Markree Castle, Collooney, County Sligo

Markree Castle

Ireland is dotted with castles and old manor houses. Some of these impressive buildings are tourist attractions. Some are homes while others are vacant and crumbling. Still others have been transformed into hotels and guest houses. I found one such hotel south of Sligo and decided the location would be a convenient one for us as many of the places we wanted to visit were in the south or west (and it would allow us to avoid the hassle of finding parking in Sligo town). It continues in the ownership of its old family and boasts that W. B. Yeats stayed there with an ancestor of the family who was involved in the literary movement.

Markree Castle* is part of an estate in Collooney. It has had a number of renovations over the years. While it is really the manor house of an estate, it looks like a small castle and is so called. The gardens are lovely. We enjoyed the stay.

The castle is pretty impressive when you drive up. Note the porte cochere.

This is the view of the castle from the river.

 

Every good castle needs at least one flying buttress.

Is that a nest on the weather vane?

This is the side view from outside the walls.

I have become a fan of iron gates.

 

The view from our room...not bad.

DH in the entryway walking towards the porte cochere.

 

The chapel. Many of these houses welcome destination weddings. One had been held withing the week.

Part of the grand staircases.

Skylights

Upper floors

Looking out the window in the top floors

The roof - we never did find out if it was possible to go out on the roof.

This is a working estate, though only a portion of the original. See the herd of sheep below the castle, across the stream?

Stairs at the rear of the house.

Part of the walls

The hotel provides maps for four walks of various lengths. I only walked around the gardens near the house. DH ran one of the longer routes.

 

Some of the trees in the garden were oddly bent.

They were almost disturbing...

...and a bit unnatural.

The stream behind the castle.

 

Water plants near the small dock.

Pine cone

And more

I am sure I ate these blackberries.

And apple or crabapple, perhaps.

A group of rides passed through. I don't think it was a hunt.

The wall with requisite ferns growing the the cracks.

A couple of trees.

Greenery along the path.

The garden was a little rough, but it was the end of the season.

One path.

I don't know this bloom.

This looks like a type of mullein or relative.

These would make a sweet bouquet.

There was still a good deal of color and texture in the garden.

I was inspired, but will perhaps only add some rocks to mine.

Outside view.

Rose.

Nice view of the castle at day's end.

One of the lovely Sligo sunsets.

NOTES:


* http://www.markreecastle.ie/

Last day in Sligo - Knocknarea, Carrowmore and Glencar

OK, so Glencar is in County Leitrim, sue me.

Knocknarea

 It was time for the tennis shoes. We purchased a lunch in Collooney and journeyed off to hike to the top of Knocknarea.* It is a mountain with a large cairn atop. As we have toured the past few days we would look up and not only see Ben Bulben, but also see this mountain and cairn. The cairn is reputed to be that of Queen Maeve,** but then we found another reputed grave of Maeve in Leitrim. The day dawned misty and the mist stayed with us. The wind on top of the mountain was brisk and we were glad for our jackets and scarves. The view was not what it could have been, but it was still an amazing experience. Later we learned we should have taken a stone to add to the cairn. DH and YC said, "OK, let's go back." I told them they were welcome to go, but I would wait at the car.

At first the walk seems like nothing. DH and YC take off at a brisk rate.

But I was looking at the flowers. Here were the only bluebells we saw (they are Harebells in Ireland).

The path got a good deal rougher.

The heather was lovely.

And magically we were levitated to the top of the mountain (where the sign warned us NOT to climb on the cairn). Actually, the climb became too much for me to climb and pay attention to the view and take pictures. So I gave up and climbed.

The top of the mountain is broad and relatively flat.

A path runs to the west where the next mountain ends in a cliff.

I suspect (and may have read) that a number of smaller cairns were in ruins in the area of Maeve's.

Because there is no other reason for these large boulders, it is likely each group is a former megalithic tomb.

Yet another scattering of boulders.

This guy was clinging to the grass in the 10+ mile per hour gusts.

YC and DH start back down and you can see from the distant ground just how high this mountain is.

Another view from the top - one of the only poor visibility days, but we had no choice.

Another view down.

It is not quite as tough to go down as to come up, but it was a little tricky in places.

We saw people coming up on horseback.

They rode off down another path. Now THAT would have been the way to climb this mountain.

I catch up with the rest of my group. Actually, they regularly waited for me.

