CONTENTS 06-07
It’s almost Christmas - can you believe it? 2020 has certainly been a memorable year, even if it is not for the reasons most people had hoped. However, the year is almost behind us, a vaccine has been found - hurrah! - and we may soon all be tucking into a turkey on a sun-soaked beach! However, there is still plenty to do
at home! Inside the fifth edition of The Local Tourist, Chelsea took her mum on a much-needed staycation to medieval town of Kilkenny, Gemma found her ‘river’ legs on board a Le Boat cruiser, author Paul Clements followed in the footsteps of the writer and singer Richard Hayward as he took a look back at the Ireland of the 1930s, and Kirsty drove off into the sunset on a weekend motorhome adventure with Glamper UK. Whatever you get up to over the
next few months, we hope you all have a very healthy and happy Christmas and New Year and we look forward to bringing you more at-home adventures (which you can squeeze in around your beach- getaways) next year! Oh and don’t forget to enter our
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Our Editor Kirsty Johnston and her husband headed off to the North Coast on a motorhome adventure with Glamper UK
Top River Shannon Experiences
The River Shannon is having a moment. Travel writer Paul Clements, author of a new book on the river, lists 10 ways in which the Shannon weaves its meandering magic, and where its essence can be distilled in an uncertain world.
1) The Light of Heaven
There is a feel-good factor to the Shannon light, especially when a rainbow breaks through with a background of a bridge in Lanesborough or Rooskey. Frequently you will find magnificent pilings of wispy cirrus cloud formations created by the sense of space. Cloud shadows rarely race over the river but slumber sedately with the ebbing and flowing mirroring the water. The spears of light are known to some as the ‘light of heaven’.
2) Callows hay meadows
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When God designed the callows he built in social distancing – these tranquil hay meadows on natural grassland between Athlone and Portumna are largely empty of humanity aside from farmers who divide it into strips. Fragranced by the beautiful coumarin of freshly cut hay in the summer, there is a stillness here with more than enough room for everyone. Dawdle amongst the wildflowers and Instagram the tall pink spikes of willowherb, or wild valerian, checking the names with your Picture This app.
3) Heritage of the past
While the limelight may be stolen by King John’s Castle in Limerick or Athlone Castle, the atmospheric suite of medieval ruins at Rindoon on Lough Ree or Beagh castle on the Shannon estuary offers less crowded fun. The Workhouses in Carrick-on-Shannon and Portumna are also thought-provoking places in which to spend time contemplating the past.
4) Pack a Picnic
Jump on a boat to Holy Island on Lough Derg for an unforgettable day out and pack a picnic lunch. Ger Madden runs trips from Mountshannon harbour and you can easily spend a couple of hours wandering around the island drinking in its timelessness with your drinks and sandwiches. There is a pervasive sense of history and mystery about the ruins with the roofless tenth century round
tower dominating the skyline. 03
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Chelsea Cousins took her mum for a well-deserved break to Kilkenny
5) Search for the Worm’s Ditch Bring your wellies, explore the riverbank and launch a fun search for traces of the Black Pig’s Dyke, an ancient ditch or earthworks that runs close to the Shannon at Jamestown Canal in Co Leitrim. Stretching from Donegal to Down, via Roscommon, Leitrim and Longford, it has different names, such as the Doon or the Worm’s Ditch. On some maps, it is marked with a broken red line but requires clambering over five-bar gates and squelching through muddy fields to pin it down.
6) Cycle the Snake in the Lake
Build in an afternoon to cycle the ‘Snake in the Lake’, named for the way it twists along a floating boardwalk from Acres Lake in Drumshanbo to Leitrim village. Part of the Shannon Blueway, the cycle route has brought a new lease of life to the area. You do not need an expensive bike or wardrobe full of Lycra to tackle it since the going is easy, especially if you hire an ebike from Electric Bike Trails in Leitrim. The route is on the flat with a natural stopping point at Battlebridge for a restorative coffee.
7) Finding river fortifications
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Gemma Weir took her family on a
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Paul Clements took a meandering journey along the River Shannon
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Scour the fields and you will stumble across derelict structures such as the defensive Shannon Napoleonic fortifications brooding over strategic river crossing points. This summer, Fort Eliza in Banagher, a five-sided, four-gun battery, built around 1812 and looking out over the river, was awarded a grant of €35,000 from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (match-funded by Waterways Ireland as part of its Conservation Management Plan) for important renovation work. And the locals in Mick Hough’s pub will be quick to tell you: ‘That beats Banagher,
and Banagher beats the band.’ 8) Go with the Shannon flow
Rivers shape the landscape and one of the best ways of appreciating the Shannon is on the Viking longboat from Athlone to Clonmacnoise. This sleek boat dates from 1923 and is a replica of a Viking Knarr, the Norse merchant ship used for Atlantic voyages. En route to the ‘celestial city’ it passes quiet meadowland and a secretive countryside where it becomes an ecclesiastical superhighway. One you pass the Esker Riada, a glacial ridge, which marked a political boundary line in ancient Ireland, you round a bend and the grey stone buildings of Ireland’s preeminent holy site come
into view in the watery distance.
Shannon Country: A River Journey Through Time by Paul Clements is published by The Lilliput Press at £13. His biography Romancing Ireland: Richard Hayward 1892-1964, is also published by Lilliput at £15. Both are
available from bookshops or from
lilliputpress.ie.
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