Clydesdale Friends

Today was a day of superlatives when the sun shone and we spent day in the company of His Lordship's nephew who picked us up after breakfast in Dublin and took us to his stamping ground of Kilcullen in County Wicklow, a green oasis where stud farms proliferate and where the nephew's farm abuts that of the Aga Khan, unfortunately not in residence to offer us a cup of tea.

We had an extensive tour of the farm with its horses, cattle and dogs and 62 acres of fields which he is busy planting with avenues of trees and hedges. It reminded me in a nice way of Southfork in the TV programme, Dallas.
The Clydesdale horses were happy to be patted, but as a city girl, I was very happy to be on the other side of the electric fence. Even the belted Galloway cattle ambled over to greet us.

We were delighted to be taken on a drive through Dunlavin, where the orange walnut cake in the café there, slipped over very easily, to Rossborough House, complete with guided tour, and then onward through the Wicklow Gap to Glendalough.

The cherry on the cake for us was being put up in the newly appointed rooms above the pub in Kilcullen and finally having a meal with HL's nephew and his partner. What a marvellous host he is.
I will waste no time in telling his father, HL's cousin, that he has a son in a million.

It is not hard to fall in love with Ireland when the weather is so lovely, the scenery so perfect and the welcome so amazing.