeaological site since 1970, and it was actually started in the early 1800's. They have uncovered countless valuable clues to Roman life and the life of the military in Roman Britain. We wandered through bath houses and latrines, houses and grain storage facilities. We saw temples to Roman gods and Christian churches. You cannot go anywhere in Europe without bumping into Roman water and waste systems, and Vindolanda is no exception. Stone pipelines everywhere. It was a grey and rainy day, but the brilliant sun of the Roman Empire shone brightly.

We left Vindolanda and went briefly to Haltwhistle, the geographic center of Britain and a central place on the wall. After that we headed south on our original planned journey. We are now on our way to find some Winder relations. Another genealogy day coming up!

Kirkudbright and Dorothy L. Sayers

After a great breakfast (not too big!) at The Ship Inn, we headed out into a beautiful day to explore Gatehouse and Kirkcudbright. (Did I mention that it’s prononced ker-cud-bree?) We had a detailed printed tour to see all the places related to the novel (see above), made possible courtesy of the Dorothy L. Sayers Society. And yes, I am a member! However, as we got into it, it was way more detail that we really wanted to deal with. (This is the corner where.... blah, blah.) So we headed to Kirkcudbright, which is the main setting for the book.

It is a lovely little town and has been a center for Scottish (and others) painters since the end of the 19th century when a wealthy (and now pretty famous) painter named E. A. Hornel moved there. Other painters followed, and soon it was quite a hub. It still is a popular place for painters and other artists. Sayers’ novel is about the painters, although she disliked E .A. Hornel. She was known to have said that, should she write a murder mystery about Kirkcudbright, she would kill off Hornel! Well, she didn’t do that in the one she wrote but, if you know the book, many people see his personality in the characters of Campbell and Gowan.

Kirkcudbright

Garden at Broughton House

We went to the museum about the area, which is called The Stewartry. We then wandered the town some more, going eventually to The Tolbooth Art Centre. After that we found the cottage Sayers lived in and went to Broughton House, which was Hornel’s. We decided we didn’t like his paintings, but we did like his garden, which was lovely, and Larry had a useful conversation with the gardener about black bugs on nasturtiums. We went back to a really good knitwear shop where I bought a lovely sweater made in the Orkney Islands. Then it was back to Gatehouse-of-Fleet to get ready for our evening.

In a completely different context, I had discovered that The King’s Singers were performing on this Friday night in Cumnock, just 60 miles north of us. So I bought tickets and we set out on our journey. We arrive in Cumnock in time to have a good Indian meal right next store to the concert venue. The concert was in a local church, and part of a two-year old festival called The Cumnock Tryst. (That’s a word that means gather, by the way!) They had a wonderful concert, enjoyed by the usual completely rapt audience. I’ve been going to hear The King’s Singers in various places since 1982, and it is always true that their singing creates this amazingly contained space that we all live in for two hours. A remarkable thing, even with all the personnel changes over the years. (The King’s Singers began in 1968 and replace people selectively as they move on to other things. There have been 40 singers over 47 years.) The concert was interesting and unusual, featuring pieces about towns and cities. They were called back for two encores, and the last was a setting of Robert Burns’ My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose. In that hall it was very moving indeed. It reminded me of when I was in college and the St. Olaf Orchestra went to Norway for the J-Term. (January 1967, and we called it “Interim.”) Our concert program included Aaron Copland’s Rodeo, and one of our encores was Edvard Grieg’s Last Spring (Våren), dearly beloved in Norway. Before the encore, the conductor would just turn to the audience and say, “Våren.” You could hear the communal sigh. After the concert, at the inevitable reception, it was common for someone to come up and say, “We really liked the American piece (the Copland), but the Grieg, that was the best.” I think in Cumnock, Scotland, on Friday night, October 2, 2015, the Burns was the best.

We set off a little before 10 p.m. to journey back to Gatehouse of Fleet. We had noticed signs on our way to Cumnock that part of the road would be closed that night starting at 6 p.m. But we weren’t sure, so we headed out. And surely they would let us know. Right. They let us know at the closure, and then sent us on a one lane journey through the woods. It was rather mysterious and beautiful, but we were glad for a companion car ahead of us and good old maps.me. (See above.) We arrived back at The Ship Inn at about 11:45 p.m. and headed for bed! A really good day all around.

