20 March, 2023

We are really going to miss The Yew Tree Cottage. We checked out just before 10:00 am and headed to our next cottage at Corriebracks, County Wicklow. It is only about one-and-a-half hours’ drive due north and the route takes us through Bunclody, Tullow and Baltinglass. These towns seem to be very nice towns which may be worth a return visit in the future.

The drive is relatively easy with only a couple of showers on the way. By 11:15 am we have driven through the little village of Hollywood which is just about 7 kms from the cottage and the closest village.

According to local legend, it was a local man who emigrated to the USA and settled in California just outside Los Angeles. The immigrant in question was Mathew Guirke, born in 1826 in Hollywood, Wicklow, Ireland. Mathew arrived in America in 1850 and later established himself in the Los Angeles area. He named his new homestead Hollywood in honor of his hometown.

Harvey H. Wilcox had purchased 120 acres on February 1, 1887. The name was immortalized when Harvey filed a subdivision map to the Los Angeles County recorder’s office, with the name “Hollywood.”

Just after we arrive at the cottage the host arrives to give us the door key and a tour of the cottage. She only lives down the road but in this area that could be 5 kms away.

The cottage is in an area called Corriebracks and is going to be very quiet out here miles away from anyone – except for the sheep in the next paddock which are due to start lambing next week.

This area has some sheep farms nearby but is located on the edge of a pine forest so we will have plenty of logging tracks to hike while we are here (if it doesn’t rain all week).

After we unload the car we head back to the village of Hollywood to check it out. The village has a small cafe that is incredibly busy (probably as it seems to be the only open eating establishment in town). We stop in for coffee and cake and check out the menu. The cafe is mainly open for breakfast and lunch but is open for dinner on Friday, Saturday and Sunday so we plan to have dinner here on Friday.

After a hot beverage we continue on to Blessington which is a further 11 kms but the closest town with a supermarket. Just in case the weather is horrible this week we buy enough supplies for four dinners but the plan is to return to Blessington to dine at a few of its restaurants or pubs.

On our way back to the cottage we continue on to the end of the track which is only about 1 km further on from the cottage. At the end of the track are a couple of logging roads for hiking this week, subject to rain. On the way back down the track we came across a young deer so we stop to get a photo. This is where the big camera would have come in handy as we can’t get close enough for a decent photo with our phone.

Time to unpack and check out the cottage facilities. Lynn notices the clothes line out the back which is embedded in a rock. It is more like a clothes line for leprechauns.

Just for some perspective I took a photo of the clothes line with a leprechaun beside it.

21 March, 2023

Lynn wants to go back to the Hollywood Cafe this morning for breakfast but by the time we wake up, are showered and dressed it is 11:30 am – nearly lunch time. Still we head to town only to find that every street in the village (the 2 of them) are lined with cars. Apparently there is a funeral service on today and the entire population of Hollywood and surrounding areas is attending.

We drive the 7 kms back to the cottage and Lynn makes breakfast (or lunch really).

We are reminded that the cottage is located on a paved logging track when a fully-laden logging truck drives past the front door.

After brunch we dress up in our wets and take a walk down the paddock opposite to the creek. The plan is to follow the tractor track but after all the rain the creek is in full flow so we can’t cross without getting very wet.

We start to walk parallel to the creek but without a trail the gorse and tussocks make it too difficult to get too far so we walk back up the trail and follow the road to the logging trails.

Once at the logging tracks we take the highest track up into the hills.

The skies are getting very dark as we check out a side track and then start to head back to the cottage. Up on the track we come across a hunting hide platform.

Across the valley Lynn also notices what could be described as “crop circles”. To me it just looks like someone had fun with a tractor some time ago.

It is now starting to rain again so it is time to step up the walking pace back to the cottage or we will also be covered in the thick moss that blankets the nearby stone walls and the forest floor.

Not far from the cottage is a very nice stone house. Other than it is in the middle of nowhere it looks very comfortable.

We aren’t back very long when it starts to rain and the wind increases significantly. Time for a warm cuppa by the heater.

We spend most of the evening trying to navigate the incorrect instructions from HSBC about setting up the new Global Money Account card which we will use for the Scandinavian currency payments. In the end they admit that their instructions are missing a step which made the setup impossible. Yet another example of poor user acceptance testing before releasing a product or service. When will companies realise that they just piss customers off when they try to short cut product releases??

