Old Mellifont Abbey

February day trip around Drogheda, Part II.

Yesterday, I told you about a brief visit to the town of Drogheda. After I had a coffee to warm up, I decided that it was worth driving the 10 km through the countryside to the Old Mellifont Abbey Ruins. The weather was starting to look more promising, and the fog was starting to burn off the hilltops.

I was hopeful that the fog would be at the Abbey Ruins still, to make for some interesting photographs. Lucky for me, when I arrived, the visitor center (formerly Ireland’s first youth hostel) was closed, there was only one small family about, and we had the place pretty much to ourselves because of the cold and poor weather. As the day warmed up though – you can see in the pictures that the fog turned to sun and changed the mood entirely.

Old Mellifont Abbey was founded in 1142 by St. Malachy and was one of the first Cistercian Monasteries in Ireland. It sits on the river Mattock, which runs cheerfully bubbling through the countryside of green rolling hills. By 1170, the abbey had become an example for other abbeys built in Ireland and France architecturally. It was populated by 100 monks and 300 lay persons at the height of its influence. In 1539, it was closed (Henry the VIII) and taken over becoming a fortified house (the entry gate dating to the 15th century below).

In 1690, William of Orange used the fortified house at Mellifont Abbey as his headquarters during the Battle of the Boyne. Sadly, not long after the house went into ruins. There are only a few portions that are visible. You can walk about and see the knee high wall remnants for most of the site. The few higher walls that remain are an octagonal shaped section that dates back to the 13th century called the Lavabo. This is where the monks washed their hands before eating.

Reverse side Lavobo and some of the details like the arches, stonework, and windows:

The other sections of interest are the 14th century Chapter house (with Romanesque arches and tiled floor) from about 1220:

and the arched wine cellar (upper right hand corner of the picture below):

As well as the stone walkway to keep one dry going between buildings:

Up the hill there’s the walled ruins of a small chapel (center of the picture directly below) which you can find an old celtic cross gravestone.

You can see a map of the general layout of the abbey pre -becoming ruins here:

Overall the site is worth a visit just to see the layout, and because it is “free” to visit (not sure about the visitor center). I found out later that the visitor center has a good display of the architectural ruins and artifacts that have been uncovered in the area. I may need to go back to check this out. Otherwise, from here I headed back in time – to the Monasterboice Abbey Ruins – which dated to the viking times (1000 years younger) and was closed with the start of the Mellifont Abbey. More on that tomorrow.

For now, feel free to see more pictures from Mellifont Abbey in my flickr photostream.

Drogheda

Back in the beginning of February, I decided on a cold, foggy Sunday morning to head out of Dublin. Setting out with the car, I thought it might be fun to go for a while, stop, have coffee, and do some sight seeing when I got hungry. So, with that, I got up, showered, dressed, and out the door by 9am. About an hour north of Dublin on the M1 is a town called Drogheda (pronounced Drog-ed-ah).

Drogheda is irish for “bridge of the ford” and is located in County Louth along the River Boyne. (You may remember the Boyne Valley has New Grange, Knowth and Dowth, and The Hill of Tara as well as the Hill of Slane, and has been settled for thousands of years.) When it was founded in 1194 by the Normans under Hugh De Lacy (Trim Castle), the town originally spanned 2 separate counties. In 1412 the two “sides” of the town were united and grew together.

During the Middle Ages, Drogheda became an important fortified town. You can still see one of the remnants of the 7 gates at St. Lawerence’s gate (above) on the top of the high street. Named after the nearby priory of St. Laurence, this gate was built in the 13th Century and is a Barbican style defense gate which is 4 Stories high. It had an inner toll gate, and a portcullis. The toll collection at this gate continued until the 1800s. You can see some of the city walls below – which sit along a street named “feather bed lane” because they used to make feather beds along this way. The picture below shows some interesting arch work – which used to make up part of Lord Singleton’s stables.

Also in the Middle Ages, in Drogheda, the first Irish Parliaments were held at the commandment of Henry VII. In 1494, they passed a famous law called Poynings law which basically said that Irish Parliament couldn’t pass a law without having first been approved by the English King & council. The Tholsel is the old courthouse built in 1770 replacing the old parliament building, and sits along the main street. (You can see the Tholsel in the bottom right of the picture – it’s the tall clock tower building).

