Riding centre blurb: "From Poulapuca (the lake of the fairies) over Knocknadroosa Mountain to a well deserved picnic lunch in the Hollywood Glen. The trail that follows over Knocknaboley leads to the Church Mountain and then descends via the heather covered Cuckoo Valley, where the silence of the hills is only broken by the sound of the Cuckoo and your horses hoof beats. A welcome drink will be waiting in Donard (Dun Ard, meaning the High Fort, is the site of one of the 3 churches founded by Palladius in Wicklow 431AD).”
Yes, well, we were in full rain-gear all day and had every kind of rain you could think of, from mist to downpour, with wind too, but it wasn't cold.
We rode on small lanes and through the village of Hollywood, past the Inn where we had dinner last night, built in 1792 and used as a stagecoach stop.
Around the corner and up another lane we passed a granite church which U2 used to record their music.
We rode up over a mountain and had a picnic lunch under trees - Anthony was waiting there and had set up a small table with our sandwiches, hot tea and chocolate bars, and we sat on little folding camp stools. We set off again into an uninhabited area where we could look back at the lake - for most of the afternoon there was only the landscape, sheep and us (oh and the wind and rain). We did quite a bit of trotting to get off the mountain earlier, and were glad to arrive at Bolton's farm, where the horses stay in a field for the night. We waited and waited for Terry to arrive to take us to our B&B - turned out he was in a ditch! He had almost made it to the farm, but had to reverse to let another car pass, and slid into the ditch, then had to wait for a local farmer to pull him out with his tractor.
It was the last day for our Kansas rodeo champ and her Grandma, so now we'll be a group of six, or eight with our two guides.
Photo: CC by llja
