Where Once We Were

Vienna Woods Hotel, Glanmire, Co. Cork; ours 1985 - 1988

We lived by the woods with

Once with paths of cobblestone, where 

Lords and Ladies strolled.

Summer leisure house, 1756

Lord Barrymore

Path through the woods (now covered and inaccessible with debris by current owners)

Our children sat on milk stools
By the fire.

These were found in muck where a stable once stood.

We wandered, heads to the sky,

Through the Rock of Cashel

Once called Rock of Patrick.

Nearly 900 years ago.

Watched as tides ebbed and flowed,
Of the Glashaboy River and beneath
Spire of St. Mary's.

Our children made memories
Forever 
Shaping their lives.

Town of Glanmire

Our children by a shelter in the woods (Now bulldozed by current owner)

Our youngest by a tree, two hundred years old (This and others were removed by current owners)

Road leading to Vienna Woods Hotel

Weddings and love were celebrated

In banquet rooms elegant.

Now it was our hotel, our responsibility.

A small wedding room in the hotel--now completely re-modeled.

Blarney supplied stone steps and

A stone to kiss,

A tree before a grand house

Where an elite lives.

Home of Sir Charles St. John Colthurst, Baronet

Where are

we now? 

Will we go back?

When?

Now, in 2018, thirty years after we lived there. Fitzgerald Vienna Woods Hotel

Hotel Vienna Woods, Glanmire, Co. Cork

It occurred to me that our family's time in Ireland and our adventures had never been posted for bloggers to read.  It was an amazing few years where our children attended Irish schools (scoil) and studied Gaelic, where we lived on 20 acres of ancient forests, where we owned and operated a hotel (built in 1769 as a hunting lodge for an English lord, converted to a hotel in early 1960s).

One of the 3 rooms used in weddings in the Hotel

Johnny in his wellies with his cat Midnight

Manor house of the Lord of Blarney-- house and creepy tree, 5 miles from us

Partial view of west side of hotel, 1985

Three milk stools found buried beneath refuse dating to mid-1800s

 

View of Glanmire, nearest town from the Hotel...Glassaboy tidal river

 

Erin and Johnny by a grotto built in 1780s for providing food and water for deer (which would later be hunted)

 

Mary by one of the huge trees in the woods
Later, Fitzgerald bulldozed and covered this part of the woods.
Bungalows, instead, were built.

 

Drive leading from Glanmire up to the hotel

 

Our woods.  I am in a white sweater with Johnny beside me and dog Buddy in front. Farther away on the trail are my daughter Erin and Patrick Kane. Behind us is a steep slope and in front is an upward slope.  The stone table is further up the path.

This was truly an adventure for each of us in different ways. For my children--those memories have never faded. It is the same for us, their parents.