In the 1640s, Drogheda was taken over twice during the Irish Confederate Wars. The second was by Oliver Cromwell himself, who had 10,000 men to the Royalist 2300 defenders. Oliver’s army won and massacred the Royalist defenders of the town – beheadding every 10th man – and the remainder we shipped of to Barbados as white “slaves”. The tale is still prominent in local lore because it was so tragic to so many families in the area. After Cromwell left, and the Battle of the Boyne happened (1688 – putting William the Conqueror back on the English Throne) the town again prospered in the 1700s and rebuilt. The Drogheda Port company was founded in 1790 and remains the oldest employer in town. Other points of interest from around the same time are St. Peter’s Catholic Church – which has the preserved severed head of Saint Oliver Plunkett, who was executed in London in 1681, since it was given to them in 1921. (I was there on Sunday and not wanting to be morbid during Sunday services – I skipped this one – though the church is pictured below).

The Magdalene Tower (below)- which is the last surviving bell tower from an old Dominican friary from 1224. It was commissioned by Lucas De Netterville, Archbishop, and completed in the 14th century. It was damaged by Cromwell’s Army in 1649.

The Highlanes (now a gallery) is the site of the former Franciscan monestary from the 15th century, which was well known for being the main center for higher education (Irish weren’t allowed into Oxford at the time). In 1829, The structure (below) was built to replace it.

One other point of interest is the St. Magdalen’s Church built in the 1870’s.

View of Town center (main) street:

From here, I headed for a quick coffee on the Main Street at Esquires (I was frozen to the bone by now), then over to my next stop – the Old Mellifont Abbey (more on that tomorrow).

Sunday morning Coffee. ESQUIRES Coffee shop. #coffee #esquires #drogheda #drinkup #coffeeshop #oldbuilding #architecture #lovelight #people #morning #PhotoGrid

Dublin Whiskey Festival

If there’s one thing the Irish are good at, it’s making Whiskey. It’s been in this country since the Celtic times, and Uisce beatha is the name for whiskey in the Irish language. It means “water” of life. From the mispronounced “usice”, we get Whiskey. This weekend – between January 16 and 21, 2015 was the Dublin Irish Whiskey festival, which I had to attend.

Dublin Whiskey Fest ~ Ireland's first Irish whiskey festival! from Great Irish Beverages on Vimeo.

There were 25 venues (listed in the picture above) each with their own “signature” drink on offer. If you bought a wristband for 5 Euro, you got 30% off the drinks. A pretty good deal, all things considered. For my part, I made it to 8 total places, but didn’t get drinks at all, as they were out of some drinks. For those that I did hit, my reviews are that I totally enjoyed the festival.

On Tuesday and had 1 – the Habeniero Hot Toddy from the Bull and Castle, before going over to the Olympia for the Australian Pink Floyd gig.

Habeniero hot toddy Dublin whiskey festival jan 2015

This drink is made from Teeling’s Single Batch Whiskey (they must have been sponsors because there was lots of this about) which had been infused with habeniero peppers for 3 weeks. At the end of the 3 weeks, they removed the peppers and strained the whiskey. This left the whiskey with the regular flavors of whiskey, followed by an interesting capsaicin chili burn. To be honest, the drink was great – I loved the burn – but I’m not sure about how well the actual infused whiskey worked in it. When I drank it, the initial thought was that it was pleasant, but as I got further on – it confused the body. My tongue didn’t know if it was hot from the temperature of the boiling water – or the hot from the spicy of the pepper. The one good thing was that it made you nice and toasty (both hot and spicy) on the inside.

That being said, the infusion might have been better used in a modified Manhattan or a smoky old fashioned. As they are “cold” drinks, the spicy factor in the infusion might have had more of an impact.

On Friday, I had company and we hit more than one place, because I had more time before a late Gig (more on that later) for a Guns & Roses cover band. The first place we went was the Liquor Rooms on the Quays in Dublin. This is one of my favorite cocktail places in Dublin, and they’re a bit over the top in their 1920-1930’s prohibition style decor.

The Liquor Rooms Chocolate Irish Whiskey. #dublin #dublinwhiskeyfestival #irishwhiskey #whiskey #chocolate #theliquorrooms

Their special drink of the evening was a Chocolate Irish Whiskey. Again, a hot drink but wow was it tasty. It was a gorgeous dark hot chocolate with coffee with creamy foam on top. They added a shot of whiskey and then some lovely gingerbread crystals on top. It went down a treat (seriously – can I just stay here and drink) and set me up for the evening with plenty of caffeine to keep me awake.

