Westport to Roundstone

On our way out of Westport on Monday we stopped at the Westport house which was the home of Grace O'Malley, the pirate queen. The large house overlooks the harbor and now also has a a small pirate themed park,which was not open. There was this great bronze statue of Grace steering her ship. We went to the Clew Bay heritage center to see if they could help us with the Mulroy Clan. They had some good general information, but they referred me to another center, which I can contact from home. 

On the road to Roundstone we went thru this valley called Dun Lough, where in 1849, 600 starving

 Farmers walked 12 miles from Louisberg to the Delphi Lodge hoping that their landlord would provide them some relief. He turned them away and 200 died alongside the road on the way back. The memorial commemorates their plight .

Next stop was Kylemore Abbey , built by Mitchell Henry in the 1860's for his wife. After WW I the Benedictine took over the abbey and ran a boarding school for girls. Now it is being restored. The gardens were not in bloom yet, and our guide book recommended not taking the tour, although there were plenty of tourists doing that. This was the first time we rand into a large number of tour busses.

 Back on the road again, we stopped to take some pictures of some local fishing boats drying out at low tide and then found a great beach where we stopped for a break.

We arrived in Roundstone around 3 pm and checked into our B&B The Ivy Rock House, took a short nap an off to dinner at the local pub O'Dowds. We find it interesting that it remains light to 10 pm.