|
| |
|
BANAGHER |
| |
|
|
| |
A couple of miles downstream from Shannon Harbour, BANAGHER consists
of one long street sloping down to the Shannon, fortified on the
Connacht side by a Martello tower. With the construction of a new
marina, it's rapidly turning itself into a relaxed and elegant tourist
centre for the Irish Midlands, as it once was in the nineteenth century
when Anthony Trollope was sent here as a Post Office surveyor in 1841,
and wrote his first book, The Macdermots of Ballycloran ; Charlotte
Brontė spent her honeymoon here.
Cloghan Castle , two miles out of town and signposted from the centre,
is a massive Norman tower house with Georgian additions, inside an
equally massive enclosure (May-Sept Wed-Sat 2-6.50pm; £4/5.08;
£70-90/88.88-114.28). Inhabited continuously for more than eight hundred
years, it packs a wealth of history, starting with a seventh-century
monastery founded by St Cronan on the site. You can also stay here and
eat breakfast in the magnificent dining hall, warmed in winter by a
massive fire. The Thompsons, who own Cloghan, have another pile, Emmell
Castle , thirteen miles to the south, which is not open to view but you
can rent it. A sixteenth-century keep with a Georgian house attached, it
sleeps seven and costs from £400/508 to £500/635 a week, and £300/381
for a three-day weekend. When visiting Cloghan Castle, you can also take
in Lusmagh Pet Farm (summer daily 2-6pm; £2/2.54) for some therapeutic
patting of pigs and sheep, and interaction with geese and ostriches.
Close to the castle, and also signposted from Banagher, is Victoria Lock
, a local beauty spot, where the Shannon runs into two separate
channels. Trollope's biographer, James Pope-Hennessy, found the
vegetation "so rich and wild, so tangled and impenetrable", that he was
moved to compare it, in unreflective colonial tones, to Jamaica or
Dominica. It's certainly a beautiful place; beneath the lock, released
from artificial constraints, the river spills over once more across its
floodplain.
There's a wayward local variant on Classical architecture: two houses on
the main street have pepperpot towers, inside which everything curves -
doors, fanlights, pediments, the lot. One of these, dated around 1760,
has been transformed into a first-rate hostel , Crank House (IHH; tel
0509/51458). It also houses a tourist office (March-Oct Mon-Fri
9.30am-8pm, Sat & Sun 9.30am-5pm) as well as the regional offices of
Crann, an organization dedicated to the preservation of Ireland's
woodlands, and a fine coffee shop (daily 7am-9pm). There's B&B
accommodation across the road at the startlingly pink Old Forge (tel
0509/51504; £33-40/41.90-50.79) and a comfortable friendly hotel, The
Brosna Lodge (tel 0509/51350; £33-40/41.90-50.79).
Banagher also provides a good base for exploring Clara Bog , a large
(665 hectares) and relatively unspoiled tract of raised bog. Bord na
Mona planned to develop it for industrial-scale peat-cutting and began
draining the eastern section in the early 1980s, but in 1987 public
pressure resulted in its takeover by the Office of Public Works. In the
bog you can find rare species of lichen, moss and the uniquely adapted
plants that are able to survive in the intensely acid environment -
including, in the hollows and pools, the carnivorous sundews and
bladderworts that like to supplement their diet with unwary insects.
Check the Banagher tourist office for more information on walks into the
bog or the Shannon floodplain.
The range of eating and drinking places reflects the extra visitors the
town is getting. For daytime eating, The Water's Edge offers coffee and
snacks - and a fine view of the pitch 'n' putt course on the opposite
bank. The Vine House restaurant and music bar, close to the river, has a
courtyard garden and reasonably priced, elegantly hearty menu with an
emphasis on seafood. The Brosna Lodge 's restaurant, Snipes , has a
good, if slightly pricier, menu - try the excellent potato and nettle
soup. There's a handful of bars - the Shannon Hotel , on the main
street, often has music and also has a pleasant garden where you can sit
outside in good weather; J.J. Hough's , on Main St, is a good old
singing pub where drinkers are openly encouraged to take the mike. You
can rent bikes from K. Donegan in the main street (tel 0509/51178), and
canoes from Shannon Adventure Canoeing Holidays (tel 0509/51411). Boats
are also available for rent from Carrick-Craft (tel 0509/51189) to
cruise up the Shannon: a Clare Class cruiser, which will sleep up to
eight, costs between £800/1016 and £1500/1905 per week, although smaller
boats are available from £250/317.50. Short cruises on the river are
available on Thursdays and Sundays on board the River Queen , an
enclosed launch with a full bar (tel 0509 51112; £4/5.08).
|
| |
|