The next place we went was the Bison Bar. This is an interesting whiskey bar, with an “old west” type theme – the bar stools are all “saddles”, and there are plenty of wagon wheels and other stuffed beasts about as decor. After the first drink, we wanted dinner – and decided that bbq goes well with whiskey. And Bison makes some great Barbecue. Bison it was. Once we arrived -we were served a Teeling Small Batch neat. How do you not love the drink when it looks like this:

Bison Bar's Teeling's Small batch Irish Whiskey #PhotoGrid #whiskey #dublin #dublinwhiskeyfestival #ireland #bisonbar

Teeling Small Batch is a very smooth whiskey, easy to drink. It’s slightly flavored of vanilla, which has a cool aftertaste of spice and the oak it was aged in. It’s easy to drink in a cocktail or straight up.

From there, we struck out. Twice. We headed over to the Vintage Cocktail Club. This is my most favorite Cocktail bar in Dublin. The problem with it is that it’s a bit hit and miss on if you can get in. They do great Cocktails – and everyone knows that’s the case. However, it’s very small – and they limit the numbers of who can go in and out. They had the cocktail “a bird in the hand” up on offer (love it!) but by the time we arrived, Friday night, Pay night in Dublin was really starting. We were turned away at the door. So we headed to the Stag’s Head, almost across the road from the Central Bank.

The Stag’s Head had a Buttered Rum on offer, but sadly had sold out of the ingredients to make it. I will note that the place was packed with lots of single men (with a name like the “stag’s head” do you wonder why) that were in their late 20s – mid 30’s. Interesting crowd to walk into as two single women (let’s just say we had plenty of attention ordering whiskey before being turned down due to lack of ingredients at the bar!). Might have to try this one again later, when I’m not on a mission for Whiskey.

Yamamori Izayaka Elderflower hot toddy. #dublinwhiskeyfestival #hottoddy #cocktail #dublin #whiskey #drinkup #enjoy #PhotoGrid

We left the Stag’s Head disappointed, but decided to head over to Yamamori Izakaya, the Japanese bar. They have lots of tasty Japanese food in the upstairs restaurant, but if you head to the basement (the ceiling has stensils of Japanese dragons and the back bar has gongs and lots of interesting liquor) the whiskey choices are numerous. They made us a gorgeous hot toddy – with the addition of the elderflower liquor. The elderflower liquor really brought out the lemon,cloves, and the woodyness of the whiskey that they used (I’m sorry I don’t know which one it was). It was lovely, despite the 25 minute wait to get a single drink at the bustling location.

Next up we walked to the Rustic Bar. I didn’t know that this place existed (Yay for the whiskey festival getting me to a new and interesting bar). This is off George’s Street, and it is right above the Rustic Restaurant (have to go to the back and up the stairs). It is very quiet and has a pretty cool back bar illuminated with Led lights that shine up through the bottles. This serves as the centerpiece and main lighting – which makes for a bit of a “up scale” modern atmosphere.

The problem is that they had what was my least favorite drink of the night. It’s called The Samuel Beckett and made with teeling small batch whiskey, fresh thyme, homemade honey syrup and served in a poitin rinsed glass. To me, it tastes like honeyed vomit. No matter what I did, after the first taste, I just went Nope. Not gonna finish this one. The thing is that I may have to go back – they had a very interesting menu – eg. doesn’t the apple & cinnamon old fashioned and the blackberry apple crumble look yum?

From here, I was pretty full of whiskey, and didn’t want anymore hot drinks (most of the ones in the area has hot drinks) or cocktails that might be kind of iffy. So, we headed to Ukiyo Bar and hit the Jackpot.

Ukiyo Bar had your own private “tasting” of 3 Teelings Whiskey Expressions in what’s known as a “flight of Whiskey”. they are – from left to right – the Teeling Whiskey Single Grain, The teeling whiskey Small batch, and the teeling whiskey single malt. By far the one on the left (single grain) was my favorite, but it was a nice change from all the other places we had been. Plus, after what was essentially 3 shots… that was it for my evening.

I decided to grab a taxi, and head over to Fibbers for the Guns and Roses tribute – and call it good. Overall though, if you get the chance, I’d say make a visit to the Irish Whiskey festival. Hopefully get in early, and make sure you have a plan for where to go. The money saved was great – though I truly wish that they had more on offer than just Teelings. I like Teelings, but there are so many great whiskies made in Ireland – i’d have liked a showcase with a few more —

Connemara
Flaming Pig
Jameson
Paddy’s
Bushmills
Kilkenny

and that’s just a few of the whiskies that I was hoping would have been included – but didn’t seem to be. (but maybe that’s because of where I went….) For the first one, I can see the possibilities in this growing to an annual event with further offerings by more local bars. A good night was had all around.

Thanks to SB for the cute picture, and an awesome visit to all the bars. We are women who Whiskey!

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Old Mellifont Abbey

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