Journeying through a Hidden Ireland of picturesque landscapes & fascinating histories

 

Journeying through a Hidden Ireland of picturesque landscapes & fascinating histories

In an effort to introduce many of my university colleagues at DSI/Insight and my fellow volunteers at the Tuatha of Terryland Forest Park who may not be familiar with the rich heritage of Ireland, I organised for their benefit a series of summer excursions to parts of rural Galway that are ‘off the beaten track’. That is, destinations that are not on popular tourist trails.

Yet they are undoubtedly fascinating and beautiful places in my humble estimation.

 

The first excursion was on Saturday July 20th.

 

1. Our first stop was to the lovely wooded hill of Knockma, supposedly the birthplace of the legendary Queen Maeve of Connacht and where there are many pretty wooden sculptures of animals and mythological figures. Actually it was a lot busier than I expected with locals and people from nearby Tuam enjoying its walking hill trails.

 

2. Then it was onto Monivea Woods where we visited the neo-Gothic castle-like mausoleum with its ornate marble Christian chapel and eerie crypt. It was completed in 1900 to serve as the final resting place of the British diplomat Robert Percy Ffrench within the demesne of his Irish landed estate by his daughter Kathleen de Kindiakoff with monies provided from her mother's aristocratic family estates along the River Volga in Tsarist Russia.

 

3. From there we went to the nearby Eddie Ned’s pub for lunch. A fine hostelry, it is located in the in the picturesque little village of Monivea that still bears the characteristics of its linen industry and colonial plantation past.

 

4. Our next stop was to the historical Castle Ellen, the home of the amazing 89+ year old Michael Keaney who happily showed us around his historical mansion and secret gardens which were built in 1820. This historical house was the birthplace of Isabella Lambert, the mother of arch-Unionist Edward Carson, a member of the British Imperial war cabinet in World War 1 and one of the founders of Northern Ireland which led to the partition of Ireland in 1921.

 

5. Finally we visited the woods and walked the trails beside Woodlawn House (which sadly is not now publicly accessible). Originally built in the 1760s with its 26 bedrooms, walled garden, courtyard, gatehouse, gardener's house and artificial lake, it was the home of Baron (Lord) Ashdown and was one of the finest houses of the landed nobility during the British colonial period.