It struck me a while ago that I haven’t told my international readers much about where I live and I have a draft post about Castlecomer (nearest town) somewhere in the archives that I will return to at some stage. Today though, I’m going to tell you about the beauties of Co. Carlow. Although I live in Co. Laois, it’s really in a tiny corner of it and as our address is Carlow (strictly speaking it’s via Carlow, Co. Laois but no one bothers with that) and Carlow is my nearest town, I’ve often considered myself to be more of a Carlow woman than a Laois woman. I was taken to task over it on the radio once when an listener rang in to complain that I’d said I was from Carlow when I live in Crettyard which is Co. Laois. That kinda made me more determined to describe myself as a Carlovian although I’ve no particular favouritism at all – it’s not like the two counties will ever be playing each other in a hurling final!
I was somewhat amused (although I’d imagine many were irritated) by a discussion on local radio only last week. They were discussing the number of pubs in Carlow and Kilkenny. If I remember correctly, Carlow has 103 and Kilkenny has just short of 200. Now, Kilkenny is a bigger county and has a bigger population I’d imagine but the two having the discussion thought part of the reason was due to the beauty of Kilkenny, that it has the castle, that more tourists are drawn to it etc. It is true that Carlow has often been overlooked in the tourism stakes. Located between Kilkenny with its medieval history, castle, cathedral, narrow atmospheric streets and Wicklow, the Garden of Ireland, it can be hard for Carlow to stand out. It was further proved by that radio discussion I thought.
The truth is that Carlow has so much to offer and I’m going to be seeing some of it on Sunday as a ‘tourist’ in a way as I’ve been invited to go along on a Taste of Carlow tour as a blogger, organised by Green & Vibrant and we will have Bianka of Carlow Tours giving us the guided tour. For me, Altamont Gardens are the jewel in Carlow’s crown – fabulous gardens and the fact that they have a long walk through a wood to the river and then back up again through the 100 steps means that the kids enjoy it too. There’s one small bridge and we always have a game as we pass – although the children will only play it now if there is no one around. It involves one of us pretending to be the troll and catching the 3 of us as we pretend to be the billy goats as we dash across! Long may those days last! There’s not many counties have a gardens to equal or even come close to Altamont in my opinion.
I do find that we all forget to visit the beauties and tourist attractions of our own areas, there’s always that feeling of ‘I can visit that anytime’ but we never get around to it unless we bring visitors. I’m conscious that I visited Mitchellstown caves when in Cork but have yet to visit Dunmore Caves which is only ten miles away!
Taste of Carlow (hashtag on twitter and facebook is #tastecarlow) is on next Sunday 31st August. There’s lots going on and you can read more about it on Dee’s blog. I (along with other bloggers) will be visiting Ducketts Grove with its gothic castle (it has a fabulous tearooms with Madeleine’s award winning scones), then to the Dolmen of Carlow. We’re also going to be watching food demos and I’m particularly looking forward to seeing the cheesemaking. We’re off to Huntingdon Gardens after that. It’s a few years since I’ve been there but I love the Yew walk in particular. Apparently they have a lovely tea rooms there now too. To finish the evening, we are off to Step House in Borris, a place that has been on my ‘to visit’ place for a long time.
So, whether you are a Carlovian or a visitor to Carlow next weekend, do visit it for the Taste of Carlow, take photos, share your experiences, follow the hashtag #tastecarlow and join in the experience. I’ll be tweeting and taking photos and I’ll share the experience in a blog post next week for any of you that live abroad and missed it!
