Seven Things to See and Do in Ireland: County Armagh
There are two Armaghs. The City of Armagh is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland. Like Rome it is built on seven hills. It’s also known as the city of saints and scholars because in early Christian Ireland it was the prime seat of learning. The county of Armagh is known as the Orchard County and in the rolling hills are filled with apple blossom come April. The combination of rural landscape and county town and cathedral city make Armagh a great destination for visitors with plenty of things to see and do while in Ireland. I’ve been visiting this county since 1984 and these are my top recommendations. Here are my top seven things to do and see in County Armagh.
1) The Cathedrals – Okay, technically there are two St. Patrick’s Cathedrals. The Church of Ireland Cathedral is older and has the grave of Brian Boru as well as pre-Christian artefacts. One known as the Tandragee Idol is thought to depict Nuada of the Silver Arm, a king of the Tuatha de Danaan. There is also the donkey-eared carving of Labhraidh Loingseach. This cathedral is also host to the Centre for Celtic Spirituality.
The twin spires of the Roman Catholic St. Patrick’s Cathedral dominate the horizon of the cityscape. Begun ion 1840, this Gothic Revival cathedral had to suspend construction during the hard Famine Years. There is an amazing blue mosaic vaulted ceiling and the Lady Chapel displays the caps of every cardinal.
This You Tube Clip starts out at the Church of Ireland St. Patrick’s Cathedral and shows the Armagh Rhymers make their way through the town to the St. Brigid’s Well near the Palace Stables to celebrate St. Brigid’s Day on 1st February.
2) The Mall – Rhyme that with Pal rather than say it like the long mile that is home to many of the Smithsonian’s Museums in Washington, D.C. This elegant green space began life as the town’s racecourse. It is edged by some of the finest examples of Georgian architecture outside of Dublin. It also is home to the County Museum , the Courthouse and the Cricket Club.
3) A short walk heading out the Portadown Road will lead you to Armagh’s Observatory and Planetarium. If you are at all star struck or have inquisitive children then you are sure to while away your time full of wonder.
4) Retracing your steps back past The Mall and heading out the Killylea Road you have the Palace Stables. Originally Archbishop Robinson’s Residence the Palace Stables now house a Heritage Centre, which brings Georgian era Ireland to life. Archbishop Robinson, also a Baron, was the guiding force that shaped how Armagh looks today by creating the Mall, endowing and building the library, renovating the Cathedral and other public buildings. With a playground and woodland walks as well as guided tours and special events this is a very family friendly venue with a wide choice of things to see and do to please all age ranges.
5) Carry on a bit further along this road and you will find the amazing Navan Fort or Emain Macha. This is the Height (Ard) of Macha, the goddess who gave her name as this was her seat of power. Archaeology studies have created an amazing exhibit with plenty of everything you might want to know about Celtic Ireland. There are guided tours but there is a really good self-guided exhibit. And then you get to walk up the giant earthwork that is Macha’s Height. Learn about how the early Irish before St. Patrick lived with the reenactments of Early Irish life.
6) Now it’s time to head out the Markethill Road for a bit of outdoor activity. Gosford Castle Forest Park offers camping and caravan berths, a stunning arboretum, mountain bike trails, woodland walks, a walled garden and deer park. In the 240 hectare demesne you can even rent a self-catering apartment in the Castle! So there is no need to rough it if that is not your style.
Rather you can imagine how the landed gentry who created this amazing country seat lived. Jonathan Swift, who was Dean of Dublin for a time, used to vacation here and one of the woodland walks takes you to a favourite resting spot, Dean Swift’s Seat. The current castle was constructed in the 1800s after Dean Swift’s holiday with the aristocratic owners and has been converted into private homes.
I’m on my last recommendation of things to see and do in County Armagh. I’ve covered the ecclesiastical side, the early Christian and pre-Christian aspect as well as the Georgian period. My jaunt around has also offered you outdoor activities, the opportunity to see castles and cathedrals and to learn about heritage. So what is left? Well, entertainment.
