If you missed the first part of our adventure, click the link...
It may be an Irish thing, it may be an Uncle Con thing. But the door to his house stayed wide open 80% of the time that we were there. And when the door was open, this was Jess's spot.
Uncle Con's farm goes all the way to the top of that mountain. And all the mountains have names. Uncle Con's mountain's name is Mentecreagan. On the way out to Uncle Con's, there are a couple signs for the BlueStack Walking Trail. The Blue Stack Mountains begin near the property and Mentecreagan is one of the Blue Stacks.
One day, E, the kids & I decided to take the quad out and try to drive all the way to the top of Mentecreagan on the quad. It was quite the experience, an experience Finorah wanted to quit at least three times. There were lots of BUMPS, lots of turnarounds, and LOTS OF BOGS... In order to get to the top of the mountain, we had to find a couple small ground bridges that go over the bog trenches that naturally exist on the landscape of the bog. We may have also almost tipped the quad. Quick thinking got the kids off, my legs over the high side and E throwing it in four wheel drive. There was never a question of us actually tipping over, but it was enough for Finorah to put her foot down and "be done". We found the small trail going up halfway. We stopped at the top of the trail, only halfway up the mountain. We didn't have the right footwear. It was still beautiful, even if we didn't make it to the top.
If you look closely, you can see Uncle Con's farm about halfway up on the right. And you can also see the beginning of Benbulbin (which is the mountain near Sligo) 3/4 of the way up on the right and just below that, the Donegal Bay which leads into the Atlantic Ocean.
More of the Blue Stack Mountains
While we were there, E worked quite a bit for Uncle Con. The kids got to participate in herding sheep. They were able to be "gates" to keep the sheep from running down the driveway and herding them into the gate to go into the field. There was also a lot of wool hauling. Uncle Con is the main wool collector in the area. He collects the wool, paying the farmer and then sells the lot to the businesses. He had collected over 4+ metric tons of wool (in a later post, you'll see just how much that really is). He sells the short wool to be used in clothes and the long wool will be used in carpet.
Just one of the many "lifts" they did to pick up local farmers' wool.
The wool is paid by the weight. Once they arrive home, they weight it to see how much each bag weighs.
At least every other day, we would go into Donegal Town to get out and see people or see sights. And almost every single time, the kids got a "99". We would sit in The Diamond, which is the town square to eat them. The crows abound in Ireland and Conall was desperate to catch one. Alas, he never did.
Uncle Con's home is heated by a wood-burning stove, which they use to burn peat, or also called turf. He has his own bog and once a year, he hires someone to come in and cut peat, which is stored in a little outside room attached to the house. The peat bucket gets filled daily and the kids helped fill it on multiple occasions. If you ask Conall what peat is, he will tell you it's mammouth poop. Hmmmm, wonder where he got that one from.
On Uncle Con's property, there are two old, old stone houses. One is called Tullniglack and the other is Cloughveen. E's grandparents lived in Tullniglack until the 70s. But because of the thatch roof, it's nothing more than stone walls now. Cloughveen is the home that is near and dear to E. His mother was the last person to be born in the house and it was the home that his mother lived in until she left as an early teen to make money to bring home to the family. One day, we drove out to Cloughveen to show the kids. The nettles were high, so you can't really see much of the house. But on our last trip to Ireland, you could see the home structure better. While at Cloughveen, Conall saw a frog, grabbed through nettles to get him and started to cry. So E, being the good dad that he is, reached into the nettles to grab that little sucker. Both were tingly for most of the day.
E's mother was also over while we were there. She was visiting a friend, Rose in Ballyliffin. We drove over to pick her up. While there, we swung by Rose's family home where she grew up. There were chickens running all over the place. The kids & I were in heaven.
Honestly, how beautiful is this. Chickens, flowers, & the ocean.
Rose's home was located on the same site as the castle in Ballyliffin, Carrickabraghy Castle and also on Lagg Beach. Both of which, the photos just don't do justice.
This horse was in his pasture next to the castle and was absolutely gorgeous.
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