(A) Our last full day in County Carlow was busy. The rain and sunshine took turns all day, and always in excellent coordination with our activities — for the most part, it rained when we were inside and didn’t when we weren’t. Our first stop was just down the road from our cottage, at the Lisnavagh House. The cottage we’re staying in is part of the Lisnavagh estate, in fact. It’s a huge chunk of land (700 acres), a mix of wood- and farm-land. The current owners, descendants of the 18th-Century noble family who first built the place, are doing some interesting work in the area of sustainable forestry. They have a lumber company (Bunbury Boards), where they use wood from their land to make cutting boards. If you want to know how good the cutting boards are, just ask us. The owners of the estate gave us one as a welcome gift.
After that, we went to the Riverbank Restaurant in Tullow. You might have noticed that we’ve been in Tullow a few times this past week. It’s a bustling little town with plenty of restaurants and shops and other stuff that you’d want. It’s not touristy, certainly — just a nice Irish town.
From there, we drove to Huntington Castle. It’s got a long and interesting history, which you could read by clicking here. Once we parked, we were welcomed by the honking of peafowl, which roam free around the place. We took a tour around the castle, in which a family still live. They’ve got lots of cool antiques… military stuff and furniture and tapestries and porcelain and so on. Along the way, our guide pointed out a high chair (for toddlers) and a chest, both of which were built in the early 1500s! I’ve built a few things in my day, and I can’t imagine any of them lasting 500 years.
(K) That last photo is the planted grape vine grown from a cutting off a vine Henry the Eighth gave Anne Boleyn while things were good. The conservatory inside had recently (2 days ago) become inhabited by bees so we had to walk gingerly around the pretty impressive hive they were already creating.
(Pictures weren’t allowed inside, I’m sorry to say. You’ll just have to visit if you want to see the place.)
Out back was the ruins of an Abbey that had been built in the 1400s and out in the sheep field was a bollen (bowl) stone from the Neolithic. People have been living continuously in this spot for over 6000 years.
(A) As enjoyable as the castle was, the gardens were just as enjoyable. They include yew trees that were planted 700 years ago! There were all kinds of trails and plantings and stone features, and it was a real pleasure to stroll around. I was surprised to see palm trees. (K) There was even the old turbine house that provided electricity to the house in 1888.
From there, we headed toward the Adelaide Memorial Church in Myshall. But along the way we had to pause for some cows. They were being led across the road, and if I had to guess, I’d say it was milking time.
Myshall is a pretty religious town, from the look of it. I say that without really knowing what I’m talking about, understand. But my impression is based in part on the fact that there are so many churches and shrines there, as well as on the fact that St. Finnian was born there. Another local-boy-done-good story, I suppose. Pictured below is St. Brigid’s Well, which is alleged to contain some pretty miraculous water. I poked my head down those steps, and I didn’t see any water. Oh, well. (Ha!)
Then it was time to head back to the cottage to pack and to and try to finish off the food we’d bought over the last few days. Tomorrow we’ll button things up here, and then head back up to Dublin.