We're back!
We've just had a rather marvellous week long holiday in Co Sligo, Eire. I took loads of photos, the following is just a small (but still numerous!) sample.
The cottage we were sharing with my brother-in-law had its own private path...
... to the beach.
And what a beach! Often we had it to ourselves, there were never more than about 10 other people on it. Pebbles (some really weird ones!) at the top, then sand, rockpools, waves, headlands, distant hills, almost perfect! (the only downside being it wasn't safe to swim in)
As the beach was so close, it was lovely just to be able to wander down whenever! Each visit was different depending on the weather, tide & company.
On my own in the evening I liked to go for a long walk...
...watch the waves and collect pebbles and shells.
With the children we guddled about in the sand and rockpools (and collected pebbles and shells!)
We only had space to take one bike so took it in turns for bike rides. I had first go on our first morning before breakfast
A nice little gateway but I didn't stop to find where it led.
Can you see the rainbow on the left of the picture?
Yes, it did rain. Fortunately I was able to shelter under a cliff down by a little harbour. The weather was very variable - when it did rain it wasn't usually for long.
I spotted this interesting door on the way back up from the harbour.
Next to it was a pile of chains.
By the time I was heading back to the cottage the sun had returned.
The closest white building is our cottage. Back for breakfast!
Around the cottage were several interesting outbuildings.
This one in particular attracted my attention...
...as you can tell...
...really!
Our neighbours.
My sister-in-law and her family were staying just a couple of miles away.We both went for a few cycles rides together
Here is the beach at Portavade we visited on our first run.
Two friendly donkeys that we passed by.
One of many abandoned cottages, this one still in reasonable condition. The old cottages have generally been replaced by much newer but still very nice houses.
This was the beach beside my sister-in-law's cottage (they've been coming here on holiday for 12 years!).
Another view of "her" beach.
I liked that so many of the roads just led straight down to the sea...
At the bottom of this road...
...lay the blowholes, but they weren't blowing whilst I was there!
Just to prove I did take my bike!
A view on the way back up.
Easkey was a lovely local village. We went to a trad music session at one of the pubs there one evening (handy having babysitting cousins also on holiday!), it was an excellent night but I neglected to take my camera. We did return a later day for another visit.
Beautiful poppies near the river.
A's favourite section of the pot shop mosaic, she especially liked the goblet.
N liked it too. So did I, I spotted a pot in the window I liked but sadly the shop was closed.
We visited the castle and pier, I liked this ring in the wall best there!
We all spent a lot of our time at Dunmoran Strand which was safe for swimming.
It's yet another lovely beach.
This is the view from the dunes above the beach.
The gang having a sausage sizzle in the dunes.
A close up of the yellow wildflowers in the dunes. I had to look up a book to find out what the flowers were called, turns out it's ragwort. Further research on the internet shows it's not a popular wildflower to the extent that
"people are being made to panic and worry unecessarily", so there you go!
Moths! I looked them up too and think they're a type of burnet moth, probably
this one.On the last day of our holiday we had the best weather...
...we liked to go bodyboarding.
A enjoying herself.
An aerial view of her Makka Pakka stone piles.
And on the last evening we finally got a ...
...Sunset!
