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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.


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