Sue
Unregistered User
(6/27/03 6:39 am)

Our trip 6/2003 - Birr, Banagher,Terryglass & Mount Shannon

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As promised, here are the highlights of our trip:

After a rather late arrival in Dublin due to a British Midlands computer crash in Heathrow, we arrived at our bed & breakfast “Minnock’s Farm” right outside of Birr. It is on a working dairy farm and and is very clean and comfortable. Mrs. Minnock wasn’t there to meet us but we called to apologize for our delay and she arranged for someone to let us in. We dropped our stuff and drove the few minutes to the town of Birr, where we had dinner at “Spinner’s Bistro”, where they were kind enough to serve us, even though the kitchen closed at 9:00 p.m. (the early dining habits of the Irish was something that took getting used to….we are used to eating our evening meal very late, due to the hot weather here). The food was very good, if a bit on the expensive side. We walked off the meal around Birr, which seems to be a very nice town.

After breakfast the next morning we had the full Irish breakfast (or “The Cholesterol Bomb” as my husband lovingly calls it), said goodbye to Mrs. Minnock and headed to Birr to Birr Castle Demesne (we never did find out what “demesne” means) to see the astronomy & photography museum and tour the grounds. The museum is certainly interesting, and the gardens and grounds are beautiful (The castle itself is inhabited and not open to the public). I would recommend visiting this beautiful place to anyone. We spent a good 4 hours enjoying the walk, and the weather was kind to us, before heading for Banagher to pick up our boat.

Due to the late (10:30 p.m.!) sunsets, we were able to get through with the boat pickup and tutorial in time to set off for our first leg of the journey down the Shannon. We passed our first lock at Victoria (where there is a very nice chap who is the lock-keeper, having taken over from his father), made it through the bridge at Portumna and harbored for the night in Terryglass. As you must tie up for the night at a
proper harbor (not just anywhere on the riverside) it is a good idea to arrive at your destination harbor by around 6:00 p.m. to ensure a place. We had no trouble, but I am sure that this is crucial during the summer months when there are many more boats on the lake. In all the harbors or marinas we docked, the set up was more or less the same…..a few jettys for tying up, spotlessly clean public toilets and showers and nothing else. (Coming from a place where every centimeter of waterfront property is totally developed with boardwalks and water-side sports facilities, this was a surprise to us). This makes it necessary to walk (uphill, in most cases) to the town, for dinner or a pub or for groceries, etc. but usually it is only a mile or two. In Terryglass, a short walk from the marina are 2 pubs, one next to the other. For no particular reason we chose “The Derg Inn” which had great food and, to our great delight, a group of local musicians were sitting and playing…THIS is what we had come for and it was hard to stop grinning. (A few pints of Smithwicks, which we seemed to like better than the Guinness, didn’t help to stop the grinning either…the opposite). After a couple of hours, we “rolled” back to the boat for the night, where we were very glad that there was no development and fell asleep to the sounds of water gently lapping the sides of the boat.

After a very peaceful night’s sleep, we awoke and set out again (the guys steered while we made breakfast). By this time, we were no longer on the Shannon river proper, but on Lough Derg, which is much, much wider and can get very wavy and choppy. The weather was grey, and it started to rain, which is when our windshield wipers stopped functioning. We contacted the rental company and they told us they would send help if we could get to Kilgarven, which we did, and were met by 3 technicians who, we thought, had sorted out the problem. We took off again, only to encounter more of the same trouble, so we were directed to another port to a competitor boat rental company who tried to help us, but to no avail. We waited for the rain to stop, and headed for Mount Shannon, where the technicians were waiting for us, and where we stayed the night.

Of all the places we visited, I have to say that Mount Shannon will stay in my mind as the most beautiful of all. The town itself has only 600 people, but they have made their village into a gem. There is a wonderful public garden, that goes all the way from the harbor to the main street and in it they have created an exhibit of religion through the History of Ireland, like an open air museum. We ate at a simply terrific restaurant (sorry, cannot recall the name…it’s one word, it’s someone’s name, is in a teeny tiny little house on the main street..definitely worth looking for). The harbor itself is astoundingly beautiful (sorry….can’t think of another adjective)with a resident group of about 30 swans and there was a golden sunset which we watched from the deck of the ship, sipping some white wine and giving thanks for the goodness of life.

Next installment: Kilaloe, Portumna & Dublin

mikey
Unregistered User
(6/27/03 2:07 pm)

Rstaurant Mountshannon

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Could the restaurant be Noel's?

Michele Erdvig
ezOP
Posts: 1599
(6/29/03 12:53 am)
 
Shannon Adventures

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Hi Sue,

I'm glad you got the problem cleared up with your boat. You definitely need windshield wipers in Ireland! A demesne simply means an estate. My husband calls a full Irish breakfast "a heart attack on a plate". It doesn't prevent his enjoyment of them though.

The swans and sunset in Mountshannon sound heavenly. I'm looking forward to the continuing saga.

Michele

Sue
Unregistered User
(6/29/03 4:11 am)

Noel's Restaurant in Mount Shannon

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Hi Mikey,

Yes! That's the name. (Thanks for writing...I can now put it in my travel diary....it was driving me crazy)!