Ireland: Day 14 (Sept. 24, 2011)

Today was a gorgeous day!! We had mostly sunny skies for much of the day!

Last night we stayed at the Ballynahinch Castle but got in late so this morning was our first chance to take pictures of the outside. It was a perfect morning for pictures!! We walked down the river a ways to get some good pictures of the castle.  It is one of the finest 4 star luxury castle hotels in Ireland. Set in a private 450 acre estate of woodland, rivers and walks in the heart of Connemara, County Galway. This luxury, yet unpretentious Castle Hotel stands proudly overlooking its famous salmon fishery, with a backdrop of the beautiful 12 Bens Mountain range. The history of Ballynahinch Castle goes back over 700 years. We enjoyed a traditional Irish breakfast overlooking the water.  What a great way to start the day!

After breakfast and checking out of the hotel, we took a short walk on the Castle grounds. It was a nice day for a walk. We got some beautiful photos.

The Abbeyglen Castle Hotel is located on Sky Road overlooking the quaint alpine-like village of Clifden.  It was built in 1832.

Kylemore Castle/Abbey was built as a private home for the family of Mitchell Henry, a wealthy politician from Manchester, England. Construction first began in 1867, and took one hundred men four years to complete. The castle covered approximately 40,000 square feet with over 70 rooms and the principal wall was two to three feet thick. There were 33 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4 sitting rooms, ballroom, billiard room, library, study, school room, smoking room, gun room and various offices and domestic staff residences for the butler, cook, housekeeper and other servants. Henry sold the castle to the Duke and Duchess of Manchester in 1903, who lived there several years. In 1920 the Irish Benedictine Abbeys purchased the castle and lands. Previously the nuns, who had been based in Ypres for several hundred years, had been forced to leave during World War I. The nuns opened an international boarding school and established a day school for local girls, which closed in June 2010. Since the 70s, the Benedictine community have opened their Abbey and Estate to the public. (Wikipedia)

The beautiful Gothic Church, on the grounds of the Kylemore, was built by Mitchell Henry in the memory of his beloved wife Margaret Henry who died only fours years after the castle was constucted. Work began on the church in 1877 and was completed in 1881. The Church was designed to be a ‘cathedral in miniature'.

The mountains in Ireland were very scenic!

Cong Abbey is a historic site located at Cong, on the borders of counties Galway and Mayo. Founded in the early 7th century, the abbey was destroyed by fire in the early 12th century. It was refounded in circa 1135. The last High King of Ireland, before the Norman invasion, constructed new buildings and also lived the last 15 years of his life at the abbey, dying in 1198. A Norman knight attacked Cong in 1203, and again the abbey was rebuilt. The present church, and possibly the fragmentary cloister where the monks worked and prayed, belong to the rebuilding of the early 13th century. 

The village Cong in County Mayo is where much of the Quiet Man was filmed, starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.  Tracy was very excited to be in this small town!!  We saw the "Pat Cohan" bar which is where in the movie Sean Thornton entered Inisfree, where Sean and Mary Kate Danaher passed while riding a tandem bicycle, and where Sean and Will Danaher's big fight scene ended. We visited the Quiet Man Cottage Museum located by the river at Circular Road, between actual locations used for the filming. The ground floor of the cottage has been designed as an exact replica of 'White-o-Mornin' Cottage. The actual cottage used in the filming of the movie is located elsewhere and has practically disappeared due to fans stealing pieces of it.  Such a shame! (We did not take the time to go see the "real" cottage) Painstaking effort has ensured that all the furnishings, artifacts, costumes etc are authentic reproductions. We also saw Rev. Playfair's house; it was quite charming!

Ashford Castle is a medieval castle which has been turned into a five star luxury hotel near Cong.  The castle was built in 1228. The Castle was sold to Noel Huggard in 1939. He opened the estate as a hotel, which became renowned for the provision of its country pursuits, such as angling and shooting.  In 1951, the film director John Ford came to the west of Ireland to film what would become a movie classic The Quiet Man starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. The grounds of Ashford Castle as well as nearby Cong formed the backdrop for much of the action in the film. (Wikipedia)  

St. Mary's Church: At a font outside the church door, in the Quiet Man, Sean offered Mary Kate a handful of holy water.

After visiting sights in Cong from the Quiet Man, it was time to head to Westport where we will be spending the night. We got there around 5:30 p.m. and the traffic was horrendous!!! We really needed gas but couldn't find a station.  It seems the gas stations in Ireland are few and far between - never did understand that!  Then we couldn't find parking at the hotel. By the time we finally got checked in and went out to walk around the town, the traffic had calmed down - thank goodness!!  But by then, all the stores had closed. It seems most stores here in Ireland close at 6:00 p.m., if not earlier. We ate dinner a a pub attached to the hotel.  It was very good.  Tracy is bummed that most of the towns over here get very few TV stations - not much for him to watch those last few hours of the evening.  They don't need many stations here, though, because in the evenings, everyone here is out at the pubs!