Day 9 - Is it Someone's Birthday?

It is Jackie’s 53rd Birthday, which came as a bit of a surprise, because she hadn’t mentioned it.

It was a miserable day outside, so after opening her cards & a present from Angela & Chris, Jackie cancelled the pony trekking that she was supposed to be doing with Angela. We had another leisurely start to the day & we didn’t venture out until pretty much midday.

We didn’t have any other particular plans, so we drove into Skibbereen, then decided to visit Drombeg Stone Circle which was just east of the village of Leap. Drombeg Stone Circle, also known as the Druid’s Altar, are 17 tightly packed stones in a circle just 29ft in diameter.

It was pouring with rain as we walked the 100 odd metres to the Stone Circle from the car park. The Stones were more impressive than any of us had expected and there was a steady stream of visitors. The site is thousands of years old & is believed to be a place of worship & possibly sacrifice. In the middle of the Circle was a stone upon which people had left a donation or an offering. In the mist it was very atmospheric, almost eerie.

At the site there were also the remains of a Fulacht Fiadh, which was an ancient cooking place that would have been inside a stone hut. The Fulacht Fiadh was an ingenious way to cook food. Recent tests show that it was able to bring 70 gallons of water to the boil in just 18 minutes simply by dropping red hot rocks into it. The water would then stay hot for several hours.

We drove back through the coastal village of Glandore back to Leap. We stopped to see its ‘Historic’ Waterfall, if there could be such a thing. It turned out to be a nothing to shout about waterfall, with a number of tacky ornaments with a fairy theme scattered around it. Thank god it was free to see it.

After a couple of false starts we plumped on the Leap Inn Bar & Restaurant for lunch. We all chose the sausage & mash dinner, probably because the sausages were Guinness & Leek. It was a lovely, but massive dinner, with a big bowl of vegetables & a bowl of chips. I was happy because I was buying dinner that evening, so the more everyone ate at lunch, the less they’d want for dinner or so I hoped!

Having finished our dinner, we went back out into the rain & decided there was nothing else for it but to go back to the cottage & play cribbage. We ventured into the realms of playing Cribbage in pairs, but it started to verge on it all getting a bit too competitive. Jackie & I won by the way!

At 6.30pm, we set off back into Skibbereen. We parked up & as we had 10 minutes to spare, we popped into a dive bar, called Fairfield House. It was basic to put it politely, there were 4 scruffy oiks sat at the bar. We had a quick half of Guinness each, the girls had a large wine.

At 7.00pm we walked into the Church Restaurant & were allocated a nice little table by a stained glass window. We ordered a varied selection off the menu ranging from fish soup, Brie, black pudding, monkfish, pork, lamb & chicken stir fry, plus wine & a couple of Murphys. The food was very good, however the young waitress failed to give us some bread which was slightly unsatisfactory.

We were back home by 9.00pm for a nightcap & a quick game of Logo, before calling it a night. We had an early start in the morning.

Song of the Day - Atmosphere by Joy DivisionRead more