Monday 9 May 2011

Hey Honey I'm Home

Hello my lovelies, I'm back from a whirlwind tour of beautiful Ireland and my purse is definitely with me on wanting to get back to the car boot sales and the charity shops as it was a tad expensive!  I'm also having massive boot sale withdrawl symptoms after driving through Bristol and Wales on our way to the ferry and seeing all these boot sales on the go and knowing I wasn't allowed to stop and have my fix.

So a brief run through of my holiday.  We stayed at a fabulous cottage on the south east coast at a place called 'Our Lady's Island'.  This island has a small church which is the site of a pilgrimage every year in August. There is a beautiful statue of the Virgin Mary on the island as well as a shrine, I love things like this so I was out camera in hand as soon as I saw it:


As you can see the weather wasn't brilliant and rained pretty much the whole week - bummer.  If you are a fan of ruins there was a bit for you on Our Lady's Island too:

Although I thought it was a bit freaky with the cross upside down - this piece must have fallen from the main tower and landed like this.

I did smile on our entrance to the island where by some one had graffited over 'Our Lady' and replaced it with 'craggy' so we were amused for the day that we were staying on Craggy Island but the folks there obviously didn't see the funny side and the sign was replaced the next day before I got a picture!

We went to the beach where the opening scenes of 'Saving Private Ryan' were filmed:


Again please note the weather ;o)

I found some old graveyards (yes I have a weird fascination of old graveyards)


We visited Waterford Crystal:

This chandelier was in the cafe (the classiest cafe I've ever visited lol). This ceiling gem could be yours to take home for 30,000 euro - shame we couldn't fit it in the car, would have had two ;o)

We visited JFK's ancestral home:



JFK visited this home on the 27th June 1963 and then sadly was assassinated shortly after on the 22nd November 1963.  The young man who owns this property is a descendant of the Kennedy family and he showed us footage of his grandma and his mum meeting JFK at this his home.

Next up was a visit to Hook Lighthouse:

This is the oldest Lighthouse in the world - not looking bad on it either!

And my favourite visit was to Wicklow Gaol:

Now a little fact about me is that I'm fascinated by jails/gaols/prisons.  I swear I must have been banged up in prison for a crime in a previous life.  I made sure on our honeymoon in Hawaii that we had a stop off at San Francisco so I could visit Alcatraz and not to mention the scary and haunting visit to Fremantle Prison when we were backpacking in Australia. So Wicklow Gaol was top of my list of places to visit especially as I'd recently watched Ghost Hunters International and seen all the freaky happenings here.

Its dark and moody inside - right up my street.  If you want a bit of history about Wicklow Gaol check out here. There were plenty of scary figures:


As well as people dressed in costume popping out when you least expect it.  I was also foolish enough to walk into the solitary confinement cell which was pitch black:


Where by ever so funny hubby decided to shut the cell door - cue lots of screaming from me, not my finest hour but that cell was nasty especially as we were told that one man was locked up in there and forgotten, his dead body was found a good time later.

 Cell drawing.
Carving into the cell bed bench.

Finley was well behaved during his prison tour but as soon as we got to the second tier of the gaol he started really crying.  When we arrived at the exit we were asked how he got on, explaining the second tier meltdown the tour guide informed up that this was where the children were locked up, spooky!

On our way out we got to see a replica of 'The Treadwheel' which was a torturous punishment for the inmates:

They were made to walk on the wheel for an average of 48 steps per minute and this punishment could last up to 5 hours!  This wheel was not linked to any power generating device so was purely for punishment.

So that's enough of my holiday rambling - no charity shop surprises as only found 2 and they were both full of new stuff and one didn't even have a bric-a-brac shelf - sheesh! lol.

I will be catching up on all your blogs in the next few days promise :o)

Scarlett x

22 comments:

  1. WOHOO!!! Scarlett's back and safely home!!! I've missed you sooo much!! ok..i'll be flooding your comment box now...this is just a start, coz i'm sooo glad you're back!! x Susan

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  2. It looks like you had a fun trip!! I'm so enjoying your virtual tour! coz i know i wont be going anywhere this year haha..love the virgin marie statue, gorgeous shot of upside down ruin and the beach looks so lovely! i did notice the upside down cross too and i think what you said explains it! it must have fallen from the main tower..beautiful though!

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  3. Glad you're back safe and sound Scarlett, I missed you. Thanks for the little tour of Ireland. Sorry to hear it was a bit of a fizzer as far as charity shops are concerned but I'm sure you'll make up for it in no time!!!

    p.s I have not been to Freo Jail as I'm a bit of a chicken and places like that freak me out. Did they run the underground tunnel tour when you went? Too too scary for me. x

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  4. I also love old graveyards!! been in a few around west sussex and it's so beautiful and serene and peaceful! oh my gosh! what a gorgeous chandelier, i think if i bought one, im afraid my house ceiling wouldnt be able to hold it hhahaha (sigh, the fate of having a run down house). I suck at history so thank you for letting us know on JFK ancestral home, it looks so cottagey and i adore lighthouses! especially with bright colors hehe.

