Saturday, September 14th - Day 4 Ballintubber - Cong - Clonbur - Moore Hall

We both slept really well on Friday evening and we were up by about 8am on Saturday morning.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast was wrong and we were again under overcast skies with light rain falling intermittently.  So we decided to forego our planned drive down to Galway and our tour of the Wild Atlantic Way along the coast.  Instead, we visited the restored abbey in nearby Ballintubber. 

Ballintubber Abbey was built in 1216.  The story of the Abbey dates back to 441 AD when St. Patrick visited a sacred well in the fields behind where the Abbey now stands and baptised his converts in the district.  The Abbey is located along the chariot trail, the ancient pilgrim path used by St. Patrick to reach Ireland's sacred mountain on the West Coast - Croagh Patrick.  Every year hundreds of pilgrims walk along the path - a distance of 22 miles.

 Bond actor Pierce Brosnan used the abbey as the site of his marriage - and it is available generally for this and other purposes!

Love the green mail box in the stone wall.  Need key to open.  Collection times posted.

 Next we drove to nearby Cong, the site where the 1952 classic John Wayne/Maureen O'Hara file "The Quiet Man" was shot.  This turns out to be a glorious little village - with a river flowing quickly through the middle of the town (and a large salmon hatchery also). In fact, the river forms the county boundary separating Galway from Mayo counties! 

We were entertained by a lovely guy in the tourist information facility whose wife was born and raised in the village. They lived 33 years in Virginia but returned to Cong to retire.  He was full of stories about the cast and crew, though he was himself only 4 when the film was shot.  Oddly, another couple who were part of the conversation were from Connecticut, but he had studied 2 years in Engineering at UB before transferring to computer science at Marist College in the early 80s.  Munroe wondered whether he had studied with Bruce during his early years, but he couldn't remember who he had for physics instruction.

Statue of John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara

The film was a huge hit and it really put Cong, and indeed the whole of Ireland, on the world map. There is a museum dedicated to it there but we weren't interested enough to visit, though we both had read the short story by Maurice Walsh upon which the film was based.  We had also watched the film on Amazon Prime before leaving, so we were well familiar with the plot (and could see the liberties that director John Ford had taken in making the film).  

Perhaps the highlight of the visit to Cong, however, came when we visited Tom Ryan's butcher shop.  Tom, it turns out, studied history and was a passionate follower of American politics!  He jumped at the chance to share his loathing of Trump with Munroe, and he confidently predicted that unless Kamala Harris won by a landslide, there would be a violent civil war break out.  He obviously had more interest in sharing his views on the political scene and upcoming Presidential election than attending to the many customers who were coming and going and was only reluctantly drawn off when an elderly woman who was collecting an order was blocking traffic in the street.  He went out to tell the bus driver that she would be right out!!  Anyway, he cut us off a nice chuck of leg of lamb, that was raised in nearby Claremorris, for dinner and we left feeling that we had made a wonderful connection with a real local character!

The serendipitous encounters you make when soaking and poking - discussing US politics with Tom Ryan!

It was raining pretty steadily when we left Tom and we were getting hungry, so we drove a short while to the nearby village of Clonbur and had delicious seafood chowder and a half pint for a late lunch (Deb of Guinness, me of Smithwicks).  

Clonbur is on Lake Mask, famous for trout fishing.  There are many lakes in this area – very large to very small.  At the local pub, Burke's Bar, for a bit to eat, we saw 20 lb mounted fish and learned about the community who obviously loved their lake and the fishing it offered.  

We still had time to squeeze in a stop before heading back to the cottage.  Deb found that an interesting old country estate was nearby - Moore Hall - just 10 minutes from Ballintuber Abbey and the cottage.  Moore Hall itself is in ruins but the location is beautiful.  Originally the Hall overlooked Lough (Lake) Carra but now green forest totally surrounds the ruin.  Walking paths curve through the woods.  

Moore Hall was built by George Moore, between 1792 and 1796.  He was a wine merchant who owned a fleet of ships and had made a vast fortune in Spain.  The Hall provided employment for many of the locals and, notably, during the potato famine, the family supported all of the tenants on the estate, and no one was evicted.

Unfortunately, The house was burned down in 1923 by the anti-Treaty IRA during the Irish Civil War as then owner, Maurice Moore, was viewed as pro-Treaty.  It would have been grand in its day, but unfortunately, it was set afire in the troubles of 1923 and all its contents were burned.  Today, only the exterior walls and outbuildings remain.  However, the property now serves as a lovely park, with lots of play areas for children.  

Then it was 'home' to cook our magnificent lamb for a delicious dinner, followed by another nice quiet evening in front of the fire. Despite the rain, this was another fine day in the west of Ireland!