Glengarriff

Glengarriff is a little town on Bantry Bay, to the northwest of Bantry at the northernmost bit of Bantry Bay. As earlier described, it has a couple of hotels, several various shops, and is the jumping off places for our further explorations.

It’s raining on our first full day in town, and there are various activities proposed for the morning. First is a seven kilometer hike, about 4.5 miles. Not appealing. Another choice is a ramble up to the nature preserve, about 3 km. Only slightly less unappealing. How about sleeping in? That’s a winner. So we miss breakfast on the first morning. OK, as the breakfast is the usual Irish breakfast, one fried egg, two sausages, bacon (which is more like Canadian bacon), sauteed mushrooms, and black and white puddings. Plus openers of cereal, fruit, juice, prunes, and toast. How do we know what we missed? We interpolate from every other breakfast.

At eleven the tour group rendezvous at the Park Hotel, boards the bus, and we travel to Bantry House. This is a manor house first occupied by a gentleman of merchant family who won favor with the English King George for having been alerted and responding to an attempted invasion in 1796 by Wolfe Tone and a contingent of Irish nationalists supported by an armada of French soldiers and sailors in hopes of pushing the British out of Ireland. The invasion never actually happened, as the west Ireland weather did to the French what it had done to the remains of the Spanish Armada, sinking 10 ships, and putting any survivors at the Mercy of Richard White and his loyal followers. As a reward, the Crown increased his lands and elevated him to Baron, Viscount, and eventually Earl of Bantry. The house remains in the family, and much of the interior is orginal, and one of the descendant multi-degree granddaughters is the general manager, and shepherds us around, and even gives dispensation for photographs, not usually allowed. Even allows a few of our group to play the piano in the great room.

Lunch is in the House tea room, but they weren’t exactly expecting forty hungry tourists, so things ran out, especially the soup, which was appealing on a chilly, windy day. Not a great day to tour the gardens, which are well tended, but bare at this time of the year. Still Jim makes the trek up the 100 steps to get a few pictures of the house and Bantry Bay beyond.

After the house tour, we drive on down into Bantry town, for some shopping and perhaps a visit to a drinking establishment. Bantry area features several homages to St. Brendan who set sail from there to the west and is said to have arrived at Newfoundland. So the central square features a statue of Brendan in a King of the World pose, dwarfing the cowering sailors.

Shopping is successful, and a pint is welcome at one of the many along the main shopping street.

We didn’t hit this pub, but were intrigued by the name. We have been told the the “snug” is by old tradition, the women’s part of a public house (tavern) and was usually a small section off of the main room where the women wouldn’t readily be seen consuming their pints. In the pub that we stopped at, however, one of the featured decorations in the main room was a framed set of American Civil War relics: minie balls, grapeshot, remains of a pistol and a rifle, sword, bayonet, buckles and buttons.

Back to the Hotels and a quick nap, followed by dinner and music in the Casey’s Hotel pub. This time, the locals have gotten wind of music, and the pub, not large to begin with, is shoulder to shoulder with our group and locals, with barely enough room to change your mind. And as the eavening wears on, additional locals come in, including a local teenage ceilidh band, one of whom sings the Ratlin Bog song, a song that repeats and adds verses, and accelerates faster than any we have ever heard. We are not among the usual suspects who see the last dog hung tonight, but retire while the music and ambient temperature are still high.