Colebrooke & The Sperrins
Sunday, as predicted was cold and wet with sunny breaks in
the afternoon BUT very windy as well!!! Their 13 – 14 degrees not as cold as
ours! Their 8 – 9 degrees usually the wind chill & IS COLD!!!!
We went out to
Cooneen on Sunday morning hoping there
may be a church service on there. WE saw the Collum & Baxter houses &
church – service onlt once a month but Morning Prayer at 12.15! It is Ireland !
We drove the 3 miles to Fivemiletown (3 miles), arriving at
10.30 & service at the Methodist
Church Johnston ’s
(related to the Baxter/Collums somehow) sat behind us & are going to see
what they can find out for me. When the lasies sany I could hear Gr’ma Messer’s
(Collum) bit of Irishness coming out in the ‘LoRd’ & ‘buRn’ – sort of
accentuate & roll the ‘r’.
It took a little bit of getting used to the minister’s
accent – preached about Old Testament fellow (forgotten his name!) ‘peon’???????
After afer half a dozen times realised it was his ‘pain’!!!!! Also his ‘praire’
– prayer.
We had lunch in the café we went to last time & the
waitress asked if we’d found out any more!
In the afternoon the sun shone! Showed Denise & David
the Colum grave & then found the Estate House, ‘Colebrooke’. With it being
the National Trust free open weekend could we go in for a tour! We came in the
back way through long archway of trees, beautiful, sunshiny through the leaves!
OLD barn, stables, houses (servants’ lived?) falling down, roofs half covered
in moss!
‘Colebooke’ is big. Owned by the Lords of Brookeborough,
came from England
in late 1600.s & all ours were tenant farmers. Lord Alan Brooke (in 60’s)
greeted us, gave us the talk & tour – fascinating. He & his wife lived
there since 1980 when married – they don’t have any children. He is still one
of two Equiries (sp?) for the Queen who take it in turn to accompany important
visitors around while in Nth Ireland. He ‘did’ Obama’s & Putin! They are
given a gift by them afterwards.
He said his grandfather (who was PM of Nth Ire for 20 years
up to 1964) sold off EVERYTHING in & about the house & farm (Molly
later said it would have been for tax reasons) & then house empty until
they moved in. So they have returned it & filled it to what it is today –
BEAUTIFUL!!!! His wife made ALL the curtains (130 m in dining room ones
alone!!!!). Only very few things belong to the Brookes – one a christening cup
(about a foot high & all engraved & decorated from Queen Victoris to
his G-g’fth, as she waqs his Godmother –
one of about 400!!!!
In one room is a huge billard table – mainly to fill up the
space! Also big old gold framed pictures/portraits on the wall – they don’t
know who they are, but bought at auction & look good!
The garden was lovely too – she does that as well; & big
impressive entrance way gates when we went out the way we should have come in!
He asked us not to go out the back as unsafe with work going on =- pleased we’d
already been! We couldn’t take photos inside.
When we were going I told him Collum’s called all their
houses they lived in in Aust he was ‘quite chuffed’ & impressed! It got
it’s name from era when a Brooke son married an Earl of Enniskillen (Sir
William Cole’s) daughter.
Yesterday we went for lovely scenic drive through The
Sperrin Mtns – north west
of us. Sunny breaks, little OLD stone houses & barns; new RED barns;
tractors bringing in the hat bales; orange sheep!!!!, white sheep with black
faces & feet! Small GREEN field with hedges around them - just beautiful!
Lots of BIG new‘Celtic Tiger’ houses (many unfinished or
empty) throughout. D&D said their tour guide said ‘in the good times’
people were encouraged to build ‘holiday house in the country’ & if ‘done /
organised ‘prope
rly’ they could be built for free’.
rly’ they could be built for free’.
Molly came for dinner last night – the men couldn’t come as
a cow was struck by lightning & killed the night before & they were busy with Vets & insurance
agents.
Fine day so far (7am!) D&D leave tomorrow midday on bus
back to Dublin
to go to Malorca then 15 day tour of Spain & Morocco.
Jen arrives tonight at 8.15!!!!! Very exciting!
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