22 March, 2023

We wake to a brilliant, sunny day! This morning is our second attempt to head down to the Hollywood Cafe for breakfast. Lynn is out of bed by 7:00 am so she must be very excited to go to the cafe this morning.

Breakfast is very good but a bit much for me. I prefer a light breakfast of fruit, yogurt and cereal but they do a very good soft poached egg and an excellent coffee.

After breakfast we plan to walk a few trails around the village known as St Kevin’s Way. We do the first section of the walk but the ground is very wet and boggy and even though it is a bright sunny morning when we start out the clouds are getting darker and the wind is coming up. A local informs us that it will be raining by midday.

As the wind increases I realise that I should have worn more of my winter woollies and was fooled by the sunny skies this morning.

Further along the valley we come to what looks like the crop circles that we can see from the cottage. It is now obvious that these circles are just old feeding spots for the local sheep.

Originally Lynn thought that we could just walk a full circuit around a hill near the village but our planned track is locked off by a farm gate. It is too far in the mud and cold wind to do the full 30 kms St Kevin’s Way from Hollywood to Glendalough so we have to back track the mere 1.4 kms to the village.

Once back to the road it is a matter of trying to remove mud from our boots so we stroll past the Hollywood Inn to see when it is open. From there we find a small stream with a footpath called Watery Lane that takes us back through the church graveyard to the Hollywood Cafe and the car.

While we are in the graveyard we locate the grave from yesterday’s funeral. While Lynn checks out the interior of the church I speak to the graveyard maintenance guy who is trying to mow the very wet grass around the graves.

Apparently James Clarke was 84 and had been ill for a couple of years. He was very much involved with establishing and managing the local school hence why the school was closed yesterday during the funeral. All the teachers and board members were at the funeral.

Back at the cottage while it rains again we complete our work setting up the new HSBC debit card and currencies required for the Scandinavian countries and adding the card to our hotel bookings. Oh look, sunshine again!

It seems that the local sheep are very interested in spying on their new neighbours.

23 March, 2023

It’s mid-morning and Lynn has planned a number places to visit today in and around Glendalough (Irish: Gleann Da Loch meaning ‘valley of two lakes’). Glendalough is a glacial valley in Co. Wicklow renowned for an early Medieval monastic settlement founded in the 6th Century by St Kevin.

First stop is the view point at the Wicklow Pass.

We drive through the Pass and down the narrow valley until we arrive at Glendalough and park next to the stone wall which encircles the monastic settlement.

There are a number of stone structures within the settlement including: the impressive Round Tower, cemetery, and ruins of the Priests House, St Kevin’s and St Kieran’s Churches and the Glendalough Cathedral.

The Round Tower is about 30 m high with an entrance 3.5 m above the ground. Originally the tower had 6 timber floors connected by ladders. Round towers, landmarks for approaching visitors were built as bell towers, but occasionally also served as store houses and as places of refuge in times of attack.

The chancel and sacristy date from the late 12th and 13th Centuries.

As we walk towards St Kevin’s Church we look up the valley to see a wall of rain heading our way.

St Kevin’s Church is commonly known as St Kevin’s Kitchen as the bell tower resembles a kitchen chimney. The steep roof, formed of overlapping stones is supported internally by a semi-circular vault.

It starts to rain heavily so we exit the settlement and head to the coffee cart near to our parked car. We were going to drink our take away coffees in the car until the shower passed, but instead got talking to Sandra and Margaret, sheltered by the cart’s awning.

A 2-minute drive up the R757 to the car park between the Upper and Lower Lakes marks the beginning of several trails, one of which is to view the Poulanass Waterfall.

The 12-minute walk up the path to view the waterfall is part of the Wicklow Way, a 131-kilometre long-distance trail that crosses the Wicklow Mountains. I don’t think that we will walk the full trail in this weather.

Another path branches off the trail which heads downhill to the site of St Kevin’s Cell which overlooks the Upper Lake.

Further downhill in a grove of trees are the ruins of Reefert Church which dates from c. 1100 and is surrounded by some ancient tomb stones. The name derives from Righ Feata, the burial place of kings referring to the local rulers – the O’Toole Clan.

The path then leads to the shores of Upper Lake. You can understand why St Kevin decided to establish his monastery here, surrounded by stunning scenery and so very peaceful.

