Ballygally Castle

The View From our Hotel

Me, My Cousin, and BW Babe Communing with the Past

Our Ancestors

We Heard About This Fine Celtic Cross
 Decided to Visit

Ardboe Cross

Stone Circles

We Visited a Wonderful Field of Stone Circles

The Beetling Mill

Came to See This But Couldn't but....

We Got to See Some Cut Peat

My Cousin is Holding Some Peat

Word of the Day

Tape scrape - The act of clawing and scratching at a roll of scotch tape to pull up the end when the one who used it last let the tape adhere to itself.

BW Babe and I started our morning down in the lobby of our hotel, the only place where we seem to be able to receive reliable Internet. We discovered this last night while dealing with the pay Internet up in our room and failing miserably until well past midnight. Thankfully, the hotel reimbursed us for what we'd paid. However, BW Babe still needed to check her emails and I needed to check to see if I would ever see my luggage again. After about an hour of checking this and that and consulting with the hotel desk person, I got a good feeling that my luggage would be delivered sometime while our merry band of travelers were out touring for the day. I felt confident and hungry.

We were provided with a wonderful breakfast of black sausage, white sausage, some sort of pork sausage, scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, fruit, and soda bread. That's lots of food and wonderful so after breakfast I decided to go out and take a few pictures before the start of our day's travels. The day started out wet and rainy so I decided to travel/tour today with my raincoat, my umbrella, and a positive attitude. I took a few last pictures of our hotel. The view here is wonderful, rain or shine.

After piling into the car, we drove to a cemetery that we knew from T-Square and Ma's genealogical research contained the headstones of our family patriarch. We came armed with pictures that T-Square had taken when he and Ma had visited the site...many years ago. Sadly, someone had vandalized many of the older gravestones in the cemetery and our ancestor's grave stone did not miss the destruction. We were still able to take many pictures of broken bits and pieces and two remaining family gravestones and still felt the presence of those who had come before us, paying our respects to those who came before us.

In keeping with our mood, our next stop was a visit to one of the finest remaining examples of a Celtic cross still in existence in Ireland, Ardboe Cross. The entire site was very educational and inspired us take many art-inspired photographs.

And then onto a much older holy site, the standing stones of Beaghmore Stone Circles. Stonehenge isn't the only example of standing stones. There are many such circles that pre-date Christianity. Amongst the stone circles were cairns where they found the ashes of humans. As we wondered the site, touching this stone and that, crossing the circles, we examined the surrounding area, knowing that the historic story of this area had not been completely told. It is suspected that many other stone circles could be uncovered if the site were expanded. Someday, we may be not only capable of uncovering those stones but understanding what they tell us.

Although our stop to visit the Wellbrook Beetling Mill was thwarted because it was closed for the day, we were able to wander the surrounding grounds and take some nice pictures. Sadly, our next stop was closed as well...The Creggandevesky Court Tomb....however, they had been cutting peat and setting it out to dry in stacked teepee shapes much as my brother Tuscobia used to make for campfire building. So, we ended up learning how peat was cut and dried before it can be burned.

Upon returning to the hotel for the evening, I was driven to near tears when I discovered that my luggage had not been delivered as promised. I grabbed my laptop from the room and tried again to find out what was going on. Total frustration ensued. BW Babe decided that I needed a little liquid cheering up after I'd done what I could. My cousin and my sister surrounded me with female comfort. And then, the guys joined in and we all decided to go out for dinner at a local pub.

The pub food helped improve my mood along with my first, real, pint of Guinness. I've had Guinness in the United States...a couple of times, but...there's no comparison. Guinness here in Ireland is a wondrous thing. It is so smooth and rich. I'll have to see if it tastes equally as nice in Scotland.

After dinner, we decided to walk the mile plus back to our hotel. BW Babe and my cousin headed inside while I went to take one last picture that had tweaked my interest. When I arrived at the hotel, BW Babe and my cousin told me that they had to tell me something. They looked so serious! I'd already lost my luggage. What else could go wrong? I looked over their heads to see a smiling man who works for the hotel, the desk clerk who had been trying to help me find my luggage, come toward me. Dared I hope?

My luggage has been found! BW Babe and my cousin tell me that I wasn't the only one who embraced with a big hug the hotel desk worker when he told me that the lost had been found. I have clothes!

Now...all I have to do is make sure that it stays un-lost. Luggage tags from our travel insurance have now been attached to both pieces of luggage that I'll have to check in tomorrow morning at the airport. We'll be heading to Scotland tomorrow and I'd REALLY hate to have to go through this EVER again.

Random Quote of the Day

Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.

Miriam Beard