Adara then Narin-Portnoo Strand - 16 May 2023

16 May 2023 - Ardara & Narin-Portnoo Strand

Could hear the sea again last night going to sleep, along with the sheep - always good!

As it was such a beautiful beach, felt the need to go for a swim. Reminded me a little of Petit Port at home. Went down about 9am, because of the breeze - felt chilly. Only in for about 10 minutes - and yes - was chilly, especially without boots and gloves. Always feel better afterwards, though didn’t totally get rid of probably self-induced headache - had some red wine last night!

Having seen the roads out to the peninsula last night, previously I would have been dreading my turn to drive today - think I’m over that now!

Stopped off at the Glencolmcille Folk Village - a cluster of six traditional cottages reflecting life from different eras of Irish history, from 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Was €7 admission each, Tintin wasn’t keen - I was on the fence - so gave it a miss! Tintin took a few photos from outside.

The drive to Ardara was about 30km. Definitely not the best - but very scenic! Today for most of that journey, we had to find a pull in if traffic was coming the other way - luckily not much traffic. Really wallowing roads.

Also very steep near Malaidh Ghleann Gheis, no, we can’t pronounce it either!

Parked up in the main carpark in Ardara. We asked the coach driver next to us if he thought it would be ok to park in the coach park and go for a walk (bearing in mind there were cars there too!). That lead to about a 30 minute chat with a lovely coach driver.

There really wasn’t much to see in the town, despite signs saying it’s the best village to live in Ireland!

However, highlight of the day was going into Triona Donegal Tweed centre. On our way we’d driven by a coach stopped outside, so thought it might be just another touristy shop. But no! At the back, a gentleman was weaving. A lovely man called Conal, who is 79! Been working in this trade all his life. On one colour, he can create about 4m per hour, on two colours about 2m per hour. When he first started out filling bobbins for 6 weavers, he earnt £1 and 17 shillings a week! Back in the day, there were 26 weavers working downstairs, now there’s himself and he’s trained the young lady. It takes about 8 hours to set up the loom, as each strand of wool is attached separately. All the bits of cord you can see in the photo are adjustable using slip knots to change the tension.

We were just talking about our travels, and he said that 51 years ago, he had his honeymoon in Dublin - and had his car stolen!

I can’t get over the amount of co-ordination needed - just look at the video showing the feet!

I’m guessing it’s like when I used to watch my Mum knit, she could talk to me, watch tv - whatever - yet instinctively knew what she was doing. Another skill I never learnt! I do remember her knitting Derek a ‘proper’ Guernsey jumper - took ages, plus her fingers were sore from the special oiled wool she used…

I’m quite disappointed that I don’t actually like the feel of the finished garments, if I’d buy from anywhere - it would have been there!

Thank you Conal and the friendly staff there - so interesting to see you at work and hear about the process.

From there, back to Dave for a very late lunch. Next drive only about 30 minutes to Narin-Portnoo Strand.

We’re parked up right in front of a very pretty beach. Opposite is a little monastic island called Inishkeel which you can access at low tide.

Think the borrow box of toys is a great idea!

Went for a walk along the shore line - goes on and on…

When the tide was lower you could see the waves crashing into each other coming from different directions.

Tintin has been up trying to sort out the annoying squeak we get from the overhead bed when driving on bumpy roads. Last time he thought he’d cracked it - but no!