AFTER A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP IN a comfortable bed, we got up about 8 o’clock and went for a full Welsh breakfast (which turned out to be very tasty and much the same as a full English breakfast, except they forgot Margaret’s black pudding!). Afterwards, we repacked our suitcases into the car and left for Anglesey a little after 9 a.m.
Our ferry was due to leave Holyhead (a little over half an hour away) at midday; we had to be
there by 10:30; so we had time to go back to Llanfair PG for souvenirs. We were attracted to the large shop in the station carpark, if only by its name: James Pringleweavers; or so it seemed to say on the roadside sandwich board. But really, it’s James Pringle Weavers; one of a chain of shops, originating in Scotland, which specialises in woollen-wear, local crafts, and souvenir tat … Which was exactly what we were after; and our “Wales” fridge magnet, a colourful cartoony creation quite unlike any other we’ve ever bought, featuring some “traditional Welsh” characters standing on the Llanfair PG railway platform, was the first of this holiday …
Our ferry was the Jonathan Swift, run by Irish Ferries, and named after the great 17th-Century Anglo-Irish satirist. It was a comfortable fast ferry which easily handled the high Irish Sea, though we still needed our sea legs mid-crossing.
From the ferry shop, Don bought an AA Road Atlas of Ireland and an Irish newspaper. The lead story concerned severe flooding in precisely that part of Ireland we were heading for. The worst affected towns were Mallow in County Cork and (for the first known time) Newcastle West in Limerick. This caused us some anxiety; not only were we concerned for the people and businesses affected, but Newcastle West lay directly on our route to Killarney. A fortunate thing from our viewpoint was that there’d been no flooding in neighbouring County Kerry, which is where Killarney lies.
Otherwise, the crossing was uneventful, and despite taking the inevitable wrong turn a little after rolling off the ferry, we left Dublin about 2 p.m. and headed south-west on the M7, N7, N21, N22, and N23 (“N”-class roads being Ireland’s equivalent of England’s “A”-class roads). It was a 300 km trip (we were no longer working in miles!) and took about four and a half hours. It would have been less, but the traffic slowed to a near-standstill as we approached Rathkeale, and stayed slow through Newcastle West. We think it was simply the pressure of large amounts of weekend holiday traffic on small-town roads, rather than an effect of the flooding.
The weather was cloudy but dry, and there were many fine views of Irish countryside, but with such a long journey we didn’t stop for photos; there’d be opportunity over the next week. (But Margaret did manage to snap a fine view of the castle at Adare as we crossed the bridge over the River Maigue.)
We got to Killarney (“Hill of the Sloes”) about 6:30, and followed the Google directions that led us off the N23 and onto Aghadoe Rd, to the timeshare resort called (quite without any historical justification) “Old Killarney Village” (“opened in April 1999”!).
Our cottage was #1, closest to the entrance, and was called “Aghadoe Cottage,” Aghadoe (Achadh dá Eo, “Field of the Two Yews”—we had a lot of fun as time passed, wrestling with Irish pronunciation) being the local community, lying along the northern shore of Lough Leane. The resort features modern-built “traditional Irish cottages”, with thick walls (and double glazing for
the winters!) and thatched roofs. There was also a “village pub,” the “Old Killarney Inn”: of the same vintage, naturally, as the rest of the “village”!
The cottage was roomy and comfortable—three double bedrooms, one with en-suite, separate bathroom, lounge, kitchen, laundry … We unpacked, then drove down into Killarney, where we drove round the town centre, and bought supplies at the mini-supermarket attached to a petrol station, and a Chinese meal at the adjoining takeaway. We got back to Aghadoe Cottage about 7:30-ish, sat ourselves comfortably with Chinese food at hand, and watched Irish TV …
Our ferry was due to leave Holyhead (a little over half an hour away) at midday; we had to be
there by 10:30; so we had time to go back to Llanfair PG for souvenirs. We were attracted to the large shop in the station carpark, if only by its name: James Pringleweavers; or so it seemed to say on the roadside sandwich board. But really, it’s James Pringle Weavers; one of a chain of shops, originating in Scotland, which specialises in woollen-wear, local crafts, and souvenir tat … Which was exactly what we were after; and our “Wales” fridge magnet, a colourful cartoony creation quite unlike any other we’ve ever bought, featuring some “traditional Welsh” characters standing on the Llanfair PG railway platform, was the first of this holiday …
Our ferry was the Jonathan Swift, run by Irish Ferries, and named after the great 17th-Century Anglo-Irish satirist. It was a comfortable fast ferry which easily handled the high Irish Sea, though we still needed our sea legs mid-crossing.From the ferry shop, Don bought an AA Road Atlas of Ireland and an Irish newspaper. The lead story concerned severe flooding in precisely that part of Ireland we were heading for. The worst affected towns were Mallow in County Cork and (for the first known time) Newcastle West in Limerick. This caused us some anxiety; not only were we concerned for the people and businesses affected, but Newcastle West lay directly on our route to Killarney. A fortunate thing from our viewpoint was that there’d been no flooding in neighbouring County Kerry, which is where Killarney lies.
Otherwise, the crossing was uneventful, and despite taking the inevitable wrong turn a little after rolling off the ferry, we left Dublin about 2 p.m. and headed south-west on the M7, N7, N21, N22, and N23 (“N”-class roads being Ireland’s equivalent of England’s “A”-class roads). It was a 300 km trip (we were no longer working in miles!) and took about four and a half hours. It would have been less, but the traffic slowed to a near-standstill as we approached Rathkeale, and stayed slow through Newcastle West. We think it was simply the pressure of large amounts of weekend holiday traffic on small-town roads, rather than an effect of the flooding.
The weather was cloudy but dry, and there were many fine views of Irish countryside, but with such a long journey we didn’t stop for photos; there’d be opportunity over the next week. (But Margaret did manage to snap a fine view of the castle at Adare as we crossed the bridge over the River Maigue.)We got to Killarney (“Hill of the Sloes”) about 6:30, and followed the Google directions that led us off the N23 and onto Aghadoe Rd, to the timeshare resort called (quite without any historical justification) “Old Killarney Village” (“opened in April 1999”!).
Our cottage was #1, closest to the entrance, and was called “Aghadoe Cottage,” Aghadoe (Achadh dá Eo, “Field of the Two Yews”—we had a lot of fun as time passed, wrestling with Irish pronunciation) being the local community, lying along the northern shore of Lough Leane. The resort features modern-built “traditional Irish cottages”, with thick walls (and double glazing for
the winters!) and thatched roofs. There was also a “village pub,” the “Old Killarney Inn”: of the same vintage, naturally, as the rest of the “village”!The cottage was roomy and comfortable—three double bedrooms, one with en-suite, separate bathroom, lounge, kitchen, laundry … We unpacked, then drove down into Killarney, where we drove round the town centre, and bought supplies at the mini-supermarket attached to a petrol station, and a Chinese meal at the adjoining takeaway. We got back to Aghadoe Cottage about 7:30-ish, sat ourselves comfortably with Chinese food at hand, and watched Irish TV …
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