Connemara, Omey Island, Cliffeden village and a Castle

 Surreal lighting in a field in Connemara. We began our tour with a guided drive around the hills of Connemara.

 Our first stop was Kylemore Castle: This castle was built for the wife to be of a very wealthy man in the mid 1800's, just after the famine. It is reported that they had a very happy marriage with 3 children. She died of a lung disease and he never remarried even though he outlived her by 30 years. After he died the estate became a bit of a white elephant due to the large expense of keeping it operational. During WWII a group of Benedictine nuns, whose Abby was bombed, were moved to this location (there was a temporary cease fire between the Germans and the French so that the nuns could travel safely out of the area, they were escorted by the Irish). The nuns ran a catholic boarding school at this location until 6 or 7 years ago when low enrollment forced it to close. In the mean time one of the nuns had started to serve tea in one of the out buildings on the grounds and the Castle transitioned to a visitor center with tea service. Notre Dame just bought the Castle and is planning to run classes here. I believe it will still remain open to the public for visits and tea service.

 One of my classmates (Dawn) and me in front of the castle. They have a nice view from the castle:-)

 The castle gardens located about a mile from the castle. There is a tea shop and care taker cottage at the site of the garden. The garden is fully enclosed by tall stone walls. It took hundreds of workers to build the castle and maintain the property once the castle was built. This was a welcome addition to an area that was decimated by the 1840 potato famine.

 What would Connemara be without the famous ponies. This is an unbroke 3 year old that is owned by our guide pictured below. She is for sale if anyone would like to ship her west to the U.S.

 Our next stop brought us to Omey Island. There is a long stretch of sand between the main land and the island that you can walk or drive across when the tide is out. Our guide told us the story of how he was given the wrong tide times on one of his tours and he led 20 visitors back across the sand in waste deep water as the tide rushed in. He had several elderly visitors on the trip but they all made it back across safely.

 Omey Island only has one full time resident left on the island (a retired stunt man who appeared in the James Bond films). There are 4 or 5 rental cottages too. The farmers on the main land have shared acreage on the island and graze their cattle there. The island is only 4 square miles.

Our group spent and hour and a half looking at the archeological features of the island and listening to stories about how the vikings settled on this island because it was an ideal location with plenty of access to fresh water, ocean ports and it was on the trade route. Vikings traveled south captured villagers brought them north to trade for slaves in exchange for valuables.

U.S. History is so boring by comparison...

A sleeping donkey on the Island who is enjoying a rare sunny day. We returned home to Galway at around 7:00. A long and informative day.

No stories from camp or Hachette today. Although a boy named Fin did get mentioned. We no longer talk about Joe from Deerfield Elementary School we talk about Fin and Canmore...