Bonjour all
Well we're back in The Lot after an amazing four week tour of the UK. We saw so many great things, caught up with some friends and family, and met so many lovely people. We stayed at 14 different places including one night on the ferry from France to Ireland, mostly B&Bs and small hotels. We were able to track down some family roots, including my Irish ancestors in Cork, Galway and Mullingar and visiting Salisbury, England was of great interest to us in that the rich history of Wyndham name is everywhere there. On the way back through France we visited the grave of my great x2 uncle, Robert Victor Henry Scott, who was killed in the Somme back in 1916. That was also very special.
Last time I blogged we were in County Clare, Ireland the day after we visited the Aran Islands where our bus driver gave us a splendid rendition of Danny Boy. From County Clare we drove to Mullingar on route to Dublin. I knew my great grandparents, Charles Henry and Margaret Glasson, were married at the All Saints Church there in 1905. Here we are in front of that church...
I knew that Charles' son, another Charles, my grandfather, was born in the Renmore Barracks in Galway, so it was very likely Charles senior was stationed as a soldier at the Colomb Barracks in Mullingar. With the help of a local historian I was able to find a book in the local library with this picture...
The wording on the page states that the men on the right hand side were in the Connaught Rangers, a famous Irish Regiment in the British Army. They were known as the Devil's Own. I knew Charles senior was a Connaught Ranger. So of course we had to go and see the Colomb Barracks in Mullingar. They had recently been closed, but by chance they were setting up for a, believe or not, strong man competition on the following weekend. I chatted to a guy at the entrance and told him I wanted to enter the competition, ......no just jokes, I told him I was tracking down my Irish roots and sure enough he let me in. Below is one of the photos I took, you can see the same church on the right hand side of the black and white photo above. It was an exciting day.
We then drove onto to Dublin for three nights, party town. We stayed just near Temple Bar, at the Central Hotel, pictured below, which is basically right in the middle of Dublin's night life district. It was pretty noisy at night, but after spending so much time in the country over the last four months we were up for it, in fact we loved the buzz of it all, ... and Jane loved the shops :)
We had fun in Dublin, it's a beautiful city with so much interesting history. A highlight was going to see Dublin take on Cork in the Gaelic Football in a semi final at Croke Park, as shown below, it was a big game.
And a shot of the playing field... great to watch, a lot like Aussie Rules...
Going to the old library at Trinity College and listening to a Sunday session of Irish music at one of the locals were highlights too, oh and then of course there was the Guinness Factory......
From Dublin we took a car ferry to Wales, which was a real surprise for me, a real hidden gem of a country. We had lunch at this gorgeous little Welsh sea side village, New Quay, as per below.
We stayed with Jane's good family friends Paul and Judith pictured below with Jane and the kids.
Paul and Judith were awesome hosts, we felt like we were staying with family really. It was also nice to have some time to regather and get to know Wales from a locals point of view. Where they live was amazing, right on the edge of a national park where the "Preseli Hills" are. This was the view from the front gate......
At the top of the that mountain you can see, known as Foeldrygarn, there is an ancient hill fort, ( see the old photo below from a book Paul owned), I walked to the top of it twice, magical spot.
Ironically looking out from the top of Foeldrygarn, across a ridge was another near by mountain ( see the photo below,.... just right of the pine tree forest), the very spot were the "blue stones" at Stonehenge came from, Stonehenge is about 240 kms away!
We had already planned to see Stone Henge after visiting Paul and Judith's, and we didn't know of this connection between the two sites before our visit, now that's ironic right?
A few kms away was this incredible 3,500 BC stone structure, "Pentre Ifan", part of an ancient burial chamber. How it has been standing like this for over five thousand years is beyond me. I must admit I was slightly hesitant when standing below this huge suspended stone which they estimate to weigh 16 tonnes! You can see the very narrow contact points with the standing stones below.
Here is a photo of an old sketch of two 19th century antiquarians on horseback having a good look at Pentre Ifan......
Here is Paul and Judith flying a kite with the kids at the back of their house...
Here is Judith and I enjoying one of her home brews, lovely!
Thanks again Paul and Judith for your generous hospitality and all those great memories.
We then headed to Hay-on-Wye just next to the Welsh English border. A local said that they pay taxes to the Welsh government but their addresses are English, go figure. This place is known as the "town of books". There are about 24 book stores there, I was in heaven! Here is a photo of the Jane and the kids in front of the Hay-on-Wye castle and some markets.
I saw some people taking photos of something along one of the streets in this town of books, had a look, and just had to take a photo myself, this obviously means a lot to a place like Hay-on-Wye.
Back on the road trip...when the kids gets a bit hard to handle, usually late in the day Jane sometimes jumps in the back, the kids love it when she does...
So we arrived at Stonehenge, a place I've wanted to visit for many years. Knowing that the blue stones came all the way from the Preseli Hills of Wales, just down the road from Paul and Judith's home made it even more awe inspiring. They were somehow transported there around 2,500 BC! The largest stones, the sarsens, came from north Wilshire about 30km away. The blue stones are smaller but still, not a bad effort.
I might take a break for now and follow this up soon with a second blog on our UK trip. Hope you are well.
