In Sligo With The Rels

Day 16

What a fantastic day! I took so many pics today I’m not sure how I’m going to choose which ones to publish so this post may be picture overload. Ollie was our tour guide for the day, and we started at the Hazelwood Estate, where he works.

Hazelwood House, designed by Richard Cassells (who also designed the famous Powerscourt Estate in County Wicklow), is over 300 years old. Internally, it is totally derelict, having not been used or maintained for many years. But externally, you can see clearly how impressive the building used to be.

Behind the house are huge warehouses that have been used for various industries over the years, including at one time being owned by a Korean Company who made video tapes!

The house is a grand mansion, and I’m talking Pride and Prejudice type mansion here. Standing in front of the house, I half expected Mr Darcy to come walking up through the fields! Ollie is Manager of the latest project occupying the warehouses…a whiskey distillery! The eventual plan is to restore the house and have guest accommodation there, but that is years and many millions of dollars down the track. We donned helmets and high viz vests and set off. This is the house from all angles.

Photos don’t do it justice! It is simply stunning. The main house has curved wings coming out from either side that are attached to square guest accommodation suites. The ugly cement addition to the left of the house was built on when the site was a rehabilitation hospital in the 1960’s, and will be pulled down.

And the inside is a labyrinth of rooms leading onto passageways leading onto more rooms and staircases. A real ‘Upstairs Downstairs’ situation. It was jaw dropping wandering around.

The kitchen still had the original wooden sink, with meathooks in the ceiling of one of the cellars, below which was a niche in the floor to let the blood from the carcasses drain away.

We strolled down to the river. Two horses obligingly walked into the photo.

One of the main investors keeps his €30,000 motor boat moored there. Check out what he was reading!

The distillery is about a month off officially opening, and for now the company is bottling whiskey from other suppliers that they have casked themselves.

Tasting was obligatory.

But as it was my turn to drive today, I got to hold the box!

Ollie certainly has a big job ahead of him, but what an amazing place to come to work each day!

We then visited The Model, (originally a Model School), where Ollie used to work. It’s now an art gallery. Nearly a whole wall was devoted to the works of JB Yeats, WB Yeats’ brother, both of whom hail from the Sligo area. What a creative gene pool!

We picked up the kids from their Vacation Drama School at the theatre where Izzy is producing, directing and acting in a play. It’s about African asylum seekers, and there was a playbill advertising it out the front.

While Izzy rehearsed, we went to the pub! The Sand Bar is literally that…in the sand!

A pretty special place.

To top the day off, we met up with Izzy’s parents, whom we’d met in Sydney a long time ago. They have a holiday house at Mullaghmore, about a 20 minute drive north of Sligo, and we dined on delicious seafood at their favourite restaurant, Eithnas. A perfect ending to a great day.