7) The Market Place Theatre and Arts Centre offers not just theatre, music concerts and art exhibition space. It also have an ongoing programme of workshops and activities. But I’ll let their YouTube explain all that’s on offer to see and do at this amazing arts space.
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Bee Smith created Irish Blessings Tours to serve travelers to Ireland who want the unique and inspirational packaged for their group’s desires and needs. Bee seeks the source to manifest your dream Irish vacation according to your budget and time scale. She has a special interest in Fairy folklore, Celtic Spirituality and the Natural Heritage of northwestern Ireland and Northern Ireland. In 2011 Bee became one of the first trained tour guides that act at ambassadors for the UNESCO designated Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark. Send her your dreams for your Ireland vacation package to bee@irishblessingstours.com.
Irish Sketch Tour – Journaling Your Dream Vacation With Art and Haiku Poetry
In conjunction with Amy Bogard (www.amybogard.com) Irish Blessings Tours is pleased to announce our collaboration in creating an Irish Sketch Tour. Based on Amy’s Sketchbook and Journal workshops back in Cincinnati, Ohio we are now going to take the concept on the road to Ireland.
Dates are still to be confirmed but we have penciled in the last weeks of September/early October for the tour in 2013.
Want to know a bit more about the concept?
Well, check out Amy’s blog to see what she has done on her tours to the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, New Mexico. And read how my own love of poetry, and haiku in particular, lends itself to experiencing Ireland on tour.
Smouldering Lough Talt
Hemmed in by the hills
Cloud above the cauldron
In August 2011 I guided Amy and her friends around my part of the world – West Cavan in Ireland – a landscape of myth, megalith and sacred power places. It turns out that Amy leads groups who journal their trips through art. While I am a deep devotee of art, that gene passed me by. I did, however, get the writing gene and while Amy wields her drawing pencil, I journal trips by writing haiku.
Haiku is a Japanese poetry form, deceptively simple and fiendishly difficult (but fun!) if you play by the classical rules. It is simply three lines composed of no more than seventeen syllables. The classic format is lines of 5,7,5 syllables but these days we tend to play it a bit looser since we are not writing in Japanese after all. There is generally a ‘seasonal’ word that tells the reader the time of year for the scene. It also is alive to the natural world, which then can stand for the universal, even Zen, truth. Unlike English poems we don’t use simile and the metaphors are very oblique. What you aim to do is to capture a moment in time and share the feeling/seeing/hearing/sensing with the reader. Using the seasons as a leitmotif the little poem aims to capture mood, moment and image.
A cow’s anguished moo
A calf taken from its mother
Sentient beings
I generally have a small notebook in my handbag and haiku is a convenient way of jotting down what I am experiencing. I’ve been a professional foreigner for more than thirty years. I left the USA in 1980 and lived in England, where I met my Irish partner, for twenty years. We moved to Ireland in 2001. We live deep in the country on an acre where we garden organically. For someone who loves nature and needs solitude and quiet it is like heaven. Only better, because I’m alive to enjoy it.
Through poetry I not only met my partner, I also made other friends. One of those poetry buddies suggested to a group of American women that they let me organise a tour for them over the Festival of Brigit, who also happens to be the matron goddess/saint of poetry.
So poetry gave me my new vocation as tour guide and creatrix of tours for people who want to immerse themselves in an authentic Ireland. This Ireland is not always furnished with an interpretative centre but allows the visitor to draw their own conclusions. It does allow the visitor to experience for themselves, take the pulse, to be inquisitive and meet people in their locality.
Open-hearted traveling yields many pleasant surprises.
It is a way of touring that lends itself to journalling through art and poetry, in particular that three lined haiku that can get swiftly jotted in the pocket size notebook. To travel should engage your heart as much as other senses. Jotting down a haiku you often capture that heart sense. It captures that moment just as a photograph. But the poem or drawing uses your hand, muscle, coordination – and they are connected to your heart.
