A Bleak Place

 

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We're still in County Laois in Ireland and just had our cream tea in Abbeyleix. Our next stop was the Donaghmore Famine Workhouse. Here families lived (and died) before, during and after the Great Famine of 1845 to 1852, also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or just the Famine, and outside of Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine. This and about 130 other workhouses operated as a means to provide relief for extremely poor people. They would do some work here in return for food and a roof above their heads. The living conditions in these workouses were very harsh since the aim was not to encourage people to stay there.  After the Great Famine it became a place for unmarried mothers, illegitimate children, orphans or mentally ill people - people that society wouldn't accept. Donaghmore Workhouse was opened in September 1853 and closed in September 1886.

This felt like entering the world described in the books by Charles Dickens. Not a place where you would like to end up.

The museum also houses an Agricultural Collection with a wide range of artefacts that had been donated by local people. It was quite the collection!

Can you imagine doing your ironing with these? I have to admit, I don't iron anymore, even with our modern irons.

After all this bleakness, let's bring this post to an end with something more joyful. There are bottles and kettles that would already get me into Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday, but my drink related contribution dates to last Saturday when my German class came over for our annual summer potluck get-together. As usual, I had made Erdbeerbowle ("drunk strawberries"), a typical German summer party drink. It was a very hot afternoon, but we sat in the cool shade of the big privet in my backyard. It was lovely to see everybody (we don't have class over the summer until the weekend after Labor Day).

Ah, summer...

Towers and Gardens

 

Today we're back in Ireland. We had left the Rock of Dunamase and were on our way to the tiny village of Timahoe (Irish Tigh Mochua which translates to House of Mochua). Our landlady had told us about the Round Tower, one of the few that you can find in Ireland.

Timahoe Round Tower was built sometime in the 1100s, on the site of a religious community founded around 600 A.D. by Saint Mochua, a warrior who converted to Christianity. The carved stonework of the tower is interesting. There are Romanesque style carvings that decorate the main entrance which is about five meters (16.4 ft) from the ground. The red door in the left photo belongs to the heritage center located in the church (no longer used as such) right next to the tower.

The Round Tower is almost 30 meters (98.4 ft) high, more than 17 meters (55.7 ft) wide at its base and its walls are nearly 2 meters (6.5 ft) thick. Quite impressive.

In the heritage center we met our first Irish storyteller. He was the curator of the museum who was obviously happy to have found an audience in these three Germans from California (we were the only visitors). He recommended visiting the Heywood Gardens.

It turned out to be a good recommendation. Again, we were the only people there - County Laois is definiteley off the beaten path!

Heywood Gardens is an 18th century landscape consisting of gardens, lakes, woodland and some architectural features that is set into a sweeping hillside.

There were some beautiful ruins which gave the landscape a romantic atmosphere.

A few sculptures could be seen here and there. Unfortunately there were no explanations, so I don't know who this lady is, but it seems she enjoyed the gardens.

The formal gardens were designed by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and it is likely that they were landscaped by horticulturist and garden designer Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932). The sunken garden was my favorite with its flowers and an elongated pool with a fountain in its center.

The gardener who seemed to have been on break showed some sense of humour.

The lake snuggled into the landscape, reflecting the trees and giving a home to swans and water lilies.

After leaving Heywood Gardens it was time for tea. We drove to Abbeyleix where we found a tearoom and ordered our cream tea - scones, jam, clotted cream and of course tea. Usually I'm not a tea drinker, but there are a couple countries where I make an exception because they know how to make tea properly; Ireland is one of them.

Rain's prompt this week is "Tea Party" - while not a party, I think it fits in. 

This day wasn't over yet. Soon we were off to our next destination - everything is so close in Ireland. More about that later.

Ruins from the 12th Century

 

After we had returned to Ireland from Turkey, we picked up our rental car at Dublin airport and went to Portlaoise where we had booked a B&B for one night. It was already late when we arrived, so we started out early the following morning.

County Laois (pronounced Leesh) is off the beaten path, "undiscovered" by Rick Steves and therefore probably not worth it in his opinion - and blissfully lacking crowds of tourists. We had almost all of the places we visited that day to ourselves.

Many of the roads we took in Ireland were narrow country roads - and I mean narrow! At least you didn't have to think of driving on the left side (except when there was oncoming traffic which thankfully didn't happen too often).

Our first stop was the Rock of Dunamase (Irish Dún Másc) which rises 46 meters (151 ft) above a plain. The castle ruins on top of the rock date back to the 12th century. You have to "climb" a short way to get to the gate.

We had fun exploring the ruins and taking silly photos.

You can probably guess that these faces are for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

This is a favorite photo that I took of Kaefer.

The bigger picture looked like this:

That summer was an exceptionally dry year for Ireland, and the "Emerald Isle" was more yellow and beige than green. Not quite California dry though. Despite the dryness, the vistas from the castle ruins were beautiful.

I enjoyed taking photos through the castle "windows", it gives the photos a nice frame.

The yellow wildflowers on the grounds were pretty as well. Of course I took pictures of flowers - these thistles I thought quite charming.

We explored the ruins for quite some time during which we saw two other people who didn't stay long. Then we made our way back down again.

There was an old church and cemetery. I love old cemeteries, so we spend some time exploring here as well.

Eventually we left the rock and moved on to our next destination. Before we got there, though, the Geek had to stop because I wanted to take photos of the fields with hay bales. 

Then we were off again - more about that next time.

Did I mention that the roads were really narrow?

Since this is a "dinner post" for Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date, here's the only picture I took of the food we ate in a lovely pub in Cork that evening - fish & chips, of course, accompanied by freshly draught Guinness (I don't drink Guinness from a bottle or can) and a Baby Guinness Shot.

Sláinte!