July 25, 2024

July 25, 2024

This morning we hung around the Crossmolina area. Our first stop was Gortnor Abbey, the boarding school that Aimee’s mom attended. It is on the shore of Lough Conn. We drove south for a long walk on the grounds of the Enniscoe House estate. It is also on the shore of the lake.

After a lunch of tea and Irish Soda bread, we drove to the farmhouse that was Aimee’s mom’s family home. It is now owned by the cousins who have renovated it to modern standards. Humorously they have a semi-pet fox that comes daily looking for a food handout. He is a little shy with strangers around.

We went for a long walk into the surrounding bog lands. They are common areas where the locals go to dig turf. While the cutting is now done mechanically, the rest of the process is hard work. The turf pieces must be stacked into little piles for drying. Later they have to be collected, transported, and unloaded. Worn out, we return to the farmhouse for a nice lunch.

Aimee's cousins all have a strong affinity for the fields they each own. The zeal for land must be an inherited national legacy from a century ago when only 3% of native Irish owned the farms they worked.