HOLIDAYS in IRELAND

Our second day took us Northwards into County Mayo and the borders of Connemara.

 Our first visit today was to the town of Cong, the small town made famous in the movie "The Quiet Man", which starred John Wayne and the beautiful Maureen O'Hara. Cong is also famous for the magnificent Ashford Castle, once a Norman stronghold, and today a five star hotel, and one of the world's most beautiful hotels.The Castle's location, at the top of Lough Corrib, the Republic's largest lake, is superb, and the wonderful grounds, with it's golf course, wonderful woods where one can shoot, or take part in falconry, or fishing on the lake for trout or salmon.
Here in this picture we have the ladies, Hilary on the left and Donna on the right, with the castle, down by the lakeside in the background.

 A lovely picture of Cullen's cottage restaurant, in the grounds of Ashford castle.

 Cong is also renowned for being one of the earliest Christian monastic settlements in Ireland, and dates back to the time of St Patrick himself. Here we have the two ladies, posing inside one of the ruined old churches in this place.This settlement was destroyed by Cromwell, just like many more of the many wonderful abbeys and churches in Ireland.

 Here we have the two ladies, posing with the bronze of John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, in the center of the village of Cong.

 Later, we moved on to another wonderful abbey at Ballintubber. This is a restored  Abbey, dating back to the twelve hundreds, and well worth a visit. It is very popular for weddings, and was chosen by Pierce Brosnan, AKA James Bond, and his wife as their location for their wedding, and their reception was held at Ashford Castle.

 Hilary and Donna, seated by the cloisters in the old abbey.

 A view of the interior of this beautiful abbey.

The two ladies, pictured together beside the information board, with the abbey in the background.

 Our final destination today was the Shrine at Knock in County Mayo, where Our Lady appeared back in 1879.

 The Basilica at Knock, which was built for the visit of Pope John 11 Paul in 1979. He was the first Pope to visit Knock, and the second was Pope Francis, who came here in 2018. It is a wonderful place to visit and has many miraculous cures attributed to it.
This was indeed another special day, ending back in Kinvara for the night, where they will actually be spending two nights. Kinvara is a beautiful, and very popular town, situated on the southern shore of Galway Bay.It is renowned for its fine restaurants, great old style pubs, and traditional music.
Tomorrow we head for Clonmacnoise, one of the oldest monastic settlements, and one of the most important, and renowned for its magnificent Celtic crosses.