This is a long one because it was such an interesting day! My stories are coming a day behind the activity, which seemed like a good idea, but I admit I am finding it hard to keep things straight. I may have to post another one to get myself back on track. Not to mention my phone has a squillion photos on it. That’s my new word – squillion. Heard it on a British murder mystery show where one of the main characters says “Those people are squillionaires”. In the context of the show, it means really a lot of money. Who wants to be a squillionaire?! ME!! But I digress…
Only being a squillionaire-in-training means that I better get a wiggle on and write my stories because I may not get back to Ireland any time soon. So today (yesterday, actually), we took our adventures a little further afield and drove to Birr Castle Demesne. I had to look that one up - Demesne. It basically means “grounds” – Birr Castle Grounds – though I confess Demesne sounds much more romantic. The grounds cover something like 120 acres and consist of castle, extensive formal gardens and one of the first and only remaining suspension bridges of its kind in Europe. My favourite parts of these gardens were the Meridian Oak – an oak tree that is almost 500 years old, and the Giant’s Grove – a grove of huge sequoia redwoods – the largest planting of redwoods outside of California. Aside from its cosmetic appeal, and even more importantly, Birr Castle was a hotbed of scientific discovery and ingenuity. William Parsons, the 3rd Earl of Rosse, was an avid astronomer, engineer and naturalist. He built several huge telescopes, and in 1845 achieved the “Leviathan of Parsonstown” – a 72" aperature telescope - the largest telescope in the world for more than 70 years. He pursued this goal in an effort to more accurately record stars and planets. He would observe these from the platform of the Leviathan and make detailed drawings of stars and nebulae. The platform moved with the telescope so he could remain at the eye piece as it was moved. Ladders on the structure allowed him to access the eyepiece from the very top when the telescope was at full height. William is credited with discovering the spiral nature of bodies of stars (nebulae), now known as galaxies. His invention and subsequent research and documentation helped astronomers to realize the universe was exponentially larger than anyone imagined. In the Science Centre on site, there is an incredible drawing of the nebula in the sword belt of the constellation Orion. The Science Centre in part of the castle is a wonderful collection of technology discovered and used in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s including Mary Parsons’ darkroom. One of the fun things in it is a mirror like a telescope so when you stand in front of it you feel like Alice down the rabbit hole because you are upside down! Overshadowed by her husband’s work, but no less brilliant, was Parsons’ wife, Mary. An amateur astronomer, architect, and designer, Mary was also an early pioneer of photography and making photographs from wax paper negatives. She was an accomplished blacksmith and was actively involved in William’s development of the Leviathan. Displaying a rare social conscience in the upper classes of Irish society at the time, Mary kept 500 men employed in and around Birr Castle during The Great Famine. The Parsons’ family’s contributions did not end there. Despite having 11 children, only 4 sons survived to adulthood. One of these, Charles Parsons, became the 4th Earl of Ross and is known for the development of the steam turbine, which meant high scale electricity could be produced at low cost. Charles’ wife Katharine was also an engineer. They schooled their children at home, encouraging mathematics and science. Katherine and their daughter Rachel, along with 5 other women founded the Women’s Engineering Society with the aim of protecting women’s interests and giving them a platform to communicate and share knowledge. Charles and Katharine’s son was killed in WW1. Rachel took over the running of the family company during the first world war and recruited and trained women to do the jobs of the men who had gone to war. Throughout her life, she advocated for women’s rights to access technical education and became a leader on the National Council of Women. She ran for parliament (unsuccessfully) twice, in the 1920s. Having inherited her family fortune, she was a society hostess and sat on many committees at high levels. It is rumoured she was “unpopular” for not leading a woman’s traditional role of wife and mother and for being intelligent and outspoken in her opinions. (Sometimes I think society has not come very far). In 1956, at the age of 71, Rachel was murdered by a stable hand who claimed she had provoked him and owed him holiday pay. His charge was downgraded from murder to manslaughter “due to provocation” and he served 10 years for the deed. Before I forget, the technological and scientific investigation at Birr Castle has not stopped. It is the home of an I-LOFAR (low frequency array) station - the largest radio telescope in the world. It observes the sun, stars, planets and galaxies and shares data with other stations, including the UK, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Latvia and Italy. Upon reading the story boards, Peter said “It’s just so hard to conceive. The universe is so vast, it's…..” To which I supplied “...astronomical?” He didn’t think it was nearly as funny as I did. Personally, I think he should just get on board, because I’m pretty sure I could pay for this trip with a stand-up routine. 😊 Birr Castle has wrapped it all up with a bow by adding a coffee shop, ice cream shop, gift store and an amazing playground for kids! It's me. I'm the kid. How could I not play in the play castle?! Well, that was one heck of a long story! But it is a heck of an interesting stop and I’m so glad we made it. Even if it did mean a couple of hours with me behind the wheel. Making a wrong turn, we ended up on a couple of “R” and “L” roads, dodged a tractor and a big truck, and were surprised by a couple of tight curves. Still, I thought I was doing pretty well, so I asked Peter if he was more or less tense as a passenger than when he was driving. “About the same”, he replied. He’s lying, for the sake of amicable relations. If his hair wasn’t grey already, it would be sheet white. Until tomorrow, my friends.
