A Cool and Windy Morning at the Castle

I woke up early to the wind blowing through a crack in the window that we forgot to close last night. The tide was on its way out and a bit of beach was showing through the rain and wind. I thought 'if the weather stays like this I'm not going out'. Maureen was also awake so we thought that it must be quite late. We had arranged to have breakfast at 930 and didn't want to be late, so I had a nice hot shower, dressed and went downstairs to find out what time it was. All was very quiet.

No one was awake! I did get distracted on the way downstairs by a few of the antiques that were everywhere.

A very large old Bible sitting behind a chair by the window in the hall by the stairs caught my eye. I opened it very carefully and found an inscription "1833 to Elizabeth Anne Townshend" Holy Cow! It was almost two hundred years old and just sitting there.

I wandered around just looking at things ,working my way downstairs.

I figured out how to operate the TV and found out is was around 8 AM.

I figured we must have woke up at around 630 or 7 . So I went back up to the third floor and told Maureen, grabbed my camera and then returned to watch the news, taking pictures all the way. Found the news and a channel that carries Horse jumping or horse things all day long! I want this in Canada!

Ann came through very quickly and starting making breakfasts. In the castle they have passages that only they( the owners and staff) use and passages that are for the use of the paying guests.

Ann opened the dining room about 9 and it was beautiful. Antique everything. A great Fireplace with an inlaid marble mantle, side tables and Trophy cups. Chairs and tables, Antiques, antiques. antiques.

Maureen came down and we had breakfast which was also very good. Scrambled eggs, beans, mushrooms, fruit. But no potatoes, they don't do potatoes in the morning. The sun came out and the wind died down and it started to look like we might be able to go out after all.

Castletownshend

As we came around a corner in the town of Castletownshend, we were on the top of a

hill that was very steep. Our directions told us that the castle is at the bottom of the hill. Sounds simple. As we proceeded down the hill we came to some trees that are in the middle of the road. Every town has something. Vegreville has a giant egg. Mundare has a sausage. Here they have two trees in the middle of the road. Maureen thinks we should turn but I think we can just fit around this obstruction.

We took the left side of the trees and proceeded with caution as we couldn’t really see what was on the other side.

Yea! We did not die.

More street going down the very steep hill and straight into the Castle. We were so happy. It had been a day filled with excitement. We parked the car for two days and went in to check in.

The Castle was built in 1750 and was impressive. Lots of stone with its own private beach. Inside was all dark wood, old paintings and antiques everywhere. The owner Ann gave us our room which looked over the back of the house but Maureen wanted to look at the bay in the front so she arranged that we got a different room. I am a quick settler so by the time she told me that we had a new room I had already unpacked my things and needed to repack. The new room was much larger with bigger beds and a spectacular view of the bay.

Ah! - Now this is Ireland, The many many changing colours of the hills and water. Out of the Car for a few days.

After an hour or two of just relaxing we decided to put on our raincoats, it was raining again, and walk to the little store, Donovan's, and pick up a few things. It was almost at the top of the street we just came down and had an interesting assortment of things. Being the only store in town it caters to everybody’s requirements. We found Tayto Chips, Tayto Popcorn, McVitie's Biuscuits (Maureen got very excited about these as she loves them and can't find them in Canada) and postcards. The evening had become very misty grey but it was not cold just damp.

Maureen found the phone booth out on the street and tried her card again but no luck there. It was very frustrating. She bought an Irish phone card that doesn’t seem to work in Irleand.

We went for dinner to Maryanne's the only restaurant in town. By the time we got to the restaurant there were already a few people there. We tried a Smithwick's beer which is. we found out. pronuounced 'smidicks'. a lovely beer if I do say so,

Teresa our waitress seemed a little quick with us at first but she turned out to be a sweetheart.

The owner of the Restarant had a son who was having a birthday party and Teresa was going to be doing the face painting at the party. She was trying to convince him to be spiderman or a puppy because those were the only faces she could do really well. she kept calling him 'Pet' and he kept looking at other designs. It was really rather funny .

Maureen had a steak the size of Texas and I had Roasted Vegetable with mushroom sauce pasta that was lovely and they brought the vegetable side dishes out in side dishes. The food was great. In the summer the population swells with tourists but there are only about 200 people in the town who stay year round so everyone here knows everyone else. Very friendly town. We were so full we could not eat dessert so decided we would come back the next day and only have dessert for lunch. on our waddle home we ran into a man who called the weather 'darty'. I believe that he was saying it was dirty weather, all misty rain like it was. by the time we got back to the castle it was raining a little harder so we stayed in and settled in very quickly for a good night sleep in our very comfortable beds. Maureen had the giant four poster bed that made her almost disappear, it seemed so large. I had one of the other two beds in the room which although not as large as Maureen's was just as comfortable.

Going to Skibereen.

We looked at the map for a while trying to find a route down to Skibereen that would not take us back through Cork. No more Big cities for us for a while. We were going into the country.

We went through Tower and stopped at a gas station to verify our directions. They were very helpful. They gave us two different sets of directions in two different directions.

Off we went to find the N71. We found the N22. When we did find the N71 we did a high five.

A traffic circle with no sign for the N71 had us a little confused but we made the right choice. The next traffic circle was really big, the largest one we had seen since beginning our trip and there were signs but they were real bad. They put the sign just down the road that you wanted to take. Back to a single lane highway after that and then it was a double lane for about one minute. Maureen says ‘It’s a reward for getting through that crap hole! Then a double but slow lane again for about one minute.

