Castle Coole

Castle Coole - about an hour from Aughnacloy - has always had a special place in my mom's heart and we looked forward to visiting there again, this time with the girls on the Monday of our second week in Ireland. Here's the family connection...

In the 1950s, the 7th Earl of Belmore sold the castle to the National Trust but still kept private apartments there for his family (and they continue to reside there to this day). The National Trust hired my great aunt and uncle, the Wrights, as caretakers for the castle and they lived there for a number of years. During that time, my mom (and various other cousins and family members) would go stay at Castle Coole on vacation. My mom remembers staying in the rooms on the third floor that would previously have been used by the children, governesses and nannies of the castle (but which were not being used in that way any longer).

At the family barbecue the day before, my mom's cousin Jack told me of a time when he and his cousins were staying at Castle Coole and they were all in one large bedroom in the basement, with sleeping areas separated by large screens. The snores from one of the family members was so loud that the boys could not sleep, killing themselves laughing. Apparently that was an event that was good for massive teasing for a long time.

My aunt and uncle lived in the basement apartments, which are HUGE, and despite being called the basement many of the rooms had full size windows which let light in from the servants passages that surrounded the castle. Here are some of the basement rooms that the castle has set up for tourists ...


The dining room where the help would eat. This was a great place for servants - the head cook even had a 2 room apartment over the kitchen.



Photos all by Kim - this is one of my favourites.

The large windows shown in the basement rooms above look out on these ingenious passageways... ingenious for the time, though Brya thought it was all rather unfair...

... these "outdoor" passageways completely encircle the castle - underground! The light comes through the grating above that sits flush in the ground. This allowed servants and workers to get around the castle quickly without being seen (and, thus, the issue that Bryanna did not like). Today though, I just find it fascinating.

Just inside the castle walls off this passageway is a room they have set up as the scullery - the washing up and food prep room. They have it organized for kids to have fun in - as ours did...



Our little scullery maids.

Through a wide arch in the passageway around the castle, runs the huge tunnel leading from the castle down the hill to the outbuildings. The tunnel is how many of the servants who lived in rooms in the outbuildings made their way to the castle and it is also where coal, wood and other supplies would have been stored. Journal entries by previous servants reveal  that Castle Coole was a great place to work, with food and room and a small salary provided, but that it was cold! Keeping the lanterns and fireplaces filled and lit was a full time job for many of them.

Lianne and Kim in the tunnel.
There is an electric light in the ceiling of the tunnel behind us, but before electricity the only light in this long underground tunnel came from wells in the roof.



Where the tunnel comes out, leading to the outbuildings.



The girls dashing across the square within the outbuildings.
Horses and carriages would have come in here and servants would have had rooms on the upper floor.

After exploring wherever we could get to, I picked up a book about Castle Coole in the gift shop as photos could not be taken in the beautiful rooms throughout the building. On our way home later in the day, I was leafing through it and stopped in shock as a passage in the introduction caught my eye. Written by the current Earl who was reminiscing about his boyhood at the castle in the 50s, he said this...

The national trust's caretaker originally lived in part of the basement, and forays were often made down to Mr. and Mrs. Wright's kitchen around teatime where large portions of fruit cake were liberally handed out...Tourism had not reached Fermanagh in the same way it had reached Kerry, and few people actually came to marvel at Wyatt's masterpiece, so Mr. Wright had time to read, mostly his own books on the Wild West, in the Library in front of an electric fire.

How glorious and exciting and gratifying to my mom and her cousins to hear of their relations, Ben and Caroline Wright, still remembered so warmly after all these years by the Earl.

Aughnacloy and family

Of course, the main reason the Thompson clan went to Ireland was for the girls to see where Nanny was born, grew up and to meet their Irish family!

Some of the branches of the Hamilton family!

But to backtrack just a bit, when we left Cushendun last Saturday we travelled along the coast again, stopping to say a fond farewell to the wonderful glens of Antrim...



When we reached the outskirts of Belfast, we stopped at Carrickfergus Castle so the girls could see a castle fully restored instead of the ruins (as lovely as they are) that we had seen before. Of course, the trio were most interested in those things that kids like...

 The latrine chutes visible on the outer walls, the replica of one of the ENORMOUS dogs (now extinct apparently) that used to live at the castle and fight alongside the soldiers....

   

...and playing with the huge chess game on the top floor of the castle.

After a quick lunch at a pub beside the castle we followed our GPS lady to Ebor Drive - this is the street where mom lived until she moved to Canada at age 12. The row houses are still there, though looking more tired than when the Hamiltons and their various relatives and friends resided there.
 

Mom in front of 33 Ebor Drive.

 

Talking about what has changed in the 60+ years since the Hamiltons lived here.



The back lane that ran between the rowhouses.



Mom and dad strolling along.

Then we left Belfast and the coast and moved inland to Aughnacloy in county Tyrone. Outside this village is Glack, the family farm where my grandfather's family lived (now sold and belonging to others) and my mom was born. Though my grandfather moved his family to Belfast for work (and because my grandmother liked it there), they returned every summer and my mom has many memories of school vacations spent at Glack (more on that in a later post).

Growing up, the name Aughnacloy always seemed magical to me - some mysterious irish place full of wonder and mystery. When I visited there 13 years ago with my parents and sister, the village lived up to my vision in many ways - I felt comforted to return this summer and see it looking so much the same.

