Coppinger Court

What a fantastic day- brilliant sunshine,  no wind, everything sparkling - an adventure had to be had. Armed with maps, books and Himself's GPS we headed off east towards Rosscarbery. First stop Drombeg. Impressive but rather manicured, this site consists of a stone circles, several stone huts and a fiachta fia ( kind of stone cooking pit). Onwards to Coppinger, down tiny deserted roads. This astonishing mansion sits forlorn and almost forgotten in a muddy field - I even persuaded Himself to venture in. What a place - one of  the finest fortified houses in West Cork, it dates from the early 17C and was originally 4 storeys high and bristling with importance. It was built by Sir Walter Coppinger, a bit of a roguish entrepeneur by all accounts,  who's big idea was to build a town surrounding his fine home and an inland harbour. He lost everything in the 1641 uprising and now his magnificent mansion is occasionally used as a cattle pen and home to rooks. One of the legends about this place (and I'm afraid I didnt check) is that it has a chimney for every month, a door for every week and a window for every day of the year.
Lunch in Rosscarbery, a quick pootled around the tiny but beautiful cathedral, onwards to various wells associated with the patron saint, the wonderfully named St Fachtna; an admire of  a huge boulder burial and shrine of St F, and a non-succesful search for Bohanagh stone circle. By this time I was pushing my luck a bit so we returned home - coming across some road bowling (scores of furtive men watching the athletic bids of the road bowler to throw a tiny metal ball miles down the road) and being diverted due to Old Time Threshing in Caheragh - don't ask!!
A glass of wine and the papers now.