stories from Hibernia...

apologies for the long absence...I was trapped like a spider by the the mist and rain of Ireland...they diluted my brain to such an extent that I was rendered incapable of writing. But I've recovered now. I arrived to find some wonderful packages from various people, but that will have to be the subject of another post as my laptop won't allow me to upload any new photos at the moment...however I do have some images of Ireland to share, if you can bear to browse through random holiday snaps...

We went up a mountain to visit the Staigue Fort which is fairly randomly located in the middle of some farmer's field, surrounded by sheep, and mountains. Very beautiful, although extremely misty the day we went. Could have been built anytime from 1st century BC to around the 4th century AD. You can just wander in and have a bit of a gander...

we got down the mountain and found a lovely old pub in which to dry ourselves off and drink some Guinness. That Ms Bester looks like she has her eye on mine!

Lord Dunraven's Summer House - at the start of the walk

we did our favourite walk in Kerry, across an old "mass path" hewn out of rocks along the coastline beneath the eyes of the Cromwellian forces who were tasked with enforcing the ban on Catholicism in Ireland in the seventeenth century

People would take this route to the "mass rock" on which a priest would preach mass secretly, out of doors, in all weathers. It's a fabulous walk from Derrynane to Bunavalla, with some absolutely amazing scenery along the way. Ms Reva generally leads us, her being of the mountainy goat persuasion.

a random sighting en route - one spade is turned around differently to the others - was it a sign? there was no-one for miles to ask...


we did have some sunshine...and a barbeque on the beach at which Mr. G taught my best friend's son how to play beach volleyball...



while myself and Katie turned our ingenuity to the matter of keeping wine chilled in the absence of the silver buckets we are more accustomed to (ahem)...


and her hubby tried to catch us some dinner...



but the rain returned as we left "the kingdom" (as the county of Kerry is fondly known) and our August drive across the border felt like it could have been in midwinter...