Ennis to Glendree

I'm in a farmhouse in Glendree, which translates as the Glen of the Druids, or the Kings, or the Sparkling Glen, and all of those choices seem OK to me, seeing as no one knows for sure. I'm here for a week, my friend Daniel with me for five days. 

I picked up the hire car, intending to drive a short distance on back roads to meet him, but we ended up agreeing he should get off his bus in Quin, which is the ancestral home of the Lynch family (my mother's side). I was a bit nervous on the main roads but managed OK. It tuens out driving on the tiny one-lane roads is harder, because I am terrible at reversing for long distances, but we managed. 

Anyway, Quin is home to Quin Abbey, another ruined Franciscan Friary with a similar story to Ennis Friary. It was built on the site of a ruined Norman castle in the early 15th century, got wrecked by Cromwell in the 17th century and slowly feel into disuse. There's an new Church of Ireland building literally right next door. The graveyard was full of familiar names, including numerous Lynches, likely the graves of relatives, as we know our lot came from round here. 

After touring that for a bit we visited a restored castle with a recreated crannog (a Gaelic roundhouse built on an artificial island with a stone walled enclosure and wooden palisades), a recreated ring fort (much the same, only not in an artificial island), and, the recreated leather-hulled boat used by adventurer Tim Severin to prove that St Brendan the Navigator could have (and probably did) find American shores about 1000 years before Columbus. There were also boar, proper ones, which were behind an electrified barbed wire fence, and I was glad because those things look scary up close. 

We've spent the last four hours chilling out at the farmhouse, unpacking, and using the washing machine. It's wonderfully quiet and the scenery is great. Tomorrow, the festival starts, in the evening. I think we will spend the day exploring nearby national parks and boggy moorlands - there are plenty around to choose from. 

Since arriving in this part of Ireland I have seen many people who look achingly familiar, and also had people come up to me and assume I was local. I don't just look Irish - I apparently look Clare Irish. One woman couldn't believe I wasn't from here. She even asked me to fake an Irish accent for her. She gave me 7 out of 10. More work to do...

Pics in a bit...