As an aside - on the last day in Cushendun on the beach, the wind blew some grains of sand into my camera lens and it stopped functionning. All photos from this post on are from Kim's camera, with an occasional one from Bryanna's. As such, I don't have some of the shots I might otherwise have taken.  Thanks goodness for Kim's super camera and artist's eye - apologies to her if some shots would have been edited prior to posting! Also, few shots of Kim now as she is usually taking the photos!

On Aughnacloy's main street.

We arrived in Aughnacloy on Saturday evening in time to settle in to our B&B and grab dinner in town. The next day we took it easy (simple to do since it was Sunday and not much was open!) and then headed to my mother's cousin's home just around the corner for a BBQ. Our irish cousins had set a feast fit for a king and it was wonderful to hear the irish lilts in the voices and to see mom's smile as she enjoyed being with her family again.   

Cousin Jack and Mom

 

The men's group. Edward, dad, Jack, Graham.




Cousin Jack, the kids, and Bart the donkey.

 

Mom, Lynn, Margaret (her house) and the spread!

 

Wendy and Lianne - same generation cousins.

 

The youngest generation of cousins.



Mom, Margaret and Connie - cousins and friends.

The photo at the top shows all who were at the BBQ on Sunday. More on the family and the farm still to come.

Our Cushendun Home

We said farewell to our Cushendun home last Saturday and headed back down the coast to Aughnacloy. But for the friends out there who love to know all the details, here are some shots of the inside of our seaside home and farewell shots on the seawall...*sigh*



The living room overlooking Cushendun bay, the village and the sea.



 The kitchen and dining side of the room.



  The girls' bedroom on the main level (K&D's room was on that level too) and the stairs to the next. I took the stair shot looking down but the stairs went up to the bedroom level.  

 The yellow room upstairs (with ensuite) was mine and the purple room was mom and dad's.

 

The view from the master suite - dad loved his coffee out on the balcony.

 

Our family (minus D unfortunately who had already left).

The Cushendun week was really all that a family vacation should be. A beautiful (exquisite really) location, lovely home, freedom for the children, history and hiking and family. Of course nothing can be absolutely perfect - there were a few spats among the cousins but those blew over quickly and some tense moments related to driving and navigating our way around unfamiliar roads (oh those city roundabouts!) vanished once we arrived at the destination.

From my vantage point back in Canada, faced with laundry and cooking and responsibility, I feel that I could easily return to Cushendun and not miss this "real" world at all. I cannot wait to return...

Posts on our Augnacloy week to follow!

Derry, sister jaunt, and Cushendun

We are leaving Ireland tomorrow (*sigh*) and I am still trying to catch up on blogging! At our final B&B we have internet in our rooms with a fantastic signal - figures!

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A week ago today we headed off for a day in Derry. Strangely enough, 13 years ago when we were visiting the same city I had taken a picture of my parents in front of one of the gates to the city (the only completely walled city left in Ireland). My friend Anne Marie saw that photo and thought she recognized the place - hey! she said, my cousin has a pub right through that gate. So we thought it would be fun to visit that very pub on our trip this time!

Here is dad in front of the gate!



 And here is Anne Marie's cousin's pub!

 It must have been hilarious to see our group of eight troop in, climb the stairs to the second level and plop ourselves down at all the tables, prepared to have a nice lunch after our long drive. Then Gemma came upstairs and kindly told us they only serve drinks - no food. hee hee  We chatted, explained who we are, she gave us some direction to another place to eat and we were on our way again.

After we did find a bite to eat, we took a tour of Derry's walls (and had a bit of political commentary thrown in to the mix). Strolling along, we watched another dark tower of clouds move in over us and add a little rain to the atmosphere. Still an interesting excursion for everyone.

Walking the walls of Doire.

The Wee Church of Derry (Church of Ireland).

Miz C on the old walls.

The next day, Damian was flying to London and then home (a week before the rest of us). Kim and I drove him down the coast to the Belafast airport. The coastal route was so gorgeous that after saying a sad good bye to D we decided to return to Cushendun that way, passing through all the sea villages that border the glens of Antrim. In the village of Glenarm we happened upon signs pointing us to Glenarm Castle's walled gardens and tearoom. We stopped there and were delighted we did - it was a definite highlight of our week and allowed for some great sister time...

I love these gardens.

Viewing the gardens from the top of "the mount."



At the top of the mount....an interesting hill in the middle of the manicured gardens - left wild but with a mown pathway circling to the top.



Yum - our delicious tea. Kim had broccoli soup fresh from the castle's vegetable garden.

 

What are these? There were huge bushes full of these blossoms with a delicious, sweet scent but we could not find a sign telling us their name.

When we returned to Cushendun, we found mom and dad and the girls had had a nice relaxing day too and also been out to tea. The weather was back to irish sunshine and warmth again so we found the girls at the village playground and headed to the beach to enjoy some last moments in our favourite place.



Beside the playground in Cushendun.

Check out this video clip of Cass on the fun playground euipment...



Being silly on the beach.

 

Playing with friend, Scottie.

Relaxed and rejuvenated.

  The next day would see us depart for Aughnacloy and our mother and nanny's family!