A couple of months ago we had a jaunt down to West Cork to Gougane Barra, Ireland's first National Park which opened in 1966, near the town of Macroom.
In the distance, you can see St. Finbarr's Oratory, which stands on a small island on the lake. St. Finbarr is the patron saint of Cork, who died in 623 A.D.
Built at the end of the 19th century, the church is very popular place for weddings and pilgrims still gather there each year on the 25th September for the feast of St. Finbarr.
There's a hotel, small gift shop and bar/café, which you can just see on the right of the photo. Sorry it's in the distance, but a coach full of people had just turned up so it was quite busy.
Inside the church.
Next to the church are the remains of St, Finbarr's monastery from the 6th century.
Very quaint public loos.
Before we headed back home we went on a bit further down the coast towards Bantry Bay.
We didn't stop for long as we had to head back, but hopefully we'll get back down that way again next year and have a good look around.
On the way home, my OH took this shot of this beautiful garden as we were going over a bridge, (I was driving).
I hope to be able to upload photos of the Forest Park in the next post, if the broadband lets me. :-)
Thanks for dropping by.