On our return home we stop at the site of the Hero Mine in the Glendasan Valley. Glendalough and the nearby Glendasan valleys were the most important sites for lead mining in Ireland. The main lead mineral in Wicklow is galena (PbS) which often contains small amounts of silver and could be extracted economically.

Lead was first discovered in Glendasan in the early 19th Century and later these veins were followed through the mountainside to the adjacent valley of Glendalough. The earliest phase of mining, dating from the turn of the 19th Century was when the Avoca mines’ manager, Thomas Weaver, was commissioned by the Government to undertake a survey of gold in County Wicklow. Not long after the 1798 Rebellion he discovered a rich vein of lead ore in the Glendasan valley.

The Mining Company of Ireland took over operation of the Glendasan mines in 1825. A year later a road to the Luganure ore body was constructed and on it a railway track was also laid which extended 126 feet into the mine. Dressing floors for separating the ore were built on the site. To extract this ore body ‘The Hero Mine’ was opened.

Beside the carving of the glaciated valley, the power of ice is evident in the cleaving of a large boulder at the Hero Mine site.

Just before we arrive back at the cottage we stop to take a photo of an abandoned dwelling covered in thick moss in a field adjacent to the logging track – both the ruins and the thick moss are prevalent in this area.

At 5:30 pm we depart for the Hollywood Inn which apparently has won the 2023 Best Gastro Pub Award. The food was just OK but since it is the only restaurant for miles around the prices were a bit over the top for average quality meals.

24 March, 2023

The original plan for today was to go for a 3 km hike in the forest trails behind The Hollywood Inn but just as we are about to leave the cottage it starts to rain heavily yet again. Change of plan. We will go for the hike tomorrow and today we will take a drive around the Liffey Reservoirs after coffee and cake at the Hollywood Cafe. The drive takes us through Valleymount and we end up at Blessington to pick up a couple of supplies.

The Liffey reservoirs are the main water supply for Dublin and was created by damming the Liffey River which runs in to the Dublin City Centre.

On the Eastern side of the reservoir there are a number of sheep paddocks where spring lambs have been born.

The rain managed to stay away during our drive but just as we turn in to the lane to the cottage it starts to rain again. It must be the valley at the cottage that seems to be a rain funnel.

25 March, 2023

It rains on and off all day today so Lynn is completing her “must see” Scandinavian list and I do the washing. This will be our last washing day until the day before we fly out to Cyprus in 10 days’ time.

All a bit boring today but chores have to be done. We also need to start to consider our bookings for the Midlands and southern Scotland for early August.

The highlight of the day is driving into the village for pizza at the Hollywood Cafe.

26 March, 2023

It is the start of daylight savings in Europe today so we are up earlier than we would have liked. However, we planned to get an early start this morning for a hike around the pine forest opposite the Hollywood Demesne before it is forecast to rain this afternoon.

We park the car at the Hollywood Inn and walk up the street to the junction with the logging road at the start of the forest.

It is a steep climb through the pine forest but at least the road is not muddy and the rain seems to be holding off. The planned route this morning should take about an hour and is approximately 5 kms long but quite steep at the start.

At the top of the hill the plantation has been logged recently. It is a bit ugly up here but will be replanted in the summer.

We pass by lots of dog walkers going in the opposite direction including a group of young scouts and their families. It seems that people are emerging from their winter hibernation.

At least the walk back to the village of Hollywood is all down hill and we have a good view of the valley.

On our return to the village we head straight to the Hollywood Cafe for coffee. The cafe is heaving this morning with hikers, dog walkers, cyclists and ordinary folk. There are no inside or undercover tables available so we grab a take-away coffee and sit out front at one of the outdoor picnic tables. The clouds are definitely building but we manage to finish our coffee and walk back to the car without getting seriously wet.

Lynn wants to try and get a photo of the Hollywood sign that the locals have put up in a paddock that overlooks the village to copy the one in Hollywood, Los Angeles but getting a clear view without climbing up the paddock is impossible.

I have included a photo below from someone else’s climb but the version we see today spells: Hollyw – the ‘ood’ having fallen over. Apparently the local council intends to build a sturdier, and probably larger, sign to replace the current one.

This afternoon we have to do some accommodation bookings for after our Scandinavian trip and tomorrow we are off to Crover House Hotel and Golf Club near Virginia for 5 days. That’s Virginia, County Cavan, Ireland, not the one in the USA.