Ireland day 0013. Monday 11 October 2021- Laurence

Ireland day 0013. Monday 11 October 2021- Laurence
Today’s summary Chores in the morning then walk into central Drogheda to inspect the ancient St Laurance’s Gate.   Sandwich lunch at 5:30pm in Tesco’s car park(!)
Today’s weather Dry all day with long sunny intervals.   Not too windy.   About 15C
IMG_4645 IMG_4644
Today’s overview location
(the red cross in a circle shows where Val and I are at the moment)
Close-up location
(Click button below to download GPX of our walk)
Laurence GPX
Commentary

We still haven’t heard anything from the property agent and consequently we don’t know where we are going to be living next.   So if that’s all you were reading today’s blog to find out, you can stop now.   For everyone else, ourselves included, we will just have to be patient for a bit longer.

After nearly two weeks in the cottage, it was time to change the linen (fortunately we don’t have to wash it ourselves – that would be a life’s work) and do a bit of cleaning.   Given the microscopic floorplan, that shouldn’t have taken long.   But nevertheless, it was early afternoon before we were ready to head off into Drogheda to do some shopping (it really was one of those days) and then to take a short stroll into the town to visit another of the Boyne Valley’s many historic ruins.   In fact I think we have seen almost all of the major ones now, so St Laurence’s Gate was was the last on the list.

The Gate was built into the fortified wall which once stood around the whole of the town of Drogheda.   The wall was completed by the Anglo-Normans between 1250 and 1334.   It successfully held against attacks by Edward Bruce (Robert the Bruce of Scotland’s younger brother) in 1317 and again in 1642 by the anti-English rebel Sir Phelim O’Neill.   Drogheda finally succumbed to the murderous attack by Oliver Cromwell who breached the walls in 1649 and slaughtered over 2,000 of the town’s royalist inhabitants.   He also despatched many of the survivors to Barbados as slaves.   Even today, Cromwell is, understandably, a vehemently disliked character in these parts.   The walls remained intact despite Cromwell’s attentions, but were sadly mostly dismantled in the name of modernisation much more recently.

Having absorbed yet another heavyweight dose of Anglo-Irish history, we retreated to Tesco’s (where we had parked the car – again) and enjoyed a late lunch as we watched the sun set from the comfort of the car park.

And now – Val has just finished her Irish lesson (go raibh míle maith agat), and now it’s time to see if the aurora is visible from the darkness of our back garden

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)

IMG_4654 IMG_4643
Dilapidated barge moored on the Boyne quayside on the eastern outskirts of Drogheda.   River definitely tidal here, and has a clear run to the sea Fuschias seem to thrive all over Ireland.   They were in spectacular full bloom in Drogheda today, in mid October.   Reflects the mild and wet climate
IMG_4647 IMG_4661
Modern dockland developments popping up along the old harbourside.   Seems to be a feature of estuarine cities the world over St Laurence’s Gate, built around 1250 AD, catching the late afternoon sun.   The only one of the 25-or-so gates in the original walls to have survived to today.   20th century town planners apparently did more damage to these ancient monuments than 8 centuries of invaders
IMG_4667 IMG_4669
Looking down Cord Road – the main drag in Drogheda – to the Gate Yet another Martello tower, overlooking the town.   The Martello design was appropriated by the British  when forts of similar design successfully repelled a British attack on Mortello Point, Corsica, in 1794
IMG_4670
Apart from the bungalow next door, and the down jackets, we could almost have been in Provence this morning
You can read earlier and later days’ blogs below

Previous day’s blog
Next day’s blog
Ireland home page

 Save as PDF