On The Road Again

It's good to be home, as we consider Ballyliffin our Irish home golf club.  We bid adieu to Lough Eske late yesterday morning and trundled the back roads of County Donegal, not that there are any front roads, yanno, northeast to Ballyliffen.

Before leaving, a walk out the entrance drive to pay our respects to Henry George White.  As it

happens I attended George White intermediate school, though I'm guessing it was a different George White.  This gents was a Major General (cue the Gilbert & Sullivan) and passed in 1906 and I'd guess things were more peaceful before the building of the resort.  We caught some views of the lough to which we hadn't previously paid much attention, and it was quite lovely.  You'll no doubt notice that our luck with the weather continues unabated.  Then it was time to hit the road...

We continue to amuse ourselves with place names.  We liked the town Ballybofey near Donegal

Town, as it has that typically Irish singsong flow to it.  Come to think of it, just about any of the many towns beginning in Bally have that... But it was the village of Burnfoot that we enjoyed most.  Wikipedia had only this on it:

Burnfoot (Irish: Bun na hAbhann) is a small village on the Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal, Ireland. It lies within the townland of Ballyederowen. It has a few local shops and a pub. It has a population of 398 (2006 census).

Of course we were hoping for an explanation of the origins of the name, and I had a bit of fun with the town of Muff in mt famous post on signs here.

And while we're on the subject of signs, I've always appreciated (though never photographed) the uniquely dignified manner in which one is told to slow down over here, Though the bride would add that I'm not well known for liking my traffic particularly calm.

A general overview of the 'Liffen can be found here, including the circumstances of our first visit during which we fell for the place.  It's quite extraordinary for a community of this size, as one gentleman at Murvagh noted the town doesn't even have a proper pub, to have 36 holes of such quality.  And the views of Pollan Bay and Glashedy Rock are simply divine.

The house looks unchanged, though obviously unlet for this week.

We're staying in a hotel that in 2012 was in receivership and quite the eyesore, but now has been renovated with a pleasant restaurant/bar downstairs.  It's four doors down from the hose we rented, so first order of business was to walk our old block.  

The crazy cat house also looked unchanged, though only water bowls evidenced the existence of our feline friends.

Then down to Pollan Bay to see the water and Glashedy Rock:

And catch up with some old friends:

They're quite obviously excited to see us again.

With some local fishermen, inspecting a dolphin impersonating your humble blogger on the inward nine at Narin & Portnoo.

And the obligatory evening visit.

Now it's back to golf and time to get deadly serious.