On to Scotland

After another terrific breakfast, we headed to the Stena Line ferry terminal at the docks in Belfast. We got there in good time and had a smooth and uneventful two hour sailing to Cairnryan, Scotland. We are now happily ensconced in our lodging at The Ship Inn in Gatehouse-of-Fleet. This is where Dorothy L. Sayers and her husband Mac Fleming stayed over many summers. She wrote her novel The Five Red Herrings based in nearby Kirkcudbright. We’ll go explore there tomorrow. The weather is still great.

Stena Lines Ferry from Belfast to Cairnryan, Scotland

The Ship Inn, Gatehouse-of-Fleet

Belfast

After an amazingly good breakfast, we headed to the bus stop to begin our Belfast day. Another couple from the b and b were there, as was a local woman. The bus didn’t come. The local woman said the earlier scheduled one didn’t come either. Finally one arrived. We got on and bought two day tickets. Belfast has a great bus system. Every route comes into the centre to the City Hall and then leaves from there on its route. So you never need to figure out which direction the bus is going. Cool.

Belfast City Hall

We arrived at City Hall and were in time for the free tour of this interesting, huge, and historic building. Underlying everything in Belfast is the history of the “troubles,” and that was true in the seat of government as well. We enjoyed the tour and the history very much.







From City Hall we set out on our own tour of East Belfast. Our friend Greg Steeber and his daughter Greta were here a couple years ago and discovered an East Belfast C. S. Lewis tour. Lewis was born and raised in the Belmont/Strandtown section of Belfast, and they are proud of their famous writer son.

C. S. Lewis Statue at Holywood Arches Library

Aslan in the Library

We start at the Holywood Arches Library where there is a statue of Lewis looking in a wardrobe by Ross Wilson. The statue was surrounded by metal fencing. When we went in to the library, a librarian told us they are redoing the area, including a Narinia play area for children. Great! From there we walked up the street - a long walk - along Dundela Street. We saw the plaque on the place where Lewis was born. Then we continued to Belmont Tower, a National Trust building (used to be school) where they have an ongoing Lewis exhibit and a great community coffee shop. We indulged in coffee and a shared piece of apple pie. We left there and walked on neighborhood streets to the church where Lewis was baptized and where he and his brother memorialized their parents with a stained glass window. Sadly, the church was not open nor was there any way to see if it could be opened. It was decidedly inhospitable with no information anywhere. We chose not to go further (quite a ways) to Campbell College where Lewis went as a child and where he saw the lamp post that became part of Narnia, nor to Little Lea, the house where he grew up. It was a lot of fun to follow these trails where the imagination of C. S. Lewis was allowed to flourish and grow.

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We caught a bus back to the centre. (After the bus failed to appear in the morning, every time we needed one afterwards there was one right there!) We got on one more to go to the Titanic Belfast exhibit. This covers several acres to show the places where the Titanic was built. We (very luckily) got on a small tour called A Wee Tram that went to all the outside places. It was just great and really interesting. We got a great picture of the immensity of this effort and of the gigantic shipbuilding infrastructure of Belfast. That all went away after World War II. But the old buildings have been put to good use. One huge old warehouse is now Titanic Studios which is where Game of Thrones is shot! We did not go into the Titanic experience - way expensive and we think we got a way better deal!

Titanic Belfast

We headed back to the bus for the centre - practically waiting for us - and then found our bus back towards our b and b. We got off at Queen’s University to go to The Barking Dog - our “Stick with Rick” dining choice for the day. On our way there we wandered through the botanical gardens - very nice. Thing are still blooming all over the place! Our dinner at The Barking Dog was fabulous - one of the best for the trip so far. We again boarded a bus which came right when we needed it and made our way back to An Old Rectory. A great day. We love Belfast.

Belfast Botanical Gardens

Portrush and the Antrim Coast

We visited with the Doyles into Monday morning the next day and then headed around the coast to Portrush. On our way we stopped in Letterkenny and took in Liz Doyle’s exhibit, which had just begun the Wednesday before. It was a very beautiful drive.

The normally busy seaside town of Portrush was quite dead at the end of September! We had a good “Stick with Rick” hotel that was very comfortable. We had a decent dinner and just a nice evening, including watching the next episode of the new Dr. Martin series. Lots of great new Brit TV to watch, including Downton Abbey (although we missed episode 2 because we were at Cruit Island) and a new series called Midwinter of the Spirit based on the Phil Rickman novels about The Rev. Merrily Watkins. I like those books a lot!

