Skip to main content

Birr Castle

We actually went to Birr Castle on March 27th but what with getting ready to go to Mallorca, then coming back with a load of photographs, catching up with my cemetery project, I never did post the photos of Birr.

Birr Castle is in County Offaly (I think it used to be called King's County), a 2-hour drive, 155 kms. We have been wanting to see it since we arrived but it only opened on March 17th, as so many castles and gardens do.

The drive was uneventful and most of it was pretty good motorway. We did pass an old abbey we were tempted to stop at but we wanted to get to Birr first. By the time we arrived, it was lunchtime so we stopped into the cafe for sandwiches before going out to the castle grounds.

Birr is privately owned by the 80 year old Earl of Rosse. He and his wife rattle around in the castle by themselves with only a butler, or so we were told by the folks at the ubiquitous gift shop. In fact, I may have seen him walking ahead of me as we were going around the public area of the castle



He actually looked a bit like a middle-aged Prince Philip and I was so tempted to go up and say hi. But given that garden visitors are specifically told that the castle is "private" (although open for tours on specific dates) I thought that might not be good etiquette.

The castle grounds were gorgeous. So many of the trees were flowering, the daffodils were like Wordsworth's clouds and all was well with the world that day. We have still been going back and forth, back and forth about whether Ireland will be a one-year experiment or not. There are lots of reasons why it should only be a year (mainly relating to healthcare and the fact that we would have to take driving lessons (!) at the end of the year because we couldn't continue to drive on our U.S. licenses. The Irish feel that one can't take the driver's test without lessons. Fair go but at that point we will have been driving over here a year. Oh well, this is Ireland.)

Anyway, the talk gets me down because of my live-for-the-moment mentality so anytime we can be in a happy place, the kind of place where we say "Yes! This is why we came to Ireland!" is good.

So to the photos:









This is purportedly the largest "treehouse" in Ireland. Made me think of Quinnie. How I would have loved to see her and the rest of the grandchildren running around the play area.



As I said, the last week of March passed quickly as I was trying to finish a large cemetery project before going to Mallorca. I knew that the old section of Ballygunner St. Mary's cemetery looked big but I had no idea I would end up with 1600 photographs! I am still transcribing the results. Loads of Phelans (are you listening Tony?) and even a couple of Gahagans (another spelling of your name Gary!)

I will post photos from another garden we went to see last Saturday and then I think I am caught up on the interesting aspects of my life right now.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Life on board the Queen Mary

Passenger's log on the Queen Mary 2: Dec 9th - First Day at Sea Didn't sleep well--think it was the soused mackerel at dinner. Anyway, R and I woke up at about 6:00 am and discussed the order of the day. Quite the swell outside and I can feel the roll of the ship. (No seasickness thank goodness!) Despite the mackerel, I was hungry so we went to King's Court at 6:30 a.m. Buffet with loads of choice of course. We sat in an alcove looking out at the ocean. Our server was from Croatia, Slavan. I asked him my burning question of the day--why did we get a free bottle of wine but a regular bottle of Diet Coke cost $3.75? Diet Pepsi is $1.00 less. Fruit juices are free on tap. Coffee, tea, milk, ditto. But you have to pay for soft drinks. Very odd. Slavan says it is because Cunard can't get a good contract with Coke. Hmmm.... our local School District back in Sierra Vista can negotiate .50 a can for the soda machines in the teachers' lounges but Cunard has to cha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sunday in Richmond Park & Memories

  One of the reasons I came back to London after Ireland was to keep a date with my cousin Elizabeth: a Sunday morning walk in Richmond Park. When I moved to England in May of 1978, I rented a room in a house near Richmond Park. I'd heard of the room through a colleague at McGill University's Human Resources Department, where I was working as a Senior Clerk. Montreal had become a bit difficult for me to be in owing to a twice-broken heart and a feeling I wasn't going anywhere at McGill. It seemed like an omen, then, on the plane returning from South Africa in January of 1978--I keep promising to write about that--that I came across an article in a magazine about young Canadians living in London. I'd always loved the idea of being in London what with growing up on a diet of British movies and then all of the articles about Swinging London in the 1960s/early 1970s.  By the time I arrived at Mirabel Airport, I had the perfect antidote to my wounded pride over South...
Post a Comment
Read more

Duckett's Grove/Castle, Co. Carlow

Golly I am tired tonight! We had a really busy day. We went into Carlow town to return a pair of sweatpants that R. bought and didn't like. I also went to the Bank of Ireland and started up my bank account. They do things very differently here than in Sierra Vista. There are no tellers for simple deposits or withdrawals; the bank branch in Carlow consists of four ATM machines and one international exchange cashier. And three personal bankers who are extremely helpful. I discovered that you don't make a deposit, you make a lodgment. Weird, eh? We went to Tesco's after the bank to get our every-other-day food shopping done. Small refrigerators--have to be careful in buying. We also bought some new "orthopedic" pillows that will hopefully help our neck issues. Bought a couple of pre-made sandwiches and ate them in the car when we parked at Duckett's Grove. Duckett's Grove is a ruined 19th century great house whose owners kept redesigning the original house ...
Post a Comment
Read more