The roaring cascade
Raw assertion over rock
Lichen bearded glen
Amy wants to bring contact me at bee@irishblessingstours.com or Amy at www.amybogard.com to express interest in joining us on this tour. We will forward full details of the dates, itinerary, and costs later in 2012.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Ireland
I get bemused by the green beer, dyed rivers and fountains on St. Patrick’s Day. On the first count I think most indigenous Irish think that is a crime against good beer. On the last two counts I wonder what those dyes are doing for the health of the salmon of wisdom.
While others think leprechauns for Ireland, in Ireland we tend to revere the fairies. Our parades are generally full of political satire, which goes right back to the bardic tradition of ancient Ireland. Plenty of young ones sport false rears sporting ‘Pogue Mahone’ – roughly and more politely translated as smooch here.
There have been moves to encourage people to wear a snake on St. Patrick’s Day as a way to reclaim the druidic past. You see adders(snakes) were never native to Ireland. Ireland never has had a snake species. Not even a garden variety. It is hypothesised that the ‘snakes’ were actually the Druids that the conversion to Christianity supplanted with Patrick’s mission to Ireland.
Alternatively, anti-fracking activists have declared St. Patrick’s Day an international day of action to prevent hydraulic fracturing of shale gas in Ireland’s least spoiled landscape in the Lough Allen and Clare Basins. Given the watery nature of the land experiences elsewhere in the world have raised anxieties at home about the dangers of water pollution and worse. So in Carrick on Shannon they will be sporting black shamrocks at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade to alert the wider public to the dangers and asking people to contact TDs (deputies in the Dáil or Irish Parliament) and county councillors to prevent this happening in both the Republic and Northern Ireland.
“Don’t Frack with the Fairies”
Image copyright Helga Martinez
Here is rural Ireland it is the traditional day to set your spuds on St. Patrick’s Day. That is exactly what I intend to be doing this year. It’s warm enough even for our frost pocket prone field to chance the first earlies. There are plenty of parades going on too – we are spoiled for choice between our local one, another five miles away that is cross border between Belcoo and Blacklion. Heading out to the big towns around twenty miles away we could attend Carrick on Shannon or Enniskillen.
For me, on St. Patrick’s Day I think about the tenets of Celtic Spirituality – that of seeing God in nature, giving hospitality, celebrating with music and poetry, nurturing soul friendships. So I’ll be out in the garden setting spuds and planting some memorial plants since this St. Patrick’s Day marks the 50th anniversary of the day my father was buried. I’ll plant two things for both my parents. So first thing is to get to the garden centre early and then wield the spade.
Over this national holiday weekend we will join in the Thur Mountain celebrations organised by Glenfarne Community Development. Glenfarne is just seven miles over the Boleybrack from us. They are having three kinds of walk to appeal to all classes of walker from the hardcore hillwalkers, to the staunch ramblers right down to the dog strollers. We’ll be in the latter category. But all the walking groups will gather in the Rainbow Ballroom of Romance for some tea and craic after doing all that healthful activity.
In the evening we get to have the music and poetry and some more hospitality. We are having a birthday celebration and that is the cue for conviviality, homemade music, singing and reciting or reading poems. There will also be homemade cake!
But let me leave you with a favourite Irish blessing attributed to St. Patrick.
Deep peace of the running wave to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the infinite peace to you.
Beir Bua (Best Wishes)
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Bee Smith created Irish Blessings Tours to serve travelers to Ireland who want the unique and inspirational packaged for their group’s desires and needs. Bee seeks the source to manifest your dream Irish vacation according to your budget and time scale. She has a special interest in Fairy folklore, Celtic Spirituality and the Natural Heritage of northwestern Ireland and Northern Ireland. In 2011 Bee became one of the first trained tour guides that act at ambassadors for the UNESCO designated Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark. Send her your dreams for your Ireland vacation package to bee@irishblessingstours.com.
Preparing for Your Trip to Ireland: Seven Essentials to Pack
It’s time to pack your bags. The final stages of preparing for your trip to Ireland are approaching. You have your passport. You’ve checked that the date is still valid for the days you are traveling. The dog and cat have gone to the kennels. Based on years of transatlantic travel I have listed my seven essentials to pack for your trip to Ireland.