On Tuesday we headed to Belfast via The Giant’s Causeway and the Bushmill’s Distillery, both very close to Portrush. The Giant’s Causeway is an amazing geological wonder - a World Heritage site. All these basalt columns stick up along the coast - “like someone offering a pack of cigarettes to God,” according to Rick Steves - and make for a stunning and beautiful sweep of coastline. We walked about 5 miles down to the water and up to the cliffs and just took it all in. It was a beautiful, sunny day - these are continuing! It was a really fine experience.

The Giant's Causeway

Amazing Formations

Really Tall Rocks!

The Bushmill’s Distillery was a fine experience as well. It was interesting to learn the difference between Irish Whiskey (with an “e”) and Scotch Whisky (no “e”). The Irish Whiskey business was totally devastated by Prohibition in the US. They went from 140 distilleries to just 4. It was fascinating (as always for us) to see all the mechanisms of the production and to learn the history of the business.

We went from there to Belfast, found our lovely B and B - The Old Rectory. After a pub dinner (quite good) we settled in to plan a day in Belfast.

Cruit Island

Our next stop was our visit with Malachy and Liz Doyle on Cruit Island, County Donegal. Ironically, the road was straight north from Gurteen. We had planned a route angling north instead of going through Gurteen again. But when we arrive in Westport the night before, it was discovered that I had left my vest in the Gurteen pub! We called right away and were hoping to stop on our way north. But the pub didn’t open until noon and we wanted to go through there earlier. But, by virtue of the barman bringing the vest to the local grocery store, we passed through Gurteen, stopped at the store, picked up the vest (and bought another package of chocolate digestive biscuits) and were on our way! Irish hospitality shines again.

The trip north to Donegal was very beautiful, becoming wilder and more remote the farther we went. Around noon we stopped in Donegal town for some lunch - tea and sweets! Some lunch. But it was very good in an old restaurant hotel. We had a couple postcards to mail, so we wandered around looking for the post box and into a couple shops. Then we were on our way again to Cruit (pronounced “crutch”) island.

In 2012 there was a huge typhoon in the Philippines. One day when Larry was reading about it online he discovered a group of British/Irish children’s authors who were supporting the relief effort by a kind of online auction for the British Red Cross. One was an offering by Malachy Doyle for a visit with him on Cruit Island off the northwest corner of Ireland in Donegal. We had been thinking of visiting Ireland in 2013, so we made a contribution and were invited to come. When we decided not to come to 2013, he said to just let him know whenever we’d be there, so we did. We had expected a visit and a cup of tea, but he and his wife, a painter, invited us to stay at their home overnight. We enjoyed our stay and the chance to experience this more remote part of Scotland. Malachy Doyle is a very well-known children’s writer. He’s written 103 books, most of them for children between 2 and 6. Their home is an older home they bought and remodeled for their needs, having moved to the island about 7 years ago from Wales. They were interesting people and we enjoyed our visit - a special treat on this trip.

Liz Doyle

Malachy Doyle

The Bridge to Cruit Island

Westport

We took our leave of Gurteen (we thought) and headed out to see megalithic tombs at Carrowkeel. We had been told this was a bit of hike. It was a long hike, but really worth it. We walked very high on top of a hill to see three on 21 megalithic tombs. They are all around on top of the hills. Pretty amazing. They are older than the pyramids. Although it was a foggy and misty day, we had terrific views all around. Very much worth the time and effort.

Friendly Sheep on the Way Up Carrowkeel

Megalithic Tomb

We got back on the road and headed for Westport. We can call these days in Ireland “Burning Up the N5.” We got to our B and B, which was just a couple block from the centre. We walked around for a while and scouted out dinner and music. We had a “Stick with Rick” dinner at a place called Mangoes, which was excellent - beautiful fish/seafood. Then we went and hung out at Matt Molloy’s to wait for music. We got there around 8:30, claimed two seats in the music room and ordered a couple half pints of Guinness. Mine was Guinness and Black, which is Guinness with blackcurrant juice, Yum! Learned it from the Australians in Gurteen.

