Day 3: Ballyteige Castle, Johnstone Castle and the Irish National Heritage Park
On Saturday, one of our hosts took us around to see some of the local sites. I had been to two of the places before, Ballyteige and Johnstone, but I was happy to go see them again!
Ballyteige Castle dates back to the 14th century, and came into the possession of part of my mother's side of the family in the 19th century. Up until the early 90's, our relatives lived in the adjoining house, before moving into Tullabards House, shown in the previous post.
We heard about this place so much growing up, it's really neat going there. Ballyteige is one of the few privately-owned castles left in this part of Ireland (incidentally, we saw one of the others, Ballyhealy Castle, and it's up for sale. Anyone have a million Euros floating around and looking to buy?), and although it's not in the best of shape anymore, it was still wonderful to see. There are a number of feral cats who live in some of the buildings there, and our hosts, the McMorris family, feed them every day.
After our visit there to feed the cats, we went on to the Johnstone Castle Gardens. Johnstone Castle is a 19th century Gothic revival building with a 15th century tower castle at its core.
The castle itself has been converted into governments offices(!), and there are lovely walking paths surrounding a small lake. The trees here are gorgeous, with a great variety of species.
There is a walled garden area, although unfortunately coming at the time of year that we did, it had not been fully planted yet. There really is so much to see here, it's hard to know what to show you! There are swans swimming in the lake, peacocks roaming the grounds, and a couple of towers, ornamental in the style of Johnstone Castle, and more original dating several hundred years earlier.
Here are a few of the many pictures I took there:
We then moved onto the Irish National Heritage Park. This is an interesting place, which includes seventeen archeological and historical reconstructions of how people lived in Ireland, from 7000 B.C. up to the arrival of the Normans in the 12th century. I'll add some pictures from this site later, but for now I'm running out of steam.
Ballyteige Castle dates back to the 14th century, and came into the possession of part of my mother's side of the family in the 19th century. Up until the early 90's, our relatives lived in the adjoining house, before moving into Tullabards House, shown in the previous post.
We heard about this place so much growing up, it's really neat going there. Ballyteige is one of the few privately-owned castles left in this part of Ireland (incidentally, we saw one of the others, Ballyhealy Castle, and it's up for sale. Anyone have a million Euros floating around and looking to buy?), and although it's not in the best of shape anymore, it was still wonderful to see. There are a number of feral cats who live in some of the buildings there, and our hosts, the McMorris family, feed them every day.
After our visit there to feed the cats, we went on to the Johnstone Castle Gardens. Johnstone Castle is a 19th century Gothic revival building with a 15th century tower castle at its core.
The castle itself has been converted into governments offices(!), and there are lovely walking paths surrounding a small lake. The trees here are gorgeous, with a great variety of species.
There is a walled garden area, although unfortunately coming at the time of year that we did, it had not been fully planted yet. There really is so much to see here, it's hard to know what to show you! There are swans swimming in the lake, peacocks roaming the grounds, and a couple of towers, ornamental in the style of Johnstone Castle, and more original dating several hundred years earlier.
Here are a few of the many pictures I took there:
We then moved onto the Irish National Heritage Park. This is an interesting place, which includes seventeen archeological and historical reconstructions of how people lived in Ireland, from 7000 B.C. up to the arrival of the Normans in the 12th century. I'll add some pictures from this site later, but for now I'm running out of steam.
posted by Matt at 5:16 a.m.
4 Comments:
Matt, I take back most of the mean teasing I did of you for taking a million pictures. These are awesome! I love the one with the swan in the lake.
Thanks. Hopefully you'll get to see some more of them, it's hard deciding which ones to put up.
I'm so jealous, I could cry.
Quite remarkable- I've been reading about the history of Ballyteige Castle in anticipation of a holiday to the area next week - and I find possibly a relative of the owners blogging about a recent visit. I love the internet. You must be related to the Youngs or to the Colcloughs who emigrated to Canada. What is the status of the property today - the house is blocked up, but is there access to the castle ? Have you seen the genealogy here:
http://members.fortunecity.com/chtii/colclough/cap9.htm
Happy travelling
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