There were few trees on the mountainside.

These two trees seemed to mark an open spot in the wall.

Ah, and what is the purpose of this? Well, I know a nettle when I see one. Or at least I think I do. No matter where I travel, I WILL run into a nettle. And I did in the woods later that day.

One of the gates

Blackberry blooms

And blackberry fruit.

 A word here about blackberries - All through our visit we found blackberry brambles along the roads and paths. It was killing me (a jam-maker) to find these berries somewhat wasted (of course the wildlife would take advantage of the fruit, but the birds do share). I thought I would find blackberry jam or preserves somewhere to bring home, but I never did. So I had to be satisfied with eating some of the berries as we hiked. And they were wonderful.

This guy calmly watched us (and only a few more hikers) walk up and down the path.

We saw a good deal of wool caught up on the fencing and on the rocks, but saw no sheep on this hike.

Daisies naturalized along the way.

There was one spot where the harebells were blooming in a mass, but they were moving in the wind so the photo blurred.

Another odd bloom

At this point we took a trip down a narrow road - looking for landmarks to a treasure. We did not see them and so headed down to Carrowmore.


Carrowmore 

Now protected by the Irish government, Carrowmore is the oldest and largest group of megalithic tombs in Ireland. It is within sight of the cairn on Knocknarae and somehow aligned with it. We took the map at the visitors' center and inspected the graves. We also noted many spots where the boulders from the tombs had been used to build walls - for the farms and along the roadway. Most of the tombs in the area are protected, but some are still found on private land.

Remains of a large curb stones

I am going to guess and saw this is Knocknarea in the distance.

Another ruined tomb

I wish I had a way to capture the birdsong. We were almost always accompanied by their music.

This tomb was reconstructed and shown in an open manner for educational purposes.

These thing are huge. I am not sure how to explain the size...some 3 or 4 feet across.

Rock wall with suspiciously large stones.

This is one of the best examples.

More boulders in an old wall.

The best example from a distance.

See the mountain in the background?

I had to take a photo of these. There were bunches through these fields of stone.

One view of this grave.

View from the other side.

Rock wall.

Another rock wall.

Wall bordering the roadway

And the other side of this wall.

Glencar Waterfall

We drove following signs to the Glencar Waterfall.**** We had a few missteps, but finally found the right carpark along the lake. We should have known it would be the one with ICE CREAM.

On the way to the waterfall we noticed a sign to Maeve's tomb, a mere 5+ miles away. We knew we were done for the day. No one in our party took a stone to either grave. That will have to wait for the next trip.

It's pretty, even if it is the wrong place.

See. It was worth the stop.

So pretty.

Shrine.

Cattails in the lake.

More.

Where is a boat when you need one?

For a bit I thought we were walking up here to the waterfall. I was not amused.

And then we found the right spot.

Yeah, missed this "selfie." DH and I read about the sights.

First things first. We need some ice cream. I think these were called "whippies."

Creek spilling down from the waterfall.

It's fast.

and pretty.

But it was not deep on our visit - in spite of what the sign warned.

More of the stream.

And a little more.

First view of the waterfall.

 

There is is.

YC explores some rock steps to nowhere.

If we had the time, I think we would take more trails...

The woods around the waterfall were lovely.

Down these stairs...

Up these...

OK. Don't get me wrong. This was an easy walk up and down. I just don't want to give anyone the idea that it was even ground. I found few of those.

These guys were in the field in front of the carpark. Two of them got excited and were butting heads...crazy.

Just after they "jousted." See them giving each other the "look."

Lake and mountains

More lake and mountains

Sun threatening to go down.

Closeup of a bird that was entertaining us in the parking lot.

Bird. I have wondered if raven.

And then we went back to Sligo for a quick trip through the Abbey ruins and for dinner.

The Abbey

Just inside.

One of the abbey cats.

The cloisters

Celtic symbol on a column of the cloisters.

Ram's head on a column in the cloisters.

We did take another trip before heading back to Dublin. That hike deserves a post of its own, for there faeries be.

NOTES:

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knocknarea or http://www.megalithicireland.com/Knocknarea.htm
**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medb
*** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrowmore and http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/north-west/carrowmoremegalithiccemetery/
**** http://www.discoverireland.ie/Activities-Adventure/glencar-waterfall/44568
***** http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/North-West/SligoAbbey/