Well we're back in The Lot after an amazing four week tour of the UK. We saw so many great things, caught up with some friends and family, and met so many lovely people. We stayed at 14 different places including one night on the ferry from France to Ireland, mostly B&Bs and small hotels. We were able to track down some family roots, including my Irish ancestors in Cork, Galway and Mullingar and visiting Salisbury, England was of great interest to us in that the rich history of Wyndham name is everywhere there. On the way back through France we visited the grave of my great x2 uncle, Robert Victor Henry Scott, who was killed in the Somme back in 1916. That was also very special.
Last time I blogged we were in County Clare, Ireland the day after we visited the Aran Islands where our bus driver gave us a splendid rendition of Danny Boy. From County Clare we drove to Mullingar on route to Dublin. I knew my great grandparents, Charles Henry and Margaret Glasson, were married at the All Saints Church there in 1905. Here we are in front of that church...
I knew that Charles' son, another Charles, my grandfather, was born in the Renmore Barracks in Galway, so it was very likely Charles senior was stationed as a soldier at the Colomb Barracks in Mullingar. With the help of a local historian I was able to find a book in the local library with this picture...
The wording on the page states that the men on the right hand side were in the Connaught Rangers, a famous Irish Regiment in the British Army. They were known as the Devil's Own. I knew Charles senior was a Connaught Ranger. So of course we had to go and see the Colomb Barracks in Mullingar. They had recently been closed, but by chance they were setting up for a, believe or not, strong man competition on the following weekend. I chatted to a guy at the entrance and told him I wanted to enter the competition, ......no just jokes, I told him I was tracking down my Irish roots and sure enough he let me in. Below is one of the photos I took, you can see the same church on the right hand side of the black and white photo above. It was an exciting day.
We then drove onto to Dublin for three nights, party town. We stayed just near Temple Bar, at the Central Hotel, pictured below, which is basically right in the middle of Dublin's night life district. It was pretty noisy at night, but after spending so much time in the country over the last four months we were up for it, in fact we loved the buzz of it all, ... and Jane loved the shops :)
We had fun in Dublin, it's a beautiful city with so much interesting history. A highlight was going to see Dublin take on Cork in the Gaelic Football in a semi final at Croke Park, as shown below, it was a big game.
And a shot of the playing field... great to watch, a lot like Aussie Rules...
Going to the old library at Trinity College and listening to a Sunday session of Irish music at one of the locals were highlights too, oh and then of course there was the Guinness Factory......
From Dublin we took a car ferry to Wales, which was a real surprise for me, a real hidden gem of a country. We had lunch at this gorgeous little Welsh sea side village, New Quay, as per below.
Paul and Judith were awesome hosts, we felt like we were staying with family really. It was also nice to have some time to regather and get to know Wales from a locals point of view. Where they live was amazing, right on the edge of a national park where the "Preseli Hills" are. This was the view from the front gate......
At the top of the that mountain you can see, known as Foeldrygarn, there is an ancient hill fort, ( see the old photo below from a book Paul owned), I walked to the top of it twice, magical spot.
Ironically looking out from the top of Foeldrygarn, across a ridge was another near by mountain ( see the photo below,.... just right of the pine tree forest), the very spot were the "blue stones" at Stonehenge came from, Stonehenge is about 240 kms away!
We had already planned to see Stone Henge after visiting Paul and Judith's, and we didn't know of this connection between the two sites before our visit, now that's ironic right?
A few kms away was this incredible 3,500 BC stone structure, "Pentre Ifan", part of an ancient burial chamber. How it has been standing like this for over five thousand years is beyond me. I must admit I was slightly hesitant when standing below this huge suspended stone which they estimate to weigh 16 tonnes! You can see the very narrow contact points with the standing stones below.
Here is a photo of an old sketch of two 19th century antiquarians on horseback having a good look at Pentre Ifan......
Here is Paul and Judith flying a kite with the kids at the back of their house...
Here is Judith and I enjoying one of her home brews, lovely!
Thanks again Paul and Judith for your generous hospitality and all those great memories.
We then headed to Hay-on-Wye just next to the Welsh English border. A local said that they pay taxes to the Welsh government but their addresses are English, go figure. This place is known as the "town of books". There are about 24 book stores there, I was in heaven! Here is a photo of the Jane and the kids in front of the Hay-on-Wye castle and some markets.
I saw some people taking photos of something along one of the streets in this town of books, had a look, and just had to take a photo myself, this obviously means a lot to a place like Hay-on-Wye.
Back on the road trip...when the kids gets a bit hard to handle, usually late in the day Jane sometimes jumps in the back, the kids love it when she does...
So we arrived at Stonehenge, a place I've wanted to visit for many years. Knowing that the blue stones came all the way from the Preseli Hills of Wales, just down the road from Paul and Judith's home made it even more awe inspiring. They were somehow transported there around 2,500 BC! The largest stones, the sarsens, came from north Wilshire about 30km away. The blue stones are smaller but still, not a bad effort.
I might take a break for now and follow this up soon with a second blog on our UK trip. Hope you are well.
Best wishes from us lot in The Lot,
Jane, Sophie, Connor and moi!
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