This morning we headed to Lough Key Forest Park to do a parkrun. Our first in Ireland, our seventh parkrun country and our first parkrun where there is a castle!
After a hot drink and sharing a toasting to warm up, we drove to the Arigne Valley and the Arigne Coal Mine Experience. We did a 1 hour tour of a coal mine that stopped operating in the 90s.
Our guide worked at the mine as a teenager with his father (who worked there with his father before that) before moving to a mine in the Sligo area. He spoke with an incredibly strong brogue – we understood about 60-70% of what he said! It was an interesting tour, and amazing that much of the work was done manually, even after a machien cutter was introduced. We’re glad we weren’t coal miners, it looked like hard, wet and dirty work.
There was a lovely view of the valley from the mine carpark though.
We then went to Leitrim Village, found a shop to buy some bits for dinner and found our accommodation. It was time to get some washing done and just chill for a bit after some long driving days.
Whilst prepping dinner in a small kitchen with limited bench space, I set the cutting board on the front part of the stove top. Garlic and onion done and in the pot I turned the burner on and started peeling the potatoes. (Making some soup.)
A few minutes later, ‘what’s that smell?’. Shit! I had turned on the wrong burner and the cutting board was melting. White toxic smoke filled the kitchen. We spent the next 15 minutes trying to get the smoke out of the tiny little kitchen window, front door and back door. Thankfully (?) the smoke detector didn’t go off and the smoke cleared.
Food wasn’t ruined, but the cutting board was!
Mother’s Day in Ireland, at least for me and we went to a cute little Cafe in a neighbouring town.
We then visited the Boyle Abbey that we’d caught sight of when we passed through yesterday. It is one of the most intact Abbeys in the country.
It did get taken over by the military as a base, then a wealthy person as their house, before being abandoned relatively recently. This is why it is still mostly standing.
We bought some food to cook for dinner, headed back to our place to hang another load of washing out and start booking our Scotland accommodation.
After sorting out a few days worth we walked to the pub – a bit further than the walk to the pub in Drinagh – for a pint and watched some Gaelic Football. There are definitely similarities to AFL, but with a bit of basketball and soccer thrown in? It’s getting to finals time here and we’ve noticed that many homes in each county fly the county flag and have signs wishing the local team well. Gaelic Football players don’t get paid much for playing, and there’s lots of standing room at the grounds, it’s a bit like AFL in the 70s.
Interesting game though.
It was then back to the house to book some more accommodation in Scotland. (And we thought accommodation in Ireland was expensive!! 😲😲) We lit the fire first to start warming the house.
A few minutes later, ‘what’s that smell?’. Shit!
We’d forgotten that when we cleared the table to lay out a map of Scotland, we’d put some things on the top of the wood burner. My Swiss card and a lip balm were melting.
Bugger.
First up today was the bog area of Cloonlarge. A large area of bog land that is being protected as it has diverse flora and fauna.
We saw a nesting Mute Swan, a field mouse and a hare.
The walk had wood Carvings scattered around it, most of them in tree trunks like the one below.
There some really interesting plants too like Bog Cotton and Reindeer Lichen and even English Bluebells. (We Googled the name to ID them)
Bogs are usually the place people cut peat to use in their open fires. They burn just like wood.
We then went to the National Famine Museum and gardens at Strokestown Park. The gardens had so many flowers that we’d not seen/heard of before. Monkshood, Oriental Poppy and Three Cornered Leek amongst the many. (Again, thank Google for the ID)
The museum focused on how the famine developed in the local area and the impact it had on Ireland as a whole. It was interesting but missed mentioning some other factors we’ve learned about on other tours, such as the fact that people couldn’t fish the rivers or hunt game as these all belonged to the land owner, who often resided in England, and they would be sent to jail if caught. The politicians of the day didn’t stop exporting food and meat that could have helped the Irish people survive. They compared the situation to Belgium which along with much of Europe, was also affected by the blight. Their government stopped exports immediately. Potatoes were also a significantly smaller proportion of an average diet so Europe less impacted. It’s worth mentioning too that wealthy people continued to eat well whilst the poor died.
From here stopped in Carrick-On-Shannon for a short walk around. We saw a teeny, tiny church squeezed between two pubs and investigated.
It is actually a small chapel that a man built in memory of his wife in the late 1800s. They are both now interred here under a glass floor. Their coffins aren’t in great shape!
The final stop on our day was The Shed Distillery, specialising primarily in gin but did whisky and vodka also. All tours were done for the day so no tasting, just a tasty sausage roll.
Fire has been lit, wine has been poured, this is our last night in the Republic of Ireland, it has been a beautiful country to drive around.
Tomorrow we’re off to a new country and a new currency!
An Unplanned Year 
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