Saturday, September 21, 2019

Intrepid Friends' Ireland Trip Part 9




Another gorgeous, sunny and warm day today as we leave Westport and head north toward County Sligo. A detour to Ballycroy National Park seems necessary, as I am still very interested in this bog/peat thing, and this park is entirely made up of blanket peat.  The peat has been used to heat houses for hundreds of years, but it is running out, and can't be made again, so many efforts are being used to preserve it in parks.

We drive along a gorgeous coastal road with mountains and pastures on the other side through several small villages until we get to the park. There is a very interesting visitors centre with lots of history of the area and a 2 km nature walk through the bog and heather and gorse bushes. It is warm and sunny and the views are stupendous.



A short uphill walk takes us to a view point where we can see the valley all around, and right out to the sea. It is so pastoral, with sheep, cattle and horses all around. Eventually it is time to be moving again. I was hoping to stop at a megalithic cemetery on our way through Sligo, but several sets of roadworks held us up for about an hour, and the drive took longer than I thought it would, so we elected to bypass it and go right to Donegal.

Got lost looking for our b and b. I sure wish they would all put the sat nav coordinates in their info, because none of them have proper addresses, and instructions such as "turn right at the roundabout where the grocery store is"  is not good enough for people from away! Found it finally though with some help from some ladies in the hair salon, who actually gave great directions.

It is on a lovely country lane, away about 1 km from the town, which is actually way smaller than I thought it would be, and very peaceful and quiet. Nice gardens and lawn surround it and there is no traffic going by, but we can easily walk back into town for dinner. Which we did! Had a fantastic dinner and cabbed it back home, as the path through the woods wasn't nearly as appealing in the dark! It is Friday afternoon now, and today is Hugh's birthday.



The sun is shining again, and after a real lie in (getting up late for us, anyway, about 8:30) and another full Irish breakfast (for Hugh only, no way I can eat that much food first thing in the morning) we drive into town and park by the Quay. The sea bus is going out at noon, and it is 11:15 by now, so we get tickets.



The sea bus is a 70 minute ride out the Donegal estuary when the tide is high with a very humorous guide pointing out all the islands and whose ancestral home it was, and which farmer has his sheep where, etc. He also tells jokes, Irish stories, plays the accordion and sings songs about Donegal. We saw cormorants and a seal too. It was quite entertaining and a lovely day for a boat ride.



We then wandered through the town looking in a few shops and had some soup and a pint for lunch at "Red Hugh's " Castle pub. "Red Hugh O'Donnell was chief of the clan that built the Donegal Castle, long about the 15th century,  which is just across the street. It has been partly restored over the years but also has ruins. The ruins of a Franciscan abbey and graveyard were also fun to walk around.

By this time school is out, and the town is an absolute zoo of traffic, so rather than joining it, we duck into McCafferty's tiny bar, have a drink, and wait for the traffic to disperse. It's just a 5 minute drive to the b and b, so we can come back later for dinner. Might hit the same place as last night, it was so good.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to the Republic of Ireland and head to Northern Ireland.  So we will spend our euro's tonight, and get some pounds sterling from an ATM tomorrow!"

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