Renvyle

The purpose of our trip to Renvyle was to catch up with Debbie whom we met on our trip on the bus out to Australia. Luckily for Debbie she'd found some temporary work which meant she was absent apart from the time we spent together on the Connemara Community Radio Sponsored Walk already blogged. Debbie must have been so relieved she was away that she was even kind enough to give us unfettered access to her flat whilst we stayed in Renvyle.

During the first day or so we visited Kylemore Abbey & Gardens, previously a school run by nuns and a 'boarder' frequented by students both local and from across the globe. A stunning, perhaps foreboding property and gardens that it's original builder/owner ensured supplied the local community. Whilst today's crops are not enough to supply the house alone, let alone the local residents, the gardens remain a good enough draw to attract revenue into the surrounding economy.

Whilst we were there we also noticed some interesting sheep, but they didn't seem to either 'fleece' the visitors or provide a necessary income to pull the wool over the eyes of anyone taking a closer inspection.

Walking around the impressive gardens we also noticed the first piles of peat harvested from the nearby fields and a staple fuel of fires for many, many decades.

Travelling around Renvyle and the locality you can't fail to be impressed by the stunning scenery inland and the impressive views out to sea and we were lucky enough one afternoon to find a secluded spot in the sun on a beautiful beach to enjoy a snooze in the afternoon rays.
In addition to Debbie's hospitality we were also treated to Mr & Mrs Debbie Senior's very warm welcome throughout our stay in Renvyle.

Despite the average climate we've experienced throughout our return to Europe, during our visit to Ireland we benefited from extremely long Summer evenings with the nights not getting dark until 11pm or later giving us fantastic sunsets and twilight.

Interestingly, the local recycling centre is situated at the local school and on one of our visits to the bottle bank when we pulled up in the Smart we seemed to have coincided with the lunch break and were instantly surrounded by what seemed to be the whole school. A very excited and interested crowd quizzed us on the car and proclaimed their affection towards us - what a difference to the youth we've experienced much closer to home.