The Land of the Leprachauns! (part one)

As promised, here is an account of my Irish trip.I warn you there are A LOT of pix in this post!

Off we all set, bright and early on Saturday 11th August. We knew it would be a very long day, as we had to travel right across Scotland from Musselburgh to Troon on the West coast to catch the ferry to Larne in Northern Ireland.

Thankfully the kids are both early risers, so the 6am start wasn't too bad!!!! They both enjoyed the 2 hour ferry journey across the Irish Sea, as neither had been on a ferry before. We arrived slightly later than scheduled, but rested and ready to face an other long journey. This time a drive right across Ireland from Larne to Kincasslagh in Donegal, crossing the border at Derry. (For those who don't know Kincasslagh is the home village of country singer Daniel O'Donnell).

Eventually we arrived at our destination, a lovely cottage on the edge of Rosses Bay.



This is what we looked out on..........as I said wonderful views!!!!




We had planned to do a fair bit of sight seeing as well as going to see The Fisher Folk in concert. (The Fisher Folk is the folk group which my dad plays in, and we were on holiday in Ireland coz they were on tour!)

Here they are playing in The Viking House Hotel in Kincasslagh, which used to be owned by Daniel O'Donnell's sister Margo. (My dad is playing the bodhran on the right!) They finished up their tour at Leo's Tavern, the home of Clannad and Enya. They went down a storm and thoroughly enjoyed themselves! (So did we!)




Robert had never seen his Granda play and was totally enthralled by the whole experience!


He never took his eyes off him the whole night!

We drove all over Donegal and I mean all over Donegal! Visiting Glenveagh Castle and National Park, Ionad Cois Locha (Dunlewy), Dunfanaghy workhouse, Fintown railway, Father McDyer's Folk Village in Glencolumbkille, Killybegs, Triona Design at Ardara, Narin Bay and all places in between!!!

Lots of pix now, so skip to next blog if you don't want to see some of my holiday snaps!



Here are the boys on the climbing wall at Ionad Cois Locha.




and with the giant soup pan at Dunfanaghy Workhouse!




Here are a couple of pix I took at Triona's Design in Ardara.


The one on the right is of the looms and the one on the left really took my fancy, its a spinning wheel made from bike parts. (Spinningfishwife this one is especially for you!)


This is Glengesh Pass, which is a VERY steep minor road enroute from Ardara to Glencolumkille.






These two pix were taken at Father McDyer's Folk Village. The one the left is a 17th Century woolwinder and on the right is a loom and spinning wheel dating from around the 1850s.




OK,one last pic for this post. Its one of my favorites from the trip.



Its the boys paddling in Rosses Bay at about 21:00 hours. It was freezing, but they didn't seem to feel it!

The next installment will follow soon!