The Church in Castletownshend

At the bottom of the hill there are three options.

Straight ahead is the Castle.

On the right is the short road to the boat launch and pier.

On the left is the steep road up to the church.

We went left. The hill is just as steep as the main road but not as long thank goodness.

At the top of the road we were impressed by the long set of stairs to the church yard and I saw my favorite celtic cross in Ireland.

The sun was warm and the air was fresh and we were catching our breath after the stairs. The cross had all the detail that I had seen in pictures.

It was marvelous. I don't know how old it was but I think it must have been quite old. In Ireland the graveyards are very close to their churches so we looked at some of the stones before we walked around to the front of the church

and found that there was parking at the top of the hill by a different access road.

We had been wondering if everybody walked to church because the way we had come there was no parking and that road and those stairs would have been hard on the older folks in town. Maybe it was their weekly workout, going to church.

The front door of the church was impressive with a great old arch and gorgeous doors.

Inside there was an oar and a plaque about the Lusitania.

It seems that 27 victims of that terrible incident were brought to Castletownshend. It makes history seem so much more personal when you see the impact of events in peoples lives.

There were several gorgeous stained glass windows set in the thick walls. The church must have been from the same time that the castle was built which would make it around 1750.

A very intricate mosaic tile floor with snakes and golden crosses greeted us as we entered the church proper.

A very large and impressive pipe organ filled in the loft. It seems that every town church has a giant pipe organ.

It was beautiful. I would have loved to hear it play.

I'm sure that it would have sounded as good as it looked.

We took lots of photos and poked around for probably an hour just admiring all of the beautiful things inside.

The sun coming through the windows really showed them to their best.

It really was a nice church.

On the way out we noticed a brass plaque on the inside door which was very apt.

I should make a book of all the doors in Ireland that I have taken pictures of with this as the first page.

It would be fun.

We went back down the hill in the sunshine and went to Maryanne's for dinner around 7-ish. I had chips, salad, a 1/2 pint of Murphy's and a fantastic sticky toffee pudding.

Maureen had fresh prawn stir-fry in mild spices, a 1/2 pint of Murphy's and got her warm chocolate brownie to go.

Our favorite waitress, teresa was there,

but it was much busier as there was a party of about 30 to 40 people so they also had a few more waiters to help out. We were glad we got there early. I did a picture of us sitting at our table by the end of the bar but someone jiggled my arm so the picture came out all wibbly.

Really. It was not the Murphy's.

We saw the dutch lady from the rose cottage that afternoon and she told us that the lady whose plates that I had bought because she had not come back for them, had returned later and was very sad that they were gone. I was not sad as I had the plates. they were made by a local potter Peter. After dinner we wandered back down to the castle.

Anne's father was having his birthday so there was lots of coming and going of family members till around 10 pm.

I wrote in my/our journal and watched a little news.

Maureen added -all I need to add is - what a fabulous find!! the castle, the beach, the boats, Maryanne's!!

After that I don't know what happened as I went to sleep, happy and content in my comfy bed in my castle in Ireland.

A walk on Saturday morning in Castletownshend

We went for a walk. We got about 100 feet from the door and went down onto the beach which was now at low tide. We ended up staying there for about an hour just poking around picking up broken pottery and sea glass. I picked up some lovely sea glass for my friend Diane who makes jewelry and I hoped to make some jewelry with the pottery shards as gifts for my friends and family. I would of course wash it thoroughly before going through customs. We both filled our pockets. just like kids really, quite silly.

We went back up to the room to empty our pockets and have a bathroom break before continuing our walk. Then, refreshed, we headed off down the road and around the corner to find the church that was located up on the hill immediately behind the castle. It was a lovely walk right along the bay with big old trees and flowers of all kinds blooming.

There was a few bad patches that were quite muddy and a very muddy path that went up the hill but we thought that can't be the road.

Up and around the bend were some lovely newer homes who must have great views. Across the road from

these was a field with a mare and foal and we could see the

church but we could not get to it so we had obviously missed the

turn.

We were joined by two dogs a black lab and a golden retriever.

They were nice company for awhile. The sun was lovely and it changed the colour of the water on the bay to shades that were sometimes Caribbean almost.

We walked all around the field and back into town looking at the church across the field most of the way so we decided that we would make another try after dinner going a different route that we now knew would get us there. We stopped off at Maryanne's for the dessert we were too full to eat last night.

I had the Almond Pear Torte and Maureen had a Raspberry White Chocolate cheesecake. The presentation was fabulous and the taste Divine.

We ate outside on the patio at the back. While the sun was out it was hot but a cloud came over and rained on us so the staff opened up this large awning that covered most of the patio.

We moved Back out into the sun once the rain stopped and watched this little Blue Tit taking care of its family in some rocks in the corner. All very peaceful and lovely. We decided to have fries too and asked for them to be crispy. It is amazing that such a small town has such a great restaurant. It won the best seafood Restaurant in 2008, I think for all of the county and maybe the country.

We heard about a garage sale going on at Rose's cottage and decided to go. With directions from a few people at the restaurant we went and did not find it . We wandered here, we wandered there,

we found burros and boat launches, rocks and flowers and finally we found two ladies who told us where Roses's cottage was and we found that too. A very nice Dutch lady who was renting the cottage was helping out to raise money for the local Irish version of SPCA.

We purchased some little things that would fit into our suitcases Earrings , a small dish and two plates were my prizes.

We stayed for a cup of tea and were told about the roads to Skoal and Blatimore on our way to Cape Clear Island.

We had been all set to go to Skoal but the road sounded so scary that we decided to go to Baltimore instead.

She said the road into town was steeper than the road into Castletownshend! We then all went out and said Happy Birthday to John the landlord who had just put in a new wooden deck that the people of the town thought would attract rats. We all laughed.

Back up the hill and then down the hill on the other side to the castle to relax. I did postcards and journaling sitting at the table outside in the sunshine with the bay 10 feet away.