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| Roundstone Pier |
I went out to Connemara this week-end to do final research for a story I'm writing. What a place. Even though I live in the same county, it took two hours to get to the part I wanted to see. The weather was beautiful - a day-long Indian summer - and I felt blessed to have chosen this Saturday above all days to go.
I don't always find it necessary to be in the places that feature in my writing - some I research from memory or other resources - but I have found that it brings me closer to the story to be in its landscape.
And I reckoned it would be nice to go out to Connemara once again to breathe its magic. Because, as a place, it is magical - it's a hinterland of stunning mountainous beauty that has its own peculiar atmosphere. Though it is rugged, remote, wild and wet, on a day like Saturday it can feel like the gentlest most peaceful place on earth. I loved being there - I soaked in its calm.
We had tea and homemade biscuits in the haven that is
Cashel House Hotel where we met a playful dog and walked through the hotel's woodlands. (Charles de Gaulle and his wife stayed in the hotel in 1969 after he resigned as President of France.) It's a gorgeously old-fashioned place of paintings and antique furniture.
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| Tea in Cashel House |
We intruded on a private residence where the characters in my story once stayed, and the owner was nothing but friendly. In Roundstone we met the insanely talented artist
Rosie McGurran who paints women and landscapes like a dream.
We walked on the pier and took photos, watching the fishermen and smelling the fishy, crabby air. We had lunch (proper veggie food!) in
O'Dowd's Pub.
It was like being on holiday in our own county and I loved every minute of it.
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| On the pier - Roundstone |
Did all this help my story? Yes, I think so. I took notes while my husband drove and some of them may end up in the piece. In fact, I think some of them
will. The imagined setting my characters inhabited differs from the reality - the real place is richer and remoter, actually. And I think it gives me a new understanding of the characters now that I know how far, literally, they were willing to go to find tranquillity and seclusion. I certainly found peace there yesterday.
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| Roundstone |
