Stardate: 14 May 2019 - On the road again...

and here we are in Terryglass (or as we say in Gaelic, Tir Dha Ghlas - land of the two streams) in northern Tipperary.  In fact so far north that we just did our grocery shopping 10 kms up the road in County Galway.) 

Note our hired Beamer on the right!

This is our cubby until Sunday, in the grounds of the Slevoir Estate.  Our hosts, Jenny and Keiran live in the big 'ouse up the road.

They're a nice couple and, surprisingly, both Australian. They have lived in Ireland for three years, initially coming here to work in academia but are now retired.

They kept us yapping for ages when we just wanted to have a wizz and settle in but we figured they see so few Australians they were keen for a convo, especially when we established our politics are of a similar bent!

And this is a view from our place of theirs.  It's quite a pile.  They don't own it but have been caretaking for three years for the (presumably wealthy) friend who does.

It's not hugely old - 1870 - but quite impressive.  Keiran has his study in the top of the tower.  He'd have a lovely view over Lough Derg ('lough' as in lake) which the estate borders. 

 
After we'd done our shopping in Portumna we headed in to Terryglass village for a bit of a recce.  This random cat took quite a shine to me and dispensed more affection in three minutes than my grandcat has in 18 months.  (No offence to my grandcat - I quite like her eff-you vibe.)

This village is a gazillion years old.  This is the only remaining wall of what was St Columba's monastery, founded in 549 AD.  It's mostly a cemetery for more recent (1700s-1800s-1900s) burials but St Columba is apparently in there somewhere.

And just a spit up the road but not yet visited by us is St Columba's headache well.  Drinking from the well is alleged to cure headaches.  There's also St Augh's Eye Well a bit further away but still walking distance.  Apparently believers visit the eye well every Saturday in May and perform a range of prayers and rituals and leave offerings in the hope of curing their assorted eye ailments.   Unfortunately we probably won't be able to observe from a respectful distance next Saturday as from 9am we will be glued to the TV screen here that Mr Pants has successfully harnessed to his laptop, watching the election results from 6pm EST.  No wine or champers for us though!  Perhaps a Bovril, some boxty and some barmbrack. 

Over to Snorkers now for spanner, chisel and other hardware news.

***

The journey here from Dublin was actually not too bad, at least by our standards.  Picked up the BMW from the airport, and after about half an hour of familiarising ourselves with its idiosyncrasies, away we went.  The reason we got a BMW instead of my real preference, which was either a Morris Minor or an Austin A30, is that we insisted on having in-car navigation.  This satnav seems quite OK, except we haven't yet worked out how to turn it off.  This is a problem only because if you decide to go somewhere other than the destination you last selected, it tells you every seven seconds to do a u turn if possible.  Yeah, thanks for that.

But the trip itself was OK.  Good freeways, greatly less congested than England.  Of course, once off the freeway you go straight onto roads about 6 feet wide that are two way, but we'll just have to get used to that.  

We'll be telling all our visitors that this is the driveway to our estate.  And so it is, as long as you ignore the fact that it's also the driveway to the big 'ouse.

First impressions are that this is a great spot.  The cottage itself is OK, but the real attraction is that there's so much to see within a relatively short drive.  We hope.  We'll have a better idea tomorrow.  And wish us luck with the feckin satnav.  

Oh, and I nearly forgot; when we went to the village (where Anne made friends with the black cat that definitely did not go to the Jessie Ackroyd school of deportment), we found the local, that serves an excellent Smithwick's Red Ale, that I really liked.  Hortense agreed. And we might even have another some time soon.