M and I spent Monday night in Enniskillen, in County Fermanagh. Our first stop was Florence Court, an 18th century manor house and grounds, just south of Enniskillen. The weather was beautiful and we decided to skip the house tour and walk the grounds. We liked seeing the old Icehouse and old sawmill. The first Irish yew trees were discovered on Florence Court grounds and grafted to other trees to spread the species around Ireland. We like thinking that we saw the great-grandma Irish yew.
After a couple of hours at Florence Court, we drove into town and checked into our hotel. After dropping our bags in our room, we walked into the center of town and visited Enniskillen Castle and museums. M enjoyed learning about the castle's history and following their History Detective trail. The original castle building dates from 1420, with other buildings added in the 1700s and 1800s. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
We had dinner at the hotel's bar and breakfast in the restaurant before starting off Tuesday morning. We drove back toward Derry with a long stop at the Ulster American Folk Park. The Folk Park has an exhibit on Irish Emigration to the US and buildings dating from the 19th century in both Ireland and the US. The trail starts with rural Irish houses with volunteers in period dress acting as a blacksmith, a weaver, and a baker. We liked watching the blacksmith work on making a pair of tongs and tasting the soda bread. The next houses are actual homes owned by the Mellon family, before they emigrated to the US. This family went on to found Mellon Bank in Pennsylvania. There is a replica Irish town, with a shipyard and a replica of a sailing ship that emigrants would have taken to the US. After walking through the ship and out the other side, the next buildings are replicas of a US town. The last houses are replicas of the first houses owned by the Mellons upon arriving in PA and a home owned by an Irish immigrant in West Virginia.
We arrived back in Derry mid-afternoon and were glad to see Steve at dinner and share our adventure with him. Today we've stayed at home and started to get things ready for the movers, who come Monday. I can't believe that by this time next week, we'll be on a plane to the US. The summer has flown by!
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