I am a firm believer in traveling light. For sightseeing a day pack is handy and it can double as your flight carry on. A wheelie suitcase will stream through the airports on departure days. Make sure the suitcase is half empty. You will pick up souvenirs. Wear the heaviest pair of shoes on the flight. You don’t want to be schlepping extra weight around.
There are always personal essentials, which I have not added to this list. These are to be considered universal requirements. I won’t burden you with the amount of room I have to factor in for reading material while I am traveling. This may well have been the critical motivator for my spare packing philosophy. I’ve even got a collapsible cane that fits into my wheelie suitcase for days that my arthritis growls.
1. Ireland uses the same electrical voltage as the UK. Get an adapter
for UK voltage. You’ll know it’s the right one if it has 3 pin plug. Continental plugs are two round pins. You’ll need the adapter to power up you cell phone or use hair styling appliances. Check with the manufacturer that you favourite appliance is compatible with an adapter. Some are and others will not work. Appliances sold as ‘travel’ generally are versatile enough. Also look for descriptions such as ‘dual voltage’; travel hairdryers frequently fit the bill. Most hotels and B&Bs can provide an iron if your packing gets particularly creased.
2. The Irish climate requires waterproof and shower proof outerwear year round. Make sure your shoes are especially leak proof and that you pack socks that are particularly comfortable and don’t chaff. Try them out before you leave home. Footsore sightseeing is no fun. I advised a friend to buy a micro fleece hoodie for trip to Ireland in September. With a rain slicker for heavier showers she made it through the trip just fine.
3. Ireland’s temperate climate requires that you wear layers. Make sure to pack a sleeveless tank, short-sleeved and long-sleeved t-shirts and either a pullover sweater or fleece or cardigan. Temperatures can rise and fall within a day. You’ll be glad to have at least one layer to meet every eventuality.
4. A smallish notebook and pen that fits in your pocket, handbag or day pack. You will be overloaded with information and people say the most interesting things! Note them down when you are back in your hotel room or in transit between sites. You’d be surprised how many people want to remember the name of that charming little place with the pub, with the dog, you know the one? But then can’t remember the name. Urrrgh! Put important addresses, email addys and contact numbers in the back of this notebook. Make a note down of your passport number in case it gets lost or stolen.
5. Your camera or camcorder will also be useful ways to jog your memory. Remember to pack your chargers (see Tip1 – you’ll need to power them up regularly) and bring spare memory cards! Have some batteries if you don’t have a charger. You can buy them here but having a few to be getting on with in an emergency is much less stressful.
6. Buy traveller’s checks in local currency – that would be euro for the Republic of Ireland and pounds sterling for Northern Ireland. It is
easier to cash a traveller’s check in local currency. Hotels will cash your dollar checks but you pay for the privilege. Banks will give the best rates of exchange in rural areas but they may limit how much you can cash on a single day.
7. If you take medication make sure you have enough for your trip. Get a paper copy of your prescription – and if you are as reliant upon wearing corrective lens as I am then make sure you have your glasses’ prescription, too. Or a spare pair of glasses. Have a small first aid kit as well with Band-aids and blister packs just in case you didn’t heed my advice about footwear and comfy socks (as per item 2.)
Happy Trails!
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Bee Smith created Irish Blessings Tours to serve travelers to Ireland who want the unique and inspirational packaged for their group’s desires and needs. Bee seeks the source to manifest your dream Irish vacation according to your budget and time scale. She has a special interest in Fairy folklore, Celtic Spirituality and the Natural Heritage of northwestern Ireland and Northern Ireland. In 2011 Bee became one of the first trained tour guides that act at ambassadors for the UNESCO designated Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark. Send her your dreams for your Ireland vacation package to bee@irishblessingstours.com.
Seven Things to See and Do in Ireland: County Cavan
This introduces a new series of blogs with ideas of things to see and do in Ireland county by county. Rather than doing an alphabetical listing I thought I would start with the county where Tony and I made our home ten years ago, County Cavan. Over the years we have discovered that there are plenty of things to see and do in County Cavan but these are seven favourites.
