While lifting a glass in Mom's honor at Crowley's pub a few evenings back, we struck up a conversation with a young salesman who lived in Galway. In the course of the evening (remember, everyone buys a pint for everyone else) he recommended we visit Cong, one of his favorite places not too far from Galway. Like nearly all obedient travelers, we checked with Rick Steves who had included Cong in a road trip through County Mayo and Connemara, so we highlighted our map and settled our plans for the next day.
The drive from Kinvarra to Cong was beautiful and we made multiple stops to photograph the stone fences, the cattle, the sheep and crops. BC couldn't get enough of these fences, pulling over time after time with instructions of "Now there's a picture." "Now you should take a picture of that!" What did Ireland look like long ago before every field was divided by stone fence after stone fence? I don't know, but those hardy souls who chose to work this land must have been both optimistic and incredibly strong.
When we arrived in Cong which is built on an isthmus between two lakes, we stopped first at the remains of Cong Abbey which, reportedly, housed the last High King of Ireland for the final few years of his life. I think he may have been hiding out with the monks after he realized the Normans were just too much for him. There isn't much left of the cloister, but what is there is lovely.
We followed a narrow path leading from the cloisters onto a bridge that crossed an old canal before continuing on to the the River Cong. The canal path was busy with families fishing, little boys showing off on their bikes, and moms pushing the latest family additions in over-sized strollers. BC stopped to talk to every fisher-person he saw. They definitely speak a common language. I had fun watching a little five-year-old handle a fishing rod like he'd done it for years...and, most likely, he had!
We continued on to the River Cong where, hundreds of years ago, the monks from the Abbey built an elaborate stone fishing hut near the shore in such a way that the river ran under it. They stayed cozy near the fireplace they had built into the hut, opened the trap door in the floor, and netted their catch. Supposedly, they had attached a bell between the hut and the abbey kitchen so the cooking monks would know the fishing monks had been successful, and they would be grilling fish that night. BC thought the fishing monks had the perfect vocation.
We crossed the river and followed this lovely wooded trail to Ashford Castle--now an exclusive hotel. The only guards at today's castle are two well-dressed doormen who keep the riff-raff out. Tourists can wander the grounds...as long as they don't get too close.
The Mama swan seems to be a bit shy, but the youngsters are quite friendly.
If you have an excellent memory and are a John Wayne fan, you may recognize this as the pub in "The Quiet Man." The movie was filmed in 1951 and I remember going to see it with my Mom who, obviously, loved everything Irish. I thought it was very dull and, even though it was a movie, I couldn't even work up excitement.
Sixty years later, BC and I walked in for a little sit-down and a half-pint, joining a group near the bar. Small children and babies were everywhere. Eventually, we noticed that the room we were in was fairly crowded but no one was in the opposite end. I finally realized that the other end must have been sacred ground and, apparently, no one entered that space. It was a "The Quiet Man" homage. Apparently. We're not sure, but we stayed carefully away.
See, it was an homage.
We managed to take a wrong turn leaving Cong (I know, it's redundant) and eventually realized we were driving in exactly the opposite direction we had intended. It was a beautiful drive, but after close examination of the map we realized there was no way to get to Westport from here, so we turned back to Cong and tried again.
Welcome to the Boulevard B&B in Westport. The first thing BC said to me when we walked in was, "This is the house you've always wanted," and I had to agree. And, within a split second, the owner broke in with, "I'll sell it to you!" What a temptation...what a huge amount of work...what expensive upkeep...what a lot of kitchen time cooking early breakfasts...what a lot of beds to make and bathrooms to clean, but...
What a great view from our room. It'll do...
1 comment:
Tyler approves!
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