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  5. now onto the Gaol/prison fascinations of yours, i had to laugh at what you said that you might be in prison in previous life hahaha, i must say it's nice to know more about you and i'm sooo glad that you didnt locked yourself up in that cell! i shudder to think abt that man whose body found there! oh the photos are sooo scary!! I did watch a few times of the ghost stories or haunted places before hubby banned me as i seem to easily have nightmares after watching scary or horror movies/programmes but i am so curious and though i screamed easily and jumpy, i still watch them, maybe the little excitement that prompting me to watch, i dont know! but at least i can make hubby jumpy whenever i screamed in my sleep or suddenly shot up in bed after having a nightmare hehe. once again glad you're back and cant wait to see you back in bootsales and charity shops and show us your treasures/finds again! xx Susan

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  6. hiya , you were here and did not stop by to say hi ??? only kidding , glad to see you had a great time in our little part of the world , i live here and have not been to any of the places in your photos except hook lighthouse ! ...you are right about the charity shops though they are not the best here very few and far between will you find an actual one that has real bargains and treasures x tfs
    xmaggiex

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  7. Looks like you had a fab time, I'm the same, love graveyards, ghosts, jails, anything scary! glad you're back :)

    Bee happy x
    Have a delicious day!

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  8. Welcome back and wow - who knew Craggy Island could be so interesting? (I LOVE that show!) Sorry you didn't have great weather, but you found loads to do and see. That chandelier DEFFO needs to come home with you (how do you clean these things?). I think they've got that treadwheel in our gym - as you say, purely for punishment!

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  9. Welcome back! Those pictures are stunning. I've only ever been to Dublin and never visited any other part of Ireland. That chandelier is a stunner.
    Like you I love old graveyards and gaols. xxx

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  10. Hi Scarlett, soooo glad you're back. Enjoyed your holiday "rambling" and that was a bit freaky about Finlay crying in the children's block! Eeek. Shame about the chaz shops. I had a few similarly disappointing visits while we were away recently. Never mind, the 3 jumble sales I went to on Saturday more than made up for it!!! YAY!! xx

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  11. Sounds like you had a great trip! I want to visit Alcatraz!!

    Victoria xx

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  12. It sounds like you had a great trip. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

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  13. Scarlett glad you are back and had a wonderful holiday! Some very interesting places you visited. Thanks for the tour. hugs, Linda

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  14. Good to have you back! Photos are great. Glad you had a good trip.
    Liz

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  15. Glad your hubby let you out of the cell LOL! Looks like you had a great time. Thanks for entering my giveaway, good luck

    Carol

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  16. Hiya lovely! Sorry you didn't get your purse out much, but all the more money for bargains now you're home ;-) Looks like you had a great trip anyway, despite the weather.

    I think there must be some correlation between being a vintage lover and liking old graveyards, I guess it's that link with the past and also often the beautiful design. Mind you, the only Prison I'm fascinated with is the one which incarcerated Michael Schofield. Mmm, Prison Break. Drool.... xx

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  17. So nice to see you back ;-)) Great pictures that picture of the castle upside down made me smile. And then when i got to the first photo of Wicklow Gaol for some reason it made me shiver spooky. Roll on the weekend for you so you can find some carboot treasures ;-)) dee x

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  18. Looks like you had a great time, glad you're back, have missed your vintage finds this week. x

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  19. You're back!
    Glad you had a good time away.
    If only it was Craggy Island,"would you like a cup of tea Father?"Better stop before i launch off into my Father Ted rambles,i loved that program.
    I think i would wimp out at the prison,i had to sleep with the lights on just after watching paranormal activity...enough said!lol
    X

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  20. I don't mind graveyards in the sunshine - they can be very peaceful places and in fact we once had tea and biscuits in the graveyard at Winchelsea (my Mum was visiting and she thought we were utterly MAD)- but not in gloomy weather. That's too sad...instead of admiring the sunlit gravestones and reading all the things on them, I start thinking about all those bones under the earth.

    And my hubby would have locked me into the cell too - he loves to wind me up - men have the oddest sense of humour sometimes. I'd also have flipped my lid.

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  21. Looks a fab trip, I haven't explored Ireland nearly enough, always going to Dublin. Love Kilmainham Gaol there though! Yikes to the wheel, I'd not be able to do that for five MINUTES never mind HOURS! xxx

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