Matt Molloy is the flutist with the Chieftans, and he started this pub a few years ago. He wasn’t there, but we figured that’s a good pedigree to attract really good players. Even our twenty-something server at the restaurant said, “Matt Molloy’s” when we said we were looking for music. It got crowded and more crowded. People were coming and going to two other spots beyond the room - a smokers place and another outside bar. (The weather was finally turning for the better. It rained all summer in Ireland. Everyone talked about it everywhere we went.) We were perched on two stools right on the edge of where everyone walked. My knees touched stranger’s body parts in unexpected ways. Eventually, the musicians started arriving. When they were all gathered, there were two boxes (accordions), two bhodrans (drums), three fiddles, and a guitar. The lead fiddler started a tune and then they all joined in. It was grand. We are so happy we took the time to do this. A great experience.


We got in late to our B and B after a truly wonderful evening.

Falduff and Louisburgh

We were on the ancestor track again to today, heading west through Westport and out on the peninsula to Louisburgh. We stopped on the way in Ballagharderreen and picked up our laundry.

In Falduff/Louisburgh we had a specific piece of land to find which Larry’s great-grandfather Dominick had rented and worked before leaving Ireland for the US. We made our way down a road and we indeed found exactly the place Sean Quinn had marked for us on the land survey map, Pretty amazing. The perimeter is exactly as it was in 1842. There were lovely sheep grazing. Pictures were taken. We explored further on the lane and started taking to a couple who were out for a walk. They asked what we were doing and we told them. The young man said, “Howard. That’s an English name, isn’t it? But my name is Maxwell, which is Scottish, and we’ve been here for generations!” Then they both said, “You need to ask Tony. His farm is right here.” Right after that we heard some loud pounding and the young man yelled out, “Tony!” Then Tony came to where we were and parted the hedge and we started talking. He knew everything, including that there had been some Howards around. He also knew all about the Garvey family who had owned the land Dominick rented. There are very long memories in these parts!

Dominick Howard's Rental Land

Tony

 After we finished our in-the-hedge conversation with Tony, we went back along the land to the really old cemetery - again, an old priory, nuns this time. We walked through the rugged and middy old cemetery, but did not find Howards. We do expect that, if they are there, they are marked by the uncarved little rocks that are in ancient rows everywhere. When the rain came, we headed back to the car and into Louisburgh for a cup of tea. We ate at the Louisburgh 74, a great liittle café. Yummy seafood chowder and a prawn mayonnaise sandwich with salad. We got talking to another local who knew a few names and so on. All the history is hear in the conversation. This man also noted how difficult this all is in Ireland because of the long history of English land ownership. He thought they might be able to think about something else in about two more generations.

After lunch we went out to the end of the peninsula and went to the little town of Killeen where we think Dominick’s friend Patrick Curran was from. They share a grave marker in Watertown, New York - one side Dominick, the other Patrick. And Patrick’s says “Killeen, County Mayo” on it. We tried again for Curran graves with no luck. But it would indeed be great luck if we ever found any of these.

We headed back to Gurteen and guess what! We had dinner at the pub. We had met some Australians from Melbourne two nights before, and tonight we had a long conversation with one of them. Lots of fun.

This was our last night in Gurteen. We had considered staying one more, but we decided we wanted to go back to Westport to see that nice town and to finally hear a music session.

Gurteen and the Coleman Music Center

We really needed to laundry and Jacci, our b and b host, said she could take it for us to the Laundrette in then nearby larger town. Very nice. We had a relaxed morning and then visited the Michael Coleman music center. Michael Coleman was a very famous Irish fiddler from the early 20th century. He was from the Gurteen area and this traditional mucis center was named to honor him. It is a really terrific place. They not only have seminars year-round to which people from all over the world come, but they also do concerts and educational events. It’s all part of a larger 30-year or so movement to Ireland to preserve the old music and traditions, including the language. The museum part is excellent. It reminded us of the Bach museum in Eisenstadt without the hanging chairs. Really good and easily accessible digital units that let you learn what each instrument does and alone and with others. They also let you listen to the musicians who have been central to the whole revival of Irish traditional music. We had a great visit with the two women working there and learned even more from them. To this point we had been unable to be where there was pub music, and had missed it there. We were still looking! Part of the issue is that it always starts late at night, so you want to be where you can walk home! Check out the Coleman center here: http://www.colemanirishmusic.com/


We also drove north and saw the town of Ballymote and its ancient castle ruins, and Larry finally found a great picture of a pile of peat.

Peat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The day ended with another great meal in the pub. (There’s a pattern here.)