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Let me fix that. You learn to drive so you can go see the stone circles. You drive on the left in Ireland, with the gear shift of your manual transmission in your left hand. Take Frank’s advice – “just keep your steering wheel on the centre line”. It works. We also learned that there are 4 important letters involved in driving Irish roads. No…..not those ones….wait for it. M =Motorway, N = National, R = Regional, and L = Local. In that order, those letters define the width of the road you are travelling as well. “M” means “motor on, dude – multi-lane, wide enough to breathe”. N means “no worries, still usually multi-lane, we got this”. “R means “Really?! You want me travelling 80 kph on this narrow road with a stone wall on one side and oncoming traffic coming at me with wild abandon?” L means “Loco. Crazy to be on it. No way in hell I’m going to travel the 80kph speed limit on this narrow, windy road. Get off this road. Now! Please don’t let there be a tractor coming at me.”
And yet…there are marvels to be seen and this one practically right on our doorstep. So, off we go on roads with all of those letters, while using a whole different set of 4-letter words while navigating them. Peter noticed just a couple of days before we left Sechelt that there is a stone circle close to where we are staying. The Grange Stone Circle at Lough Gur is a Neolithic structure and the biggest stone circle in Ireland and one of the biggest in Europe. What an experience! It has 113 stones and is 150 feet in diameter. A post stone that demonstrates it was measured out with a stake and rope. It is backed by an earthen bank, suggesting it was a ritual site of some kind and spectators could stand on the bank and watch the ritual going on in the circle. Excavation revealed neolithic beaker pottery. The largest stone in the structure is called Rannach Chruim Duibh and weighs 40 tons and is 13 feet high. I can’t even comprehend the effort it took to get them there. Further off in a field on private land, is a smaller stone circle with a large standing stone further on, but we couldn’t see them from our vantage point. Lough Gur is a sizeable lake, surrounded by much evidence of human occupation dating back 6,000+ years. On the opposite side from the stone circle was a megalithic wedge tomb – a long, oblong structure with massive stones, a chamber inside and covered over with huge flag stones. Over time, the top stones have fallen on the top, but the chamber can still be seen. It was discovered and excavated in 1938. Cremated bones of humans were found, along with pottery remnants and flint shards dating from 2,000 – 2,500 BC. The orientation of the tomb gathers sunset light. Located within walking distance of the wedge tomb is New Church. Which, for the record, is not new. It is a ruin, originally built in the 15th century by the Desmond family and is utterly charming. There are a combination of old tombstones that are so weathered you can’t read them and very recent ones from the last 50 years or so. One modest stone cross struck me with a great sense of sadness. Flowers cascade down the side of the stone church and a sense of ageless peace under the trees descends on the soul. Further on along the lake is a visitor centre with a great presentation of stories and replicas of archaeological finds in the area. A steep path leads up to “The Spectacles” – the stone foundations of several buildings from a very early medieval Christian settlement. Beyond is a very steep path of stone steps leading to a breathtaking view of Lough Gur and the surrounding area. The last site of the area is a path leading to the remains of a 17th-century huge round pigeon house – a tall stone structure approximately 10 feet high and 15 feet across. Pigeon houses were introduced by the Normans to keep pigeons for eggs and meat. Small bird houses were built inside and they were an important part of Norman life. Heading back to Croom, we went for a stroll along the short riverfront walk. They have these little workout stations scattered around the park and we had fun trying them all out, pledging to stop there every morning for a quick workout. Spoiler alert – we didn’t. Stopping at the local grocery store to grab a cottage pie for supper, we headed home. Peter’s words, upon coming to a stop in the driveway and heaving a relieved sigh: “It’s your turn tomorrow”. Sitting in the outdoor gazebo, we can see a tall round stone tower beyond the pasture behind the house. Slightly restored by tea and lemon cake (well, me anyway), we decided it was walkable and we should get some exercise, despite being desperately tired from the long journey. So off we went, remembering to walk on the right side of the road facing traffic rather than the left.
