Wed 14th- Clifden Town & Castle

Back in Clifden we had a quick walk around and made a booking for dinner at this restaurant. It was a lovely meal (we of course had fish again), the place was full to capacity but it had a rather officious atmosphere and the strange part was that all the service people, chefs and maître d’ were male and in their mid-thirties or older. We found out from Ruth later that the owner (again male) only employs males. Not sure why but rumour had it that they stuck around longer and were less scatty!

More photos of the colourful shops in town

I do believe there should be more of these seats around the world!

Back at the B&B we have a couple of hours spare so I decide to take the family's black labrador Ella for a walk across the road and down the hill to the ruins of the Clifden Castle. Ella obviously has done this run a hundred and one times, she was very obedient and ran in and out of the bushes and under the fences tracking rabbits no doubt. Every so often I lose sight of her and call her name and she’d pop out of the undergrowth as if to say “yes I’m here, you haven’t lost me” She said hello to the cattle, horses and sheep we came across on our way and they were all keen to check her out-

The “Castle” is the old D’Arcy Mansion and was built in 1750 for John D’Arcy who founded the town of Clifden. Once a Gothic Mansion, the D'Arcy's lived here until 1850 when the estate was sold to another family who lived there at various times until the castle fell into ruin in the early 20th century. Today little remains of the house but its shell.

D'Arcy had these stones erected to mimic other standing stones around Ireland.











Kiwi "Number 8 Wire" ingenuity has nothing on the Irish!