Athenry to Gorteen (Gurteen)

The next day was a genealogy day, heading for Athenry, just a few km east of Galway. We’d been looking for ordnance survey maps and hadn’t been able to find the quadrants we needed. It took us a while to track them down at two different Galway bookstores, but we got it done.

Athenry is the place where possibly Larry’s Howard relatives came from. We were looking for a Thomas Howard, who would be the great great grandfather (married to the aforementioned Flynn - Elinor). We had a good look around, checked out the castle and asked questions (“Howard - that’s an English name, isn’t it?”) and walked in a very old cemetery at an old Dominican priory. There are lots of these old abbeys, priories, monasteries, castles, and towers all over the place. The cemetery yielded no Howards. But every cemetery has lots and lots of very old small stones scattered all around marking unnamed graves. A very hard thing to do. Some cemeteries, we found, have helpful lists of those buried there. One in Athenry did, but no Howards. We did have good conversations, saw lovely things, and had an afternoon beer in the local pub.

Old Dominican Priory and Graveyard, Athenry

 When we left Athenry we went a very short distance north to a land area called Ballydavid North where we know Thomas Howard farmed. In Ireland land and tax records are really the only records available to find anyone because all the records were burned in the Civil War. So nothing else exists from 1921-1901. Finding your Irish roots is a tricky item. If someone didn’t own land or work for someone who owned land (that would be Larry’s family) you can’t find much. When someone rented land from an owner, their name was included in that owner’s tax record. That is very helpful these 150+ years later. We found Ballydavid North and took some pictures of the land in the exact location. Cool.

Ballydavid North

The Crossbar, Gurteen

We then headed north to Gorteen (pronounced, and sometimes spelled Gurteen) where we were booked at the Church View Guest House for three nights. Gurteen looked to be equidistant between Athenry and Louisburgh, the two main areas where we were exploring Larry’s family. We checked in to our lovely room and then went next door to the pub for a great dinner. There is a really good cook in The Crossbar Pub in Gurteen, County Sligo.

The Wild Atlantic Way

We followed what is called The Wild Atlantic Way, a road marking to identify the spectacular views on Ireland’s West coast. When we left Parknasilla, we went inland to the little town of Kenmare, a favorite in the Rick Steves’ Ireland book. We were looking for a better road atlas (found it, finally) and checked out a bookstore. We’ve found Rick’s book very helpful. Our motto is “Stick with Rick!” We don’t follow all his recommendations, but they give us context and helpful guidance. And we have them on our phones with Kindle so there are no travel guide books to haul around!

Another really helpful tool is the app maps.me. We learned about this from our friend John Williams who has used it in remote locations in Southeast Asia and other places. It doe GPS locating on your smartphone and runs the map and does routing all without the phone being connected to wi-fi or cellular service. Really great. Check it out.

Continuing the car repair, we stopped in Killarney at a Ford dealership to see if someone could turn off the low tire (that sould be “tyre”) alert light. Even though we have a Škoda Octavia car, the Ford person found the right menu (totally accessible to us if we could figure it out) and turned off the light. No charge. Good Irish friendliness and hospitality we are experiencing everywhere.

We headed north up the coast, driving across one peninsula to the town of Tarbert where we caught a ferry across the Shannon.

Ferry Across the Shannon

 We continued along the coast until we came to the amazing Cliffs of Moher (pronounced “more”). These spectacular cliffs, home to all kinds of birds and animals including Puffins, were pretty amazing to see. We had a very windy walk, again with people from all over the world, and then continued on our way.

The Cliffs of Moher

 We stopped briefly in the little seaside town of Doolin. Doolin is a very famous music venue where people from everywhere used to show up for sessions in the local pubs. As traditional Irish music has become so popular everywhere, fewer people show up in the this rather remote village. But we came here for a very special purpose. Our neighbors at home had two cats named Huxley and Doolin. They were part of the south end of 44th Ave NE cat gang that included our own Little and Teasel. All have now died. But Doolin was named for this little Irish town, so we took this picture and sent it off to our neighbors “In Memoriam.”

We ended the day in a Galway suburb called Oranmore. Our hotel had a a peppy little Italian bistro with lots of families having dinner. We had great pizza.

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Hi dear readers. I'm up to date with the blog but can't post because of unreliable Internet. 