1) The Lough MacNean Park, Blacklion is an enhanced lay by and lakeside picnic area a kilometre outside the border village along the N16. This is a particularly nice spot of those touring Ireland to schedule a rest stop. There is outdoor sculpture, a play park for children, swans on the lake and wondrous views of a crannog in the middle of Lough MacNean. Despite being a long a main national road there is a peacefulness that even traffic cannot distract.
2) The Cavan Burren is also signposted from Blacklion and offers over 200 acres of woodland walking with megalithic tombs, rock art and other Bronze and Iron Age archaeological remains to view. Part of the Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark this limestone landscape has beautiful ‘glacial erratics’, dry river valleys and much more.
3) Visit the Source of the River Shannon taking the R206 between Blacklion and Glangevlin you will find the turn off for the Shannon Pot, which marks the point where the underground rivers that feed the longest river in Ireland surfaces. The Shannon Pot is a quiet, contemplative spot. Cattle low, a solitary fairy tree can be seen in adjacent fields. If you are lucky enough to visit in June the meadow beside the car park is full of rare and beautiful species, cowslips and wild orchids just to name two of the wildflowers growing in this unspoilt landscape.
4) The All Ireland Fleadh will be held in Cavan this August for ten days between 10th and 20th August. Besides the wonderful traditional music sessions, concerts and workshops there will be many more events offering plenty to see and do in Ireland during this annual event.
5) Belturbet is an excellent base for exploring the Shannon Erne Waterway. This former garrison town with a 600 year history offers canal side walks as well as all the usual town amenities. More importantly it is part of the Shannon Erne Cruise route. You can hire a narrowboat or cruiser and have a leisurely vacation tooling along the Shannon and Erne waterways system that runs from Ballinamore in County Leitrim right up to Enniskillen in Northern Ireland.
6) Everyone finds castles very romantic. How about going to see a castle that even Cromwell could only dent. Set on an island Castle Oughter is set within one of Ireland’s greatest geological wonders, the largest ribbed moraine in the world. This accounts for the crenulated lake landscape that stretches between Belturbet and Killeshandra. Besides seeing romantic castles this area is great for outdoor activities like fishing and canoeing.
7) Travelling from the N87 there is a turn off for the R200 towards Glangevlin. This is a wonder to behold on a clear day. From this direction heading south toward Glangevlin and Dowra you climb up to moorland and cross the spectacular Bellavally Gap. On a bright day you will see spectacular mountain range spread before you. To the west is Slieve Anieran where the ancestral fairy people the Tuatha de Danaan landed when they first arrived in Erin.In the middle is Ben Croy and to the east is Slievenakilla and it’s distinctive sphinx like terminus. The Bellavally Gap was created, according to myth, by the giant green cow that belonged to the Tuatha de Danaan’s smith Govannon. Like Paul Bunyan’s ox Babe this Bo Glas must have been built on majestic lines. You pass Maguire’s Chair, which is said to be the convention seat for the Maguire Clan. There is a brief turn down a lane to Tullydermot Falls, a stunning waterfall that is connected with the mythological flight of Diarmuid and Grainne.
Having not even covered half the county I’ve already run out of space listing all the things to see and do in Ireland. I’m sure this taster will lure you to explore the countryside of west Cavan more thoroughly.
We have megaliths and meadowland, mountains and lakes, castles and canals, dolmens and Druid’s Chairs. There is hiking, fishing, canoeing, natural history safaris and wildlife watches. This is truly a place where the mythic and modern Ireland rub shoulders. West Cavan offers the tourist a wealth of things to see and do in Ireland.
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Bee Smith created Irish Blessings Tours to serve travelers to Ireland who want the unique and inspirational packages for their group’s desires and needs. Bee seeks the source to manifest your dream Irish vacation according to your budget and time scale. She has a special interest in Fairy folklore, Celtic Spirituality and the Natural Heritage of northwestern Ireland and Northern Ireland. In 2011 Bee became one of the first trained tour guides that act at ambassadors for the UNESCO designated Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark. Send her your dreams for your Ireland vacation package to bee@irishblessingstours.com.
