Day 8: Rathbaun Farm and Newmarket on Fergus

We’ve gotten another day behind on blogging, we will try not to let this happen again! We can only say it’s because we are enjoying our time and learning so much that by the end of the evenings we are so tired that all we can think about is closing the blackout shades and getting some sleep! The sun doesn’t set until 10:55pm here so we have yet to see a sunset 😴

On Friday we woke up in Galway and went straight to the Galway Crystal Factory hoping to get a tour. Unfortunately they no longer holds tours so instead we just perused the shop. Then, we got on the road and headed for Rathbaun Farm in Rathbaun, County Galway. It rained for most of our ride lightly, mostly. We arrived at the farm too early and were told quite politely to come back in an hour because there was not much to do or see in the rain at that time. So we entered the closest castle into our Google maps and took off to explore the area. It was Dunguaire Castle and it was gorgeous, even in the rain and clouds. 



We took the very narrow winding road back to the farm and arrived just as the downpour began. We looked at the radar and saw that it seem to be passing quickly so we sat in the car and crossed our fingers. Sure enough, not five minutes later the sun was out for the first time all day!






This was one of the highlights of our entire fellowship, because we booked the scone making class as well as the sheepdog herding demonstration. It was all phenomenal, we enjoyed school and making so much that we purchased the recipe to try at home with our family and at school with our students! We did chat with the farm people and everyone agrees that the flour is different here in Ireland.











While our scones or baking we went outside for a tour of the farm, led by the owner farmer and his herding dog Bailey. We got to see some very special breeds of sheep including one day old babies. Then we saw a herding demonstration… It was so interesting to hear that the dog doesn’t use noise to herd but eye contact with the sheep!










Around 3:30 PM we got back on the road and headed to our bed-and-breakfast for the evening in the town of Newmarket – on – Fergus. Noreen welcomed us and was a very gracious host. She explained that we were on a working farm and we were allowed to explore the almost 100 acres of land as we wished.









We did stop off at Dromoland Castle on our way, a very large estate that includes golf, hotel, spa, and weddings! We were able to walk around and take a few photos.









That evening we went into the village of Bunratty for dinner at The Creamery pub which came highly recommended by Noreen, our B&B host. It just happened that her sisters were visiting from the UK and had just arrived that morning. She told us she may very well see us there, and she did! So of course we had to snap a selfie together at the bar. Unfortunately the Bunratty folk village and castle tours were closed, so we made plans to come back in the morning before we got back on the road again.







It is important to note that we tried so hard to stay up for the sunset since this was the longest day of the year, summer solstice. However, as I mentioned at the start of this post the sun does not set until nearly 11:00 PM and we are usually unable to make it past 9:30. But here is a photo from our B&B as close to sunset as we could get lol











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