Ireland - Day 3

We leave our hotel for the day to travel to Carlingford Lough en route to the ruins of Newgrange. Carlingford lies between Slieve Foy Mountain, Carlingford Lough and the Mourne mountains. Carlingford is a medieval city with much of the buildings dating back to that time. We spent some time wandering through the small city. Being a Sunday morning, all was very quiet with little but a pair of European greenfinches to notice our presence. The shoreline of Carlingford Lough was equally placid with little in the way of avian life to draw our attention.

Around the ruins of the 5000 year old tomb at Newgrange were numerous Pied wagtails. These wagtails are simply a British/Irish race of the White wagtail which is found in the rest of Europe. The Pied wagtails are darker above (almost black in summer) and a sooty gray below.As we headed down the road from Newgrange bound for the little town of Keady, we were treated to a spectacular rainbow through the coach window. We could only imagine the leprechaun guarding the pot-o-gold at the rainbow’s end.
We reached our day’s end destination at Tossie’s Cottage for a traditional Irish “session ”. Musicians from the countryside gather together at this farmhouse to mix, mingle and most of all play and sing. The farmhouse is on the property of the Makem family, perhaps the most famous musical family in all of Ireland. We were hosted by Tommy Makem’s brother John. We were treated to some of the most wonderful Irish folk music you could ever hope for as well as plenty of Guinness and Jamesons. We were all sorry to leave this magical place and the magical gathering that took place. Truly a piece of Ireland we will never forget.