Finale

We had planned a trip to the Aran Islands, weather permitting, and our last day in Galway promised more of the beautiful weather we’d had most of the trip, but unfortunately too many nights of not enough sleep and two plane rides left one of my friends with the flu, so she wasn’t up to the journey. Instead, the other gal and I booked a ride on the Corrib Princess – a purpose built sightseeing boat that runs from the dock behind the Town Hall Theatre, up the river Corrib, into Lake Corrib and back.

Corrib Princess

How the other half live on the River Corrib

The river journey was something I had never done before, and it turned out to be a really enjoyable outing. On one side of the river there is the Glenlo Abbey Hotel and Golf Club, along with stately homes. On the other side, castle lovers like me will find two castles – Terryland and Menlo. Tere’s also a series of mounds that look like they could be ancient burial cairns or fairy mounds.,

Terryland Castle

Menlo Castle

Menlo Castle – I dreamed a dream…

What appears to be a cairn or fairy mound

There isn’t much left of Terryland, but just looking at Menlo Castle conjures up dreams of restoration. However, even if one could afford to buy the place, getting council permission to renovate is about as likely as winning Euromillions twice in a row. For some reasons I can, but most I cannot understand, people prefer to let a historic building sit in ruin and fall to dust rather than have it restored. Another one of my pipe dream bubbles burst before it could be fully inflated.

Always on the lookout for swans, it seemed as if there was a swan convention in town with dozens of them loitering in the Claddagh. Maybe they were coming to enjoy the spoils from the Galway Oyster Festival, perched along the river between the Spanish Arch and Jury’s hotel.  There were dozens more up where the river met the lake when we were on the boat tour and the guide said there could be upwards of 2,000 swans in that area at any one time. Castles and swans – my kind of sightseeing.

Swan convention

A latecomer family to the convention

Back to Dublin we went, and before I bid my dear friends slán go foill, having sampled one of Ireland’s famous brews early in the trip, I made sure they had their certificates from the other popular Irish beverage – Jameson Whiskey before they returned home.

Certified!

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