Limerick, Roscommom, Boyle, Dowra, and Enniskillen- day 1

 David, our friend Ellen Shaughnessy, and I started out on our 4 day trip North.  If you find Limerick on the map and then split the country in the middle to the North to Londonderry/Derry in Northern Ireland, come around to the East to Belfast,  South to Dubln, and back to the Southwest to Limerick, that is our trip! Amere 510 miles of driving. This can not be done in hours because of the small roads.

Here is Ellen who came for 9 days to visit.

 Our first stop was Athlone.  Ellen needs her coffee ..we did the "toilet".

 This we think is the Fairy circle. It is a group of trees that are in a circle that the local won't cut if they feel the fairies are living there. The Fairy circles can be stones, mushrooms, or grasses.  It is said you don't want to look for them.  They are a mystery and Folklare.

Kings house from the front in Boyle.  Ellen's ancesters are from Ireland and we went to see the places  were they lived.
So our first stop for her was Boyle. Population 1600. This little town is at the bottom of the Curlew Mts. Here below are pictures of the Abby that was completed in 1220.

 The Glass is to preserve the Romanesque and Gothic style arches seen here through the glass.

Below is the back of Kings House. The king families became the largest landowning family on Ireland.The town of Boyle grew around their estate.

 We passed through this arch to go to the Lough Key Forest Park  The 350 hectare park which was once part of the Rockingham estate owned by the King family from the 17th century until 1957.

 Out buildings ruins on the Park.

 Here in town was this wreath on the door.  This something we would not see here at home. It reads...

With Deepest Sympathy
Name
Dies October 29th 2013
Reposing  (name of funeral home)
Removal arriving St Joseph Church 6 pm
Mass of Christian Burial Friday 1pm
Internmant afterwards ( name of cemetary)
 --House Private--
name of funeral home.

 Here we are arriving at Dawra. A very small town so you can turn your sheep around in the road!

 These poor sheep were being tossed around as this driver was going so fast we couldn't keep up to take a better picture.

We are now in Enniskillen which is a bigger town. Populaion 13,600.The town has a history of trouble. On November 11,1987 an IRA bomb killed 11 people during a war memorial service.  Today the town is peaceful and quite lovely.  It hosted the G-8 economic conference this fall.

Here is our room at the B& B. We were told to "collect your bits and pieces and come around"  I love the diferent sayings here. But I can't quite get used to having a shower in the bedroom.  I choose to wait till the next day for mine.

This picture is for Ellen.  She went a little dizzy with all the patterns.

The sign here over the tub says " Showers only bath on request"

The windows are like this on most houses here.

The sitting area or common area .. The house had beautiful antique clocks in every room.

Here is breakfast which David always has the full Irish breakfast. I typically choose to have toast and coffee but I have had the Irish one.  It is just too much food for me.
The deceased husband of the innkeeper fitted this house with beautiful woodwork. The doors are an example.  He performed all the wood milling.

Our view out the back from the manicured garden on to Lough Erne.  On to Derry  Cheerio:-)