Travel to Rathmullan

We have been hearing from Paula’s sister as well as from other previous tour participants, that Rathmullan House is the gold standard of all the tours as to accommodations, grounds, and food. Paula and I have been to the Lake Hotel in Killarney, and it is hard to imagine anything better.  

Rathmullan is a little village on the west side of Lough Swilly.  It is probably most famous as the embarkation point for the Flight of The Earls in 1607, when two of the northern hereditary Irish chieftains’ O’Neill and O’Donnell, along with about 90 followers, snuck out and headed for the Continent, hoping to enlist Spanish assistance to throw out English rule in the country.  It’s a complicated history of maneuvering between Queen Elizabeth, King James I, Spain, the Scottish Irish and and hereditary Irish clan chieftains, and the goal of the Earls was overtaken by the English detente with Spain following the earlier loss of her Armada and her defeat by the Dutch at Gibraltar that same year.  And following the Gunpowder Plot against James, the traditionally Catholic Irish chieftains were in a hard place to be able to swear any loyalty to both the English monarch and the Pope, so the deoarting Earls left some of their children and entourage at Antwerp, where they all died or were forgotten, and they eventually made their way to Rome, where they were accomodated but marginalised and eventually died.  This pretty much marks the end of the Irish clan system.  

There is a great sculpture of the Flight of the Earls on the waterfront at Rathmullan.  My picture is on my camera, not my iPad, and will have to be transferred at a later date. Otherwise, Rathmullan was a ferry point across a long Lough Swilly, and since the ferry has been discontinued, it makes for a long drive to go around. So Rathmullan House is a primary destination nowadays.

On Sunday, our bus takes us from Sligo to Rathmullan for five nights.