I don't think I will ever stop being fascinated by the stone walls that line the roadways. They are both picturesque and terrifying. Picturesque when you are strolling along admiring the carefully placed vertical rocks on top and flowers growing along them, trying to absorb how long these walls have been standing. Terrifying when you are in the car on the narrow roads with oncoming traffic and not 100% sure where the left side of the car is, but knowing your only option if you are squeezed is the stone wall. And those stone walls have been standing longer than Canada has existed, so....we know who's going to budge in that scenario. Along the road to the site, cars whizzed by and people waved and nodded. I have noticed the "Irish nod" - a quick tilt of the head - is a common response to a wave or a nod at someone. We also saw familiar plants and flowers, and some unfamiliar ones. Rows of bales shone in the evening light. A field of dairy cows observed us carefully as we passed. I stopped to talk to one and she was definitely curious. Probably curious if I had been sent to milk her as it was clearly time. The site held a cemetery, a church and the tower. The foundation of Dysart Oenghus (pronounced DIE-sert ING-usa) is credited to Saint Oenghus, known as the great reformer, in the 8th century. The subsequent church structure was built over many periods, but dates back to the 14th century, remaining in use as a parish church until 1418. The large round tower is a bell house, representing 11th century monastic architecture. Despite the claim of being "incomplete", it still boasts 5 storeys, including windows and a wonderfully built arch doorway on the first floor, which is well off the ground. The story board says this would have been reached by a set of wooden stairs or a ladder and internal wooden floors and ladders would have provided access to the top where the bell would be. It is mind-boggling to think that they constructed these structures without modern tools and technology. The stone wall of that church was straight as an arrow! Excavation of the extensive graveyard by the church and tower have revealed the remains of at least 61 individuals - men, women and children, and items such as bone pins, shroud pins and iron coffin nails dating from as early as the 13th century and as late as the 20th century. Right there in our proverbial back yard! Sites such as this dot the landscape in Ireland everywhere you go. We see them and are awe-struck. The locals are "Meh - whatever. Another old building". Perhaps we will get there too. They will certainly soon blur together if I don't write their stories. The round trip walk was about 4.5 kms and we were ready for our bed when we headed up the driveway of our home away from home. A good night's sleep and we are almost turned around, replacing night with day. Enough to go exploring today. But that story is for another day.... Why does tea in Ireland taste so much better? Maybe it’s the water. Maybe it’s psychological. Or maybe because it marks the end of a series of misadventures getting here.