The Best Time to Visit Ireland: Summer
There is one big disadvantage to visiting Ireland in the summer. High season sees flights, ferries and accommodation prices topping out. Cost apart, the good news is that there is so much to see and do in Ireland in the summer months. Those who are not on the tightest of budgets will be spoiled for choice for things to do in Ireland and the variety on offer will make it feel like the best time to visit Ireland.
According to the Celtic calendar summer officially starts on 1st May, or Bealtaine. Travellers in May can avail themselves of the costs for ‘shoulder’ season. May is also one of the most breathtakingly beautiful in Ireland for country scenery. The world feels like a flowery bower.
Summer time can be the best time of year to visit Ireland if you are suffocating in a hot and humid city. For those visitors coming from sweltering cities the good news is that you can chill out, both literally and figuratively in the Irish summer. It rarely gets warmer than 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The warmest it is ever likely to get is 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Days can be overcast, showery or sunny. So pack the sort of clothes that would be just as suitable for spring of autumn!
Pack those field glasses to spot the fauna. The summer months can offer the best time to visit Ireland for those on a camera safari. The flora and fauna are out in force and a wondrous biodiversity there is to see.
The long nights at the summer solstice still also inspire St. John’s Eve bonfires on 23rd June. Twilight occurs around 11pm and lingers. Sunrise will be coaxing you awake around 4am. The long nights will see fevered activity during hay making and turf footing, but there is still daylight to have some fun over a pint and a session of traditional music.
Garden lovers will revel in the many open gardens at castles and stately homes such as the Northern Irish National Trust properties at Florencecourt in County Fermanagh. The National Museum of Country Life near Castlebar in County Mayo has excellent exhibits on country living and crafts. It also has wonderful grounds and gardens to explore. If you are keen to try your hand at organic gardening Leitrim’s Organic Centre has many weekend and day courses to inspire you as well as imparting practical expertise.
The summer months also bring out the Irish festival spirit. There are the traditional féis and fleadhs, those music festivals that abound in every nook and corner of this island. You will find literary festivals, traditional music schools and the big event, the All Ireland Fleadh, which is in Cavan in 2012.
But the more adventurous spirits will enjoy the outdoor activities. Drier weather offers opportunities for exploring the caves at Marble Arch Caves. The surfers will be snatching at the waves on beaches between Strandhill in Sligo right up to Bundoran in Donegal. Adventure Centres in lakeland counties like Fermanagh, Cavan and Leitrim offer wind surfing and canoeing. Walking is an ever popular outdoor pursuit with the many long distance paths to choose from whether you want coastal walks or hillside views. Cyclists can avail themselves on the many trails such as the Kingfisher Cycling Trail or the Greenway.
July sees the annual pilgrimages to scale Croagh Patrick in County Mayo when hundreds of Irish people, many coming as a parish in a hired bus, take the challenge to climb the height and hear Mass at the summit. This month is the best time of year if you want to participate in this annual pilgrimage. There are also events at St. Patrick’s Purgatory in Donegal and at Knock, also in County Mayo.
Bilberry Sunday (or the last Sunday in July) also sees many holy wells having the traditional ‘pattern’ of prayers said as people petition for an improvement in their health or circumstances. These ‘patterns’ will be taking place all over Ireland at local holy wells either on the last Sunday in July (as they do at Holywell, Belcoo, Fermanagh) or on August 15th, which is a Marian feastday.
All in all there is very little not to tempt and nurture the body, mind or spirit during the summer months in Ireland. So despite the higher airfares, summertime really can be the best time of year to visit Ireland.
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Bee Smith created Irish Blessings Tours to serve travellers to Ireland who want the unique and inspirational packaged for their group’s desires and needs. Bee seeks the source to manifest your dream Irish vacation according to your budget and time scale. She has a special interest in Fairy folklore, Celtic Spirituality and the Natural Heritage of western Ireland and Northern Ireland. In 2011 Bee became one of the first trained tour guides that act at ambassadors for the UNESCO designated Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark. Send her your dreams for your Ireland vacation package to bee@irishblessingstours.com.
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