Reading Week Part Three

Tuesday was a longer day (we had to meet our tour bus at 6:15am) and we did not get back to Dublin until after 9pm.  We traveled across the country to Galway on one bus, and then we transferred to a tour bus for a drive out to Connemara one of the most scenic locations in the west of Ireland.

Our first stop was unexpected but turned out to be one of the most interesting.  It was Ross Errilly Friary which was a Franciscan friary founded in 1351.  It is one of the most extensive and best preserved of the Franciscan friaries in the country.

The doorways were incredibly small but you could still see so much about the way the place was designed and would have been used.  It was attacked by Cromwell's forces in 1656 but all the friars had been forewarned and escaped before the attack.

Next we stopped in the town of Cong which is only known for one thing.  It is the location of the film The Quiet Man starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.  It is a town in which everything is named around the film. We arrived in the town around noon and nothing was open.  It was a bit spooky.  But we did wander outside the bounds of the town to find a monk's fishing cottage near the remains of an old Abbey.

A very interesting look at a place once used to catch fish for the sustenance of the monks in the Abbey.

The town of Cong sits right on the county line between County Galway and County Mayo.

Back on the bus and headed off to see Connemara.  We had quickly realized that we were by far the youngest people on this particular tour and that our fellow travelers were a bit irritating.  But our tour guide was wonderful so we just kept looking out the window and listening to him.

As we drove through Connemara we saw the beauty of the land but wished we had been able to stop and take some more pictures.

The landscape was beautiful and the roads were windy and small!

We saw a number of 'famine cottages' which are left from the Great Famine of the 1840's.  Cottages like these were left abandoned because the potato crops among others failed and families could no longer afford to pay landlords rent.  It is a period of Ireland's history which saw about a million deaths and about a million emigrations.  The west was greatly effected because that is where most of the Irish farmers had been pushed by the English forces and the land was not as easy to farm.

The one stop we did make in Connemara was to meet Joey the Connemara pony.  Joey was absolutely lovely and ate a carrot out of my hand until he decided to latch on to the side of my hand with his teeth...  Then the tour guide told us he does nip occasionally... I laughed!  Later on I had to get a tetnus shot because apparently that is what you do in Ireland when you get bit by an animal!

The next piece of our journey took us by the entrance to Ashford Castle which is a posh castle which you can pay a great deal of money to stay in overnight...yes please!!!  But instead I got a picture of the entrance. It was the location of Pierce Brosnan's wedding.

Doesn't look too impressive from here...

Finally we arrived at my future home - Kylemore Abbey!

Isn't it perfect for me??  And I think I may buy Joey (the Connemara pony) to come along and live with me here (so Andrew and I don't get lonely)!
This castle was built by a wealthy Irish man for his wife.  After her death, he left and it became a refuge for some Benedictine nuns from Brussels.  It was then turned into an international girls boarding school which just closed a couple of years ago.

The Gothic church seen through these trees was built as a memorial for Mitchell Henry's wife Margaret after her death.

Here is a clearer view although much less artistic!

Inside this Gothic church is simple and elegant but incredibly moving.

Again the stained glass was amazing!  It was one of the most peaceful places I have ever been.

Here is a view of the water on which Kylemore Abbey sits.  Right up my alley!!!

When we left Kylemore Abbey after some tchotchke shopping we got back on the bus to Galway.  We transferred to a different bus to get back to Dublin and watched The Quiet Man film on the way...well I watched it, Auntie Gail fell asleep.  It was not a good movie....
The other movie the tour guide continually referenced was "the filem The Field" which sounds only slightly more interesting than The Quiet Man.