Day 18. Lost in the Forest...

Got up this morning to get Tara's room ready and pulled back the curtain to see...this looking back at me!

It was our neighbour, George the peacock (precise address unknown). He likes our roof as it's mossier than that of our neighbours and presumably more comfortable...

By the time Tara arrived to take up residency, George had gone. We set off on our architectural adventures, Tara and Freya becoming temporary research assistants on the Irish Folk Gothic project. We went to Curraghchase, the abandoned home of the de Vere family, and its neighbouring lake which has attached to it an Arthurian-style legend of a lady in the lake.

On our way home we made an abortive attempt to reach this amazing looking place - Dromore Castle, location for Neil Jordan's High Spirits.

But after an hour and a half of bramble-fighting and nettle-stinging, we simply gave up. It's like Sleeping Beauty's castle, surrounded by endless twists of thorns, and then by a primeval looking forest, festooned with cobwebs...

We left, scratched (Tara), stung (me). I secretly vowed to return and find it!