Travels thru Life: 8/23 -- Glenveagh National Park

We visited one of Ireland's largest national parks today, with a hike in the hills and a tour of the castle on the grounds. Glenveagh was created in the 1800s when John Adair started buying the land in the area, intent on building a hunting lodge on the lake there. Adair was apparently unhappy that his view of lake and hills was interrupted by the homes of his tenant farmers, so he accused them of sheep stealing and sent in 200 policeman, with no advance notice, to evict 244 of them and destroy their homes. A local priest raised funds to send many of the evicted to Australia.

Adair married an American woman, who survived him and lived in the castle and entertained there until 1916. She was a lot nicer than her husband and was well-liked by local folks. After her death in 1921, Glenveagh was occupied by irregular army forces until it was sold in 1929 to a Harvard professor, who did much to undo the damage done by the former occupiers. The professor mysteriously disappeared four years later and the final private owner was another American, Henry McIlhenny, who sold the lands to Ireland in 1975 and donated the castle in 1984 with the caveat that it had to be open to the public.

The weather forecasters in Ireland appear to be no more accurate than the ones in San Francisco. Yesterday, they said there was a 20% chance of rain in the morning, going to 40% and 60% by 1pm. This morning, they said the 8am rain would stop and there was 0% chance of rain until 11am, and 10% until 1pm, the 40-60% during the afternoon. WRONG!!! It misted for the 1.5 hour ride to the park, and in the park the entire time to varied from heavy squalls to bright sunshine to lashing rain and back to sun. Fortunately, we have learned to always have rain gear, including rain pants, at the ready, so it was more annoying than problematic.

The entrance walk to the park was quite lovely.

We started with a walk in the hills for an hour or so and had some very nice views of the lake, with the castle barely visible from our location.

Above and below - fields of heath and heath closer up

The lake at Glenveagh. The castle is on the point of land
on the left in the middle distance.

Zoomed in on the castle.

Above and below. The rock in the middle is what is left
of a tenant residence. Zoomed in below.

Another view of the lake. The castle is on the point at
the right.

Glorious old oak trees abound.

There were lots of mushrooms. I am pretty sure this one is
poisonous.

The sun came out! A view of the lake from the visitor
center where we caught the shuttle bus.

After lunch, we took a 4km bus ride to the castle, arriving in a downpour, and got a tour of the home, including a short video of its history. Photos were not allowed inside at all. The furnishings and paintings from the previous owners were also on display, with explanations of how the building was modified with 2 major additions during the year. My favorite story was about the weighing chair. In the entry, the last owner kept a chair originally used for weighing jockeys. He would insist that guests weigh in when they entered and weigh out when they went home as a way to gauge the success of his hospitality -- if you gained, he had been successful.

The visitor center entrance to the castle. The turret on the
right was the second addition to the building.

The rain let up for a bit while we walked around the gardens and started up when we tried to get photos of the front. Unlike Kylemore Abbey, where a road fronted the home, the only way here to get a good view of the front is from the lake, but we gave our best shot.