Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Sunshine and clear skies greeted us this morning.  After our scones and tea and coffee we were off to do a quick errand in Bantry and then continue on through town for an excursion/adventure to Gougane Barra.

There was a delivery of money to the bank in Bantry, can't you tell:

We wanted to see the forests.  We actually retraced our drive to Glengarriff and then instead of turning left to go down to Castletownbere, as we did on Monday, we turned right and proceeded uphill.

What awaited us in Gougane Barra Forest Park was beyond description, and totally unexpected.  The photos will follow but I must tell you - this was a place of such beauty and stillness, with remains of habitation from the sixth century - that one could imagine what the occupants experienced when walking the grounds in the year 500whatever.

We traversed the narrow road through Keakill with wonderful pastoral scenes.  We were slowly climbing up into the foothills.  The woods could be seen along the mountainsides.  There were streams flowing alongside the roadway, and the ruins of another castle.

Get ready, here it comes . . . . look at this . . . . and here come the swans . . . . .

The stone building in the background is a small church.

The holy well of Saint Finbarr.

Stations of the Cross . . . . 

After a long visit, Kevin and I drove on to the forest park.

The drive out of the forest park was a gradual climb.

Then the climb became steeper and my ears told me we were pretty far above sea level.  Then we entered Pass Keimanneigh, a notch cut out through the mountains, and climbed to 1,000 feet above sea level before leveling off and descending.

A stone fence of interest to me.

It was a glorious day!