|
The road west out of Boyle towards the Lough Key Forest Park , part of the old Rockingham Estate, leads through the gate of the grounds, itself a Gothic fancy, and past a castellated lodge. The park has been thoroughly and relentlessly amenitized, with a hideous wood-and-glass restaurant at the side of the lake and masses of tarmacked car-parking on the former site of the great house. The latter was designed, in an elegant if fanciful Classical style, by the English architect John Nash, who was also responsible for the Classical mansions in London's Regent's Park. Yet the stable block, church, icehouse and temple - the graces of an eighteenth-century estate - as well as the spine-chilling subterranean passages used to keep the servants out of sight, give an impression of what it must have been like. With boats for rental and plenty of ring forts to explore, it's a pleasant enough place to spend a sunny day. You can gaze out, too, at the islands on the lake; in a disused castle on one of them W.B. Yeats planned, after his Innisfree days, to base an Irish cult devoted to the occult principles of Theosophy and the Order of the Golden Dawn - the idea was to aid the Nationalist cause by trapping the hidden forces of the land. The circuit of the lake is well worth doing, particularly the west side, where the road rises to give you a panoramic view. A possible stop on the way is B&B accommodation at Riversdale House (tel 079/67012; GBP40-55/?50.79-69.84), where the River Boyle flows out of the lough - a compact Georgian lodge on a working farm that was once home to Maureen O'Sullivan - where you can also have dinner. A little further out of Boyle on the Carrick-on-Shannon Road, Woodbrook is another old Anglo-Irish house. It's not open to the public, and the reason for mentioning it is that it's the subject of a remarkable book, Woodbrook , written by an Englishman, David Thompson, who worked there for most of the 1930s as tutor to the Kirkwood family's two young daughters, one of whom - Phoebe - was a well-known painter. Sometimes naive, sometimes sentimental, it's strong in its evocation of place and in its documentation of the passing of Anglo-Irish culture. The very north of the county, hilly terrain where farmland gives way to the moors and lakes of the Arigna Mountains , is a good introduction to the more spectacular landscape over the county border in Sligo. You can break your journey in the twin villages of Ballyfarnon and Keadue and, outside Keadue by the ruins of the sixth-century Killoran Abbey , visit the grave of the famous blind harpist Turlough O'Carolan .
Your Tip for Lough Key Forest Park and Woodbrook
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Lough Key Forest Park and Woodbrook - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Lough Key Forest Park and Woodbrook - visit the main Lough Key Forest Park and Woodbrook forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Lough Key Forest Park and Woodbrook webguide section below! Thanks.
|
