All Very Irish

We enjoyed our time at Derreen, and, while we were there, I took one of our official 'bears on holiday' snaps for the Bears Unlimited company album. What a fine trio of bears, even though George is a adopting the Victorian father pose. Rosa and Yorkie hasten to add that they're not his children.

Of course, with one of our minders going away, we had a couple of runs, to and from Cork airport, to do. We made the most of the travelling and had a couple of stops off, to see places and things of interest.

One was Cromwell's bridge in the town of Kenmare, which you see, along with us, in our next photo.  

 

It was a very high bridge for such a small river, and we wondered what tall vessels had travelled under it in the past. The sides were actually a lot steeper than they look and, as it was drizzling while we were there, the stones were very slippery. We felt we would have needed a climbing rope to safely cross the bridge, so we didn't. The packhorses who used to use it is times past, must have been surer footed than us.

The bridge quite intrigued us, so we consulted the town trail that Tourist Information had kindly given us to find our more about it. We learned that, even though it was called Cromwell's bridge. Cromwell himself had never been to this part of Ireland. The name seems to have originated from the Irish word for moustache, and we have to agree that the bridge is more than a little moustache shaped.

Moving on, unlike the rest of my Bears Unlimited companions, I, Patrick, being Irish born and bred was brought up as a good Catholic bear. And so, when I saw a sign to a holy well in the corner of a layby, I felt drawn to investigate, taking the others with me. 

We walked through wood for several minutes, and we were beginning to think we would never find it,when we came across a slate indicating the entrance.

  

We went through a rickety iron gate, and then ... we were very disappointed. There was a sludgy puddle, a bare light bulb and a few rather tacky offerings and some ornamental dolls which rather gave me the creeps. It was a bit of an experience and it did serve to make me realise that I'm not missing too much of my past.

We didn't linger as we were eager to go and pick up our minder.

Lots of love Patrick and friends xxx