Our journey began with arriving at the Langdale ferry terminal 40 minutes before departure and realizing I had forgotten my backpack – with my passport in it. If we missed the ferry, it would be a 2-hour wait for the next one, so I called my friend Laurie who zipped over to our house and at the risk of speeding tickets, got it down to us in time to catch the boat! Phew – hero cookies due there – GF ones. We got to our hotel in Vancouver without further incident. It seemed Murphy wasn’t done with us though. We woke up to find out our flight was delayed an hour leaving Vancouver. It would make the Toronto connection to Dublin tight, but it could be done. Except that the flight was delayed for 2 hours. Upon boarding in Vancouver, we asked if they would be holding the plane in Toronto. They couldn’t tell us, but said we could (and should) monitor any changes on our Air Canada app. Which you need wifi for. Yes, the plane has wifi – for a cost. Did you hear my eyes roll down the aisle? While on the plane, our connection was cancelled and we were re-booked. We would miss the 10:00 a.m. bus connection from Dublin to Limerick. Maureen in Ireland re-booked the bus for 6:00 p.m. When we got to Toronto, we found out that the original flight we had booked to Dublin departed 26 minutes early! If it had waited, we and 12 others on the same flight would have made it. We were not re-booked direct to Dublin as our original flight was. We were re-booked on a midnight flight through London Heathrow where we would have to make yet another connection to Dublin. 5-hour layover in Toronto. 1-hour layover in London. And the seats we paid for? Nice try – we both got crammed into middle seats, four rows apart, for the 6.5 hour flight to London. Well done, Scair Canada. While I was busy whining and complaining about this, I thought of CK Louis' interview where he said "Everything's amazing, nobody's happy" and talked about how people complain about air travel. "And then what happened? Did you fly through the air? Like a bird? You non-contributing zero?!" Yes we did. But I was still mad because after all, I booked my own flight, printed my own baggage tags, printed my own boarding pass, loaded my own bags onto the belt, then paid to monitor a flight change that they screwed up. I did everything right and Air Canada did nothing right for the $$ I paid them. As I said to Peter, if I was 2 hours late for a meeting with clients and then proceeded to waste another 8 hours of their time, I wouldn't get paid. I sure wouldn't get hired again. So I will be sending a snot-a-gram just to get it off my chest and maybe I will send along an invoice at my hourly rate for all of my time they wasted, just to make a point. They also need to know that the $15 each food voucher they gave us to make nice covers about a bottle of water and a bag of chips in airports these days. Up your game, Air Canada. A lounge pass with free food and drink might have put me in a more forgiving frame of mind. We arrived in Heathrow and got over to the Aer Lingus terminal for the final leg to Dublin without any hiccups. We boarded on time and naively thought we might even make the 4:00 p.m. bus from Dublin. Then sat on the tarmac for 50 minutes past flight time. Oh well. Finally land in Dublin, gathered our baggage, had a bite to eat, and headed for the bus. Ticket scan said we were booked for the 8:00 p.m. bus, despite Maureen having booked us on the 6:00 p.m. Now I was starting to lose my cool – we’d been travelling for 25 hours with no sleep. The bus was fully booked, but the driver said to wait out the load because sometimes there are no-shows and we might get on. We did get on, and arrived in Limerick about 8:30 p.m. local time. So two things did go right – our luggage arrived in spite of 3 plane changes, and we were able to get on that 6:00 p.m. bus. We were grateful to see Frank and Maureen there to pick us up! Frank and Maureen’s place is lovely with a gorgeous view of the Irish countryside and Maureen fed us up and we had a good visit until we couldn’t stay awake any longer. We woke to a lovely day - cool and fresh. Maureen made us breakfast and it was their turn to scramble around getting ready to go to the bus for the Dublin airport. We met their son, Barry, at the bus depot so we know who to call if we need anything at the house. Maureen and Frank were boarded and we were left to get ourselves back. I drove and managed the left-hand shift and left side of the road without injury to car or husband. Peter played it cool, but I didn’t think to see if he had any jaw tension from clenched teeth when we arrived back at the house. We’re just going to hang out at the house today, catch up on sleep, do our laundry, and decide what we want to do tomorrow. You can see from the photos that the digs are just terrible – lovely view, lots of space, enclosed gazebo on the deck. We are suffering. I was pretty sure Maureen would not want the leftover lemon cake to dry out, so I took on the tragic duty of ensuring that did not happen. I think it must be nap time now. Better adventures soon to come. |