Roscommon

Traditional Early House
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Friday 11 April

The good news first, we corrected yesterdays major oversight and found a pub for lunch. And gee it was good. Smithwick’s with a Guinness head of course.

Visited the Cultural Life Centre in Castlebar this morning. An excellent expose of life over time in Ireland. Very harsh conditions in the early days particularly for the seaweed collectors in the cold ocean.

Ireland was once covered in forests but these were all cut down for fuel and use in everyday things about 400 yrs ago. What they did with what was left was remarkable.

Early House, walls woven and turf
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A small demonstration house has been constructed on site using traditional methods and it has been left unfinished in parts to show the building techniques. It is made from turf, reed thatch, woven branches, straw, mud daub and stones.

This contrasts dramatically with the wealthy family home built over an old castle ruin for a wealthy family.

The pictures show the dramatic difference between a workers woven mud daub house and the comfortable stone mutlti storey building of a landlord.

Early House, turf walls, thatched roof
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Drove into some local snow as we went towards Roscommon. It was the snow that drove us to seek refuge in a warm pub at lunchtime. It was really a matter of survival.

Arrived at Roscommon around 3.30pm and are staying in our most expensive hotel yet, the Abbey Hotel. Very nice old world. This is the one with the torture pool. It also has a sauna, a steam room and a very cold plunge pool. There has been one visit to this facility with the survivors emerging and claiming to be refreshed. Another (torture) session is planned for the morning.

Early House, fireplace
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We have crossed the Irish sea and driven around much of the Irish coast but there have been no waves higher than a foot. I am not going to test the water temperature as it is cold enough outside. I have secretly been thinking how can I fabricate a handplane so that I can get full advantage out of it on the French Riviera? Its proving a challenge without raw materials and tools, but a challenge worth overcoming.

Coastal Watch works well in Ireland and I have been keeping up on the conditions. Something has gone wrong, I am away but the surf has not been advised. Lads you better fix that. I do note there is an increase in swell forecast for mid week.

Expensive Family Home
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We had another planning meeting to work out what we do next week when we get to Europe. There was much productive discussion (conjecture). The agreed object is to go to Ljubljana in Slovenia as the most easterly point in our trip. But how do we get there?

We are looking to cover an area of about 300km wide along the route the vans will take and drive in one car for an hour or so to get to the places of interest. Things are so close together and it is surprising what you can get to. We have a general route in mind but it will not be firm until a day or so in advance. The meeting concluded in the usual disarray with no concrete plan, no agreed minutes or firm conclusion (maybe we should have had a chairperson). Names like Berlin, Florence, Venice, Prague and Amsterdam are on the list for the route to Ljubljana.