Clogheen and the Ring of Kerry

Much of the Ireland part of our trip is focused on finding the homelands of Larry’s ancestors. As noted above, we done a fair amount of work and hired some help along the way. The little town of Clogheen is one place we went to look for Flynns, relatives of Larry maternal great great grandparents. It’s in County Tipperary, and it wasn’t a long way to get there! Before we went to the old graveyard we found a road to a place called The Vee. It took us up to a high place with an amazing view between two hills, hence “The Vee.” Word has it that Johnny Cash went up there and then wrote his song Forty Shades of Green. There were also two hikers huts and a big statue (recent) of the Virgin.

The View from the Vee

We went back down and found the old Shanrahan graveyard and even some Flynns! We don’t know if they are related, but it is a link. It’s an interesting exercise to walk among all these gravestones and see all the stories that are held in those names. The graveyards are tended and people clearly keep up their families tombs. Ireland is very religious, and I’ve been a bit surprised at just how much. Perhaps I’m a bit Seattle-jaded at that point, but the practice of Christianity is very active and wide-spread. Daily masses appear to be well-attended, and one Saturday evening we drove by two churches that were just crammed with cars and peoples going to Saturday evening mass.

Parknasilla

From Clogheen we headed to southwest Ireland. We had hoped to get to Dingle and it’s reputedly lovely peninsula, but we could not find accommodation. Things have been really booked up everywhere. So we tried the Ring of Kerry, just south of there. We ended up doing a bit of a splurge at a place called Parknasilla, a resort that used to be an old railway hotel. It was great. A fantastic and beautiful and worth the splurge.




On our way there, coming through some road work, we had a flat tire - puncture around here. We were just coming into the little town of Sneem and found the local garage. That was worth the price of admission! Turns out we picked up a drill bit, of all things. Larry has kept it as a souvenir. The tire was repaired and we were on our way. Look closely at the photo to see an important tool in an Irish garage.

Powerscourt Gardens and Glendalough

Trees at Powerscourt

e love going to gardens of all kinds, and Powerscourt, just southwest of Dublin, is Ireland’s gem. Lots of grand houses and wealthy families have done great gardens over the centuries, but the cool thing about Powerscourt is the conservation management they have accomplished over all these years. It is a splendidly laid out and organized combination of formal garden and the wild beauty of the surrounding land. We especially enjoyed using the tree map to see the wonderful variety of conifers and deciduous trees planted here. At the end there was a pair of gorgeous borders, and two huge dahlia and rose beds. Even though it is the end of September, there are flowers blooming everywhere in Ireland. All along the roads there are huge hedges of fuchsia and stand and stand of blazing orange Crocosmia. There are still Gladioa blooming and lots dahlias, begonias, and other things that would be long gone elsewhere. The whole island is a garden.

After Powerscourt (where it seemed the whole population of Spain had descended) we headed, with one brief wrong turn, to the ancient monastery site of Glendalough. This is a very popular weekend and holiday destination for the Irish and, as this was a Sunday, they had definitely arrived! But we managed to find a parking spot and wandered off into these very old stone buildings. St. Kevin was the founder, and his chapels and huts fill not only the little village where the main monastery buildings are, but move right on up this mountain valley with hermit huts and special chapel spaces. I am always astounded at the ingenuity and care that went into all these communities. There is a round tower here, as there is for each monastery site in Ireland. When the Vikings, or the Normans, or whoever was on the attack, the monks would put a ladder up and haul all the treasure up into the top windows of the tower and then go there themselves and wait it out. Very smart.

Glendalough

Our day ended at Bailey’s Hotel in Cashel for a two-night stay. It’s a good spot, and we’re looking forward to exploring the famous Rock of Cashel in the morning.

The next day in Cashel proved exciting - rain, rain, rain. The Rock of Cashel is an old friary and cathedral that is largely intact in its wall structures. It sits high on a rock above this lovely town. It was a short walk from our hotel. And it was rainy horribly! Just buckets and buckets and buckets of water. We were relieved to be able to sit in a room for a video which wasn’t happening, but we had a good conversation with a couple from Los Angeles who used to be from Seattle. We finally got to see the video and the explore the ruins of this pretty amazing sight.

The Rock of Cashel

The need to be dry finally got the better of us, and we headed back to the hotel and hung up our wet clothes. Yikes! We had dinner again in the excellent bistro at Bailey’s Hotel and closed the place down in a long conversation with an English couple.