Twinned towns

Today we had a jolly good lie in. Actually JJ did. I was up early as usual and went for my morning walk up to Doneraile Park. I always like a walk first thing, then I feel like I’ve accomplished some sort of exercise.

Doneraile Park is around 166 hectares of parkland just down the road from Bridget’s place and a wonderful place to walk. It is a mixture of open land and heavy woods with deer wandering around enclosed areas. It has an all weather path (more or less) that allows walking whatever the weather.

The park was originally owned by the Ledger family and their house (Doneraile Court) is situated in the perfect spot for glorious views down a valley, across a river and up the opposite hill.

The house isn’t presently open to the public but is being restored and will be some time in the future.

The rather amazing Elizabeth St Ledger lived there. She holds the dubious honour of being the only Irish woman to become a Freemason. According to Auntie Pat, Elizabeth managed to hide in a room at the lodge to spy on the activities. Being discovered, the only thing the masons could do (apart from kill her) was to initiate her into the secrets of the masons. So, in 1712, she was made a Freemason.

There’s a nice piece about the St Ledger family here. [2023 UPDATE: THE LINK NO LONGER WORKS. THERE IS A WIKIPEDIA ENTRY HERE.]

The park was largely designed in the Capability Brown style with nature bent to the designer’s will. It is very similar to Petworth Park (which was designed by Brown) and is pretty close to perfect.

Back at the house, we sat around for bit so JJ could catch up on the latest Olympic news. Eventually we borrowed Bridget’s car to drive into Lismore which is just across the border in County Waterford. JJ has a lot of connections and happy memories with Lismore in New South Wales (she tries to get to the New Years bash every year) so it’s only natural we’d visit.

Just before you enter Lismore, a very wide bridge allows parking in order for the snap happy tourist to take hundreds of photos of the glorious Lismore Castle which sits the other side of and dominates, the river. We also took the opportunity to snap this brilliant sign.

Bridget had recommended the Summerhouse cafe so we pootled through the town until we found a parking spot outside the Catholic church and walked back to it. And Bridget was right. It is a lovely cafe with great food, service and some lovely hand made craftwork. I would suggest that anyone visiting Lismore would be mad to miss it.

Having filled ourselves on cake, toastie and coffee, we wander down to check out the castle gardens. The castle is owned and still occupied and the present owners (Lord and Lady Burlington) aren’t that keen on having plebs wander their halls but they’re quite happy for us to look at their lovely gardens. So we headed for what looked like the main entrance.

A long while later, having read the sign that forbade entrance and wandered down to the bridge and back, we discovered the actual entrance in the gatehouse, paid our money and wandered around the glorious top garden.

The top garden was designed by Richard Boyle in 1605 and, apart from various changes of owner taste in plantings, remains largely the same. The lower garden is younger, having been designed in the 19th century. Apparently Edmund Spencer may have written the Faerie Queen in the stately Yew Avenue.

Both gardens together comprise about seven acres and, when it’s not raining, are a delight to wander around. JJ was particularly enthusiastic about the kitchen garden and the abundance of delicious looking veg.

Apart from all the lovely greenery and flowers, there is also an art gallery which, while a lovely space, is presently holding an exhibition of sculptures that left us both somewhat cold. I’m not that keen on the blob style and it appears that neither is JJ.

Having wandered sufficiently around, we headed up to the previously invisible though highly obvious Heritage Centre where we met and had a long chat with an Italian chap who is living in Lismore, studying English. When I told him how much I loved Italy, he waxed lyrical about his home town of Viterbo.

Having thoroughly enjoyed our Lismore visit, we set off back to Doneraile, warily watching a huge black and evil cloud heading towards us. When it decided to fall on us, we were surrounded by a torrent of water, making the flat roads resemble rivers (deep enough for fish) and the hilly ones, rapids worthy of Olympic kayaking. We thanked Thor for smiling on us during our brief Lismore visit.

Dinner was Bridget’s delicious vege lasagne. Afterwards we thought about wandering down to the pub for another night of open mic shenanigans but we were just too tired. We watched some Olympics then went to bed instead.