Carrick-on-Shannon, Maynooth and the trip home

We left the B&B after another fantastic breakfast and decided to drive to Carrick-on-Shannon, a pretty little historic town.  We had a walk around, seeing a few churches and then enjoyed lunch in an Italian restaurant called Vittos.

Following lunch we drove back to Dublin stopping on the way to see Maynooth and its University.  The University includes St. Patrick's College which has an amazing chapel with seating choir-style for up to 450 people.

We dropped the car back at Dublin and then got the Minoan flight back to Oxford which I'm pleased to say was running this time!

A boat trip around Clew bay and the Museum of Country Life

We got up to a delicious breakfast at the Waterfront B&B today and after a morning of wandering around the Quay area we got a boat from there which took us out into Clew Bay.  We saw lots of small islands (there are reported to be 365 - one for each day of the year - in the bay) and we saw seals as well as jellyfish.  The boat crew gave a good commentary of the area and its history.  We had salads for lunch at The Towers pub in Westport but couldn't book for dinner has a huge party had already done so.  Instead we booked at The Helm, just along the Quayside.  For the afternoon we drove up to the Museum of Country Life, which is part of the National Museum of Ireland, in Turlough.  The displays were excellent and tell a fascinating story of how industrialisation and any sort of serious development largely passed Ireland by until the mid-20th century.  Living off the land really had been a way of life for the Irish for many hundreds of years.

After the museum we went for a drive out to Achill Sound, following the coastal road and seeing some spectacular views. We crossed over a bridge to Achill island and had a car-explore of that before driving back via Newport to Westport.  Dinner was at 9pm and was very good indeed with me enjoying prawns and scallops and Gordon enjoying mussels and John Dory.  We finished off the evening with a drink or two.

Moving hotel and Westport House

We had breakfast again today at the Knockcranny then checked out as we had decided to stay elsewhere for the rest of the trip.  After leaving the Knockranny we drove into the centre of Westport where we parked up and had an explore of the town.  We had a nice walk along the river to Westport House.  Westport House is one Ireland's few remaining stately homes and has been in te ownership of the same family for hundreds of years.  It was fascinating to explore and the grounds are very beautiful.  These days they include some theme park-type attractions to help bring the visitor numbers in, so essential for the income and thus possible upkeep of the estate and the house.

We'd had rather a large breakfast so didn't really need lunch and just had a scone and a cup of tea in the Cafe at Westport House, which is in what used to be the house kitchen.  We walk back into Westport to collect the car and then went for a scenic drive from Louisburgh to Ballinrobe via Delphi, Leenaun and Cong. The Doolough valley is very beautiful and was certainly worth the drive.

Following this we were invited to the home of Maria's parents.  It was good to meet her family a bit more informally and to enjoy a delicious buffet.  We didn't stay too long as we had not checked into our next hotel.

After driving back to Westport Quay we checked into the Waterfront B&B around 8.30pm and then went out for an explore of the funfair that was on the quay for the weekend and I sampled some local Carlsberg. Gordon was more adventurous and had Guinness.

The day of the wedding

We had a bit of a lie in and then a nice breakfast at the hotel.  After another snooze we went and picked up our friend Steve from his hotel elsewhere in Westport and then drove for about an hour to Ballinobe where the wedding was to be held.  It was a really good service, led by a Catholic priest but with Aidan's Anglican priest from Belfast also taking part in leading the service and blessing those who did not have communicant status in the Catholic Church.
Following the service, Gordon, Steve and I grabbed a quick snack then drove back to the Knockranny Hotel in Westport, the venue of the wedding reception.  It was a really good evening with a lovely meal and some excellent speeches from Aidan, Maria, Maria's Dad and the best man. The evening continued with much music, dancing and merriment!

A trip to Ireland for a wedding

We were excited to be booked on a flight from Oxford Airport to go to Dublin and then on to Westport for the wedding of our friends Aidan and Maria.  We arrived at Oxford Airport 3.30pm.  There was Lots of confusion and eventually the Minoan flight was cancelled.  A quick dash to Birmingham following some help booking an Aer Lingus flight by the staff at Oxford Airport got us on to the delayed 1950 flight from there to Dublin.  We left the airport in the hire car at 10.30pm, about four hours later than planned, and got to the Knockranny Hotel in Westport around 1.30am