Ireland, Part 3

Saturday night we stayed in the GREAT town of Westport. Westport was by far one of out favorite towns. Westport is an extremely charming town in the county of Mayo.

Below is the river Carrowbeg. In the 18th century the redirected this river to insure that everyone in town had a great view.

Being Saturday night we were on the search for some entertainment. Our bed and breakfast hostess suggested M.J. Hoban.

This ended up being a GREAT suggestion. At M.J. Hoban we heard the most amazing Irish music set ever. We heard great music, singing, limericks, jokes, and dancing. We walked into the bar thinking that we were just going to stay for a few pints but we ended up helping to close the pub down. Here are some pictures of our night.

The locals were very friendly. I was even pulled into one of the stories. There was a man named Seamus who was resiting a limerick about the mountain of Croagh Patrick. Croagh Partick is Ireland's holly mountain on which St. Patrick is said to have spend the 40 days of lent in 441. The story was that God spoke to him and told him that is he hiked Croagh Partick that he would find a new wife and...I was the new wife.

On Saturday morning we headed to Achill Island. Achill is a beautiful island full of great beaches.

We had a nice picnic at Keem beach. Keem is the beach at the end of Achill island.

After lunch we headed to our Castle Mannor house, Belleek Castle. Jim had arranged that we stay at Belleek Castle for our anniversary.

The owner of Belleek castle had found a Spanish Armada ship and deconstructed it and used the wood inside the castle. It was amazing especially the bar...

The one weird thing was about Belleek was that we were the only guests...a bit creepy...but nice. Our hostess Jackie was so nice and a constant source of entertainment. She would always include us in her guests and her activities.

On Monday, our anniversary, we went for a drive where we saw the following...

...there are Rogers in Ireland, but we knew that.

Monday night we had an amazing dinner at the castle where we sat flaming stake on a sward. Jim said it was the best piece of stake he has ever had.

Another special thing about Belleek is that Jim was able to pour is first Guinness...he might have a new career on his hands.

We had a great anniversary and I would most definitely go back to Belleek.

I will post more soon.