On the side of the road is a Tourists calming sign, gee, I wonder what the heck they are talking about. They make you crazy on the roads and then tell you where you can become calm again? Another circle and we go straight ahead.

We are getting used to the circles and looking for signs in odd places. We start singing Skinabarinkadinkadinka Skinnabarinkadoo.

At 1:05 we pass Innisshannon but the clock in the car says its 1:25? Innishshannon is a very pretty village where you can picnic down by the river just outside of town.

In Bandon their clock says it is 1:31 and our car clock says it is 1:36? Bandon is a bigger town with a lovely older section.

At 1:44 our time, there was rain and a sign that said Blackspot. Does that mean there was an accident there?

At 1:49 we went through Ballinscarth, which has a purple tavern. We admire the cows in the fields after Ballinscarth and pass the Lisselan Golf Club.

Just outside of Clonakilty there were big trees and a big truck. The traffic circle here was actually very nice with good signs. There was a smallish tide flats and inlet. The road was very zig-zag through town and when a Y in the road came up with no sign we took the road more traveled and it all worked out well.

Lissavaird is in a valley and has the Pike Bar that is yellow. Quite pretty and the sun came out almost.

Roscaberry is in a big valley with a big bridge on a big bay. Nice town with swans.

After Roscaberry came another encounter with Irish cows and ‘such fresh country air’.

Connamaugh had harness racing on Sunday at 230 but we couldn’t go, as we would not be there.

Next was Leap Inlet with pretty trees and forests and hills and a very bumpy road.

We got to Skibereen at about 2 in the afternoon. It is also very pretty with old streets and new and it was bigger than we thought it would be. We looked for signs to Castletownshend and found them right away. That can mean that either the signs were good or we are getting used to looking all over the place for any sign. I believe it was the former. From Skibereen the roads to Castletownshend become narrower if that is possible and it was starting to rain. We saw a bicycle sign and at one point Maureen tried to use her right hand to change gears as she wanted to slow down but she figured it out pretty quick.

The Grounds and the Fern Garden

We left the castle and bought our souvenirs. Postcards of course, a picture of me kissing the stone , a book about the castle and a few odd knick-knacks. Maureen bought the same but without the picture or book.

We were armed with a brochure that told us of some of the things we could see.

Maureen wanted to go and see the fern garden and I thought ‘I don’t really want to go and look at ferns.

I’ve seen ferns. I lived in BC where there are lots of ferns’. But I said lets see the grounds first, hoping that we would run out of time and not have to go. I know, I'm Very selfish and mean.

So we went to look at the manor house. When we got to the house we found out that there was a tour every hour and a half but we would have had to wait for 45 minutes so we decided to forgo the tour of the house and just do the grounds.

They were very nice. An interesting start was the walk through an archway in the hedge.

This brought us to a wide lawn that graced the back of the house, with a view down to the lake. I could imagine sitting in the drawing room looking at that view.

Very Peaceful. A sundial on a path, although the sun was not out at that moment, was an interesting lawn ornament.

Side lawns with sinuous walks through a shrubbery containing rhododendrons that were 30 feet tall invited us to wander.

Now not that long ago I thought a shrubbery was a bush.

I have since learned that a shrubbery is a planting of some 6 to 8 feet in depth with the shorter shrubs in the front gradually increasing in height to the tallest plants in the back. This would line a winding gravel path and offer the onlooker quiet picturesque perspectives while providing privacy from the outside world. You have to love Jane Austen. I belong to the Jane Austen Society back home and so learned about landscaping in her time at one of our meetings. How fun!

We loved the variety of plants and the rhodos were magnificent. We paused to get a few photos to show how really large they were.

Some people would say 'but you are both short so that makes the rhodos look bigger'. Well yes we are admittedly short only 5 ft 2 inches, but we are not Leprechauns. No,we are not that short.

Then we wandered down towards the stables. We did not get there. A little sign that said 'Private Road' made us pause and wonder if we had somehow turned the wrong way.

We knew that we had permission to go to the stables and that the manor house was a private residence that opened its doors to the public, but for what ever reason we did not want to cross the line of the "Private Road" sign.

So we turned and went another route entirely. Past trees that were huge and obviously old. Through woods and past fields.

Maureen really wanted to see the fern garden so we found the right road and went to see the ferns.

The road was wet and lined with wild garlic. The aroma was very strong. Giant cedar trees lined both sides and made it seem very quiet and wild.

We past the ice house, we knew what it was as there was a sign, and a few other ruined buildings, almost completely grown over with brush.

The road became a path all twisty and hilly and wood chipped.

We went over a little rise and there appeared a most wondrous sight.

The Fern garden was magic. Ferns towered over us and around us at all levels to create a truly Cretaceous experience.

Where had these come from? How did they live here?

It was marvelous. I was now very glad indeed that Maureen had insisted that we go. I will tell everyone I know who is going to see Blarney about the Fern Garden.

What a great surprise. By the time we were finished wandering around and taking lots of photos of Giant ferns, stone benches tucked into quiet corners and statues semi hidden in watery grottos, the

sun had come out and it was getting quite warm.

We wandered back up to the manor house by a different route and found that it had gotten quite busy with tourists. Seemed the tour buses had started arriving .

I did tell people that I saw about going to see the fern garden but they said that they only had so much time and so probably would not get to see it.

We were so glad that we had decided to travel in our own rented vehicle as it gave us the freedom to stay and explore where ever we wanted.