Ireland Day 7 - 30th Nov. 2004

The Return of Nile Sweeny

Doolin to Quin via Ennis
Ireland Weather: Mostly Cloudy - Low 50's

^ Quin Friary at Sunset ^

Nile Sweeny greeted us the previous evening when we arrived at the Doonagore Farmhouse B&B with the words “we’ve got a fresh kitten which I’ll show you after breakfast”.

He was a sweet little boy who enjoyed playing with me, David, Laura, and anyone who would pay attention to him. And sure enough, as soon as I was finished with breakfast I was treated to a view of a fresh kitten eating her breakfast.

Nile was in our room the moment the doors were open, and he stayed with us until we left. He took a particular liking to Laura’s camera and shot several very blurry photos – one very clear photo of his disapproving mother.

We headed south on the R478 road back to Lehinch to pick up the N85 towards Ennis, and on the way we thought it might be fun to poke our fingers in the Atlantic…so we turned off and headed to Derreen/Liscannor…and on out to the farthest point the road would take us.

We got out, slipped on some Atlantic Goo, took some pictures, I got my shoes flooded by a large wave, and on we went to Ennis.

^ Laura doing the Goo Dance ^

Ennis is a very nice medium-sized town with a lovely shopping district. We took several hours there to look around for last minute things we needed to purchase (Laura got some shirts – I got some whiskey).

On the way into Ennis, we noticed that some children had done some redecorating of the roundabouts in town. Some type of liquid detergent appeared to have provided a very interesting look to one fountain in a roundabout, while a traffic cone on the a statue’s head provided another.

We ate a later lunch at a café/pub. The beef chili was delicious, but tasted very much like Hungarian Goulasch – lots of paprika and large chunks of beef over rice.

We moved on to Quin and got there before dark (for a change) so we puttered around the town looking for signs to the Ardsollus Farmhouse B&B. We turned left once where we should have gone straight, but that led us to the Quin Friary. There were cows grazing all over the grounds of the Friary and it gave it a very pastoral feel. The weather had changed to very pleasant throughout the day, and by late afternoon, we had a beautiful blue sky peppered with pink clouds and a wonderful sunset.

^ Quin Friary with current occupants ^

We took several pictures, and headed out of town to the B&B.

We took a recommendation from our host to go see Knappogue Castle (before it got totally dark) and we managed to get the last rays of light, and only a few pictures, but it was very pleasant…then we went back to the B&B.

We unloaded the car to re-distribute our things for our flight in the morning, and got a recommendation from our host for dinner – The Monk’s Well in Quin.

We got back into Quin as a fog was rolling in, and Dave and I thought perhaps the friary would look nice if it were lit up. It was, and it did, and we didn’t have our cameras…so we ditched everyone and hauled ass back to the B&B (5km or so) and then back to Quin again.

The pictures were definitely worth the effort, and provided us with a very memorable evening.

^ Quin Friary in the Fog ^

Unfortunately, the Monk’s Well had run out of food…so we were left with two choices – drive into Ennis (10km away) and try and find a late seating for dinner, or we could eat junk food and whatever else we could scrounge from the convenience store.

We got some more Kinder Eggs, bread, tortilla chips and salsa, nutella, cheese, etc. and asked the guy at the Monk’s Well if we could eat it there…he welcomed us in and we ordered some beers and ciders. It wasn’t much to eat, but David and I played a game of 301 on the dart board. It’s not important that I lost…just that I was able to share that with a friend.

Overall it was a very pleasant evening, and when we ended up back at the B&B around 10:00pm, the fog was very thick and lovely.

Ardsollus Farm is a horse farm, and the Hannon’s have won numerous trophies for equestrian activities…and out the front door of the house is a main paddock…beyond that paddock are three enormous oak trees that were slightly backlit by the full moon.

You couldn’t make them out completely with the naked eye, but you could tell they were there.

I wanted to take a long exposure image of them and see if the moon would perhaps backlight them enough so that the full tree would be visible.

^ Moonlit Foggy Trees at Ardsollus Farmhouse, Quin ^

I tried 1, 2, 3, 6 and 10 minutes…on the longer exposures the stars moved quite a bit…the 3 minute exposure had them moving just slightly so that you almost can’t tell.