Last weekend we got a chance to get away for a night so off we headed through County Cavan and Fermanagh to Donegal. We stayed the night in Bundoran. Here are a few of my photographs of our trip. We packed in loads of sites so I will share more photographs in another post soon.

 Cute Robin at Monea Castle

 Monea Castle, County Fermanagh

Driveway to Monea Castle

 Rougey Walk, Bundoran, County Donegal

 Some pretty flowers, Rougey Walk

 Horses near Tullan Strand, Bundoran, County Donegal

 Wildflowers at Tullan Strand

 Cute house and garden near the sea

Hope you have been enjoying the glorious weather....

As you are all aware I love spending my time in rural Ireland. Here are a few images I took around County Leitrim. County Leitrim is a very rural county with beautiful unspoilt landscapes.

Last Sunday we went for a drive as the weather was nice (i.e. It wasn't raining, but no proper sunshine though). We went to Glaslough Village in County Monaghan. It is a very picturesque village on the edge of the Castle Leslie Estate. We intended on having afternoon tea in the Castle however it was booked out so instead we explored the wee village and I took lots of photographs. The ones below are just a few of the pretty stone buildings in and around the centre. I also posted one of the antique shops on my previous post here. Next time I visit I will have some photographs of the Castle itself.

I have never put a photograph of myself on my blog before, but here goes! I have been blogging long enough now. I am married almost a year, so thought with Valentines coming up soon and my 1st Wedding Anniversary I'd share my photo with you.

For those of you interested Channel 4's Grand Designs programme on TV tonight at 9:00pm is visiting Co. Roscommon, Ireland. It features a restored castle on the shores of Lough Key in Co. Roscommon. The owner is a local actor who has spend over €1 million on the castle to date. He is believed to be a cousin of Prince Michael of Greece. I'm looking forward to seeing it. For more information visit Channel 4.

A few more of my wedding photographs, this time they are all of me. This was the doorway into the walled garden. I love the hotel we had our reception in- Lough Rynn Castle, if you haven't been to it,  you must go, it is really beautiful and testament to our rich built heritage here in rural Ireland.

Hope you are all having a nice week. I took this week off work as I have a lot of planning to do. I bought my wedding dress today, it will be ready in January. My kitchen is almost installed now and all the interior doors are hung in the house. We bought all the tiles for the bathrooms yesterday. My wallet is getting a good bashing this week.

I also booked my wedding venue, it will be a traditional church wedding with a castle reception. I am having three bridesmaids- two close friends and one of my new sister in laws. Our Church is very small and is located on the lake shore. Have a look at the reception venue where we will have an arrival reception with canapes and drinks, then 5 course meal later in the evening, followed by a band, then evening buffet, then a dj to finish the night off at which stage I will be exhausted. That's the norm here in Ireland. I hope you like my venue. I think it's fit for a princess : ) The venue was expensive but I have cut back on many of the other items. I am not having a video, my friends will drive us, my wedding dress was a total bargain, I am trying to get a photographer for an hour or two and need to arrange invitations which I might do myself. I have looked at Wedding Chicks DIY invites and I like them. Tomorrow on my to do list, I have to go and suss out bridesmaid dresses and invitations. Hope you are all having a nice week and you have better weather than us- it has rained non stop all week!

As you already know I love to go exploring on Sunday's with my boyfriend, last Sunday we went to the grounds of a lovely estate run by the National Trust, the weather was beautiful, I was all set to take lots of photographs but as usual my batteries died. I got in a frenzy when I saw the light flashing and got to take these few photographs, so that explains why they are at funny angles. These cottages were part of the old farmyard which was converted into self catering accomodation.

Here is a photograph of the Castle in the distance, the castle is privately owned so we didn't get to see inside :o( We were very disappointed as I'm very nosey and like to see everything!

There were also the ruins of an older castle on the grounds of the estate, a boat house, workers cottages, summer house, mill and stables. I was very disappointed as we had gone here another Sunday in March but it was closed and that day my camera wouldn't work properly either. The grounds were beautiful with an array of wildlife. There were sheep and new born lambs bouncing about in the fields. This Sunday I'll make sure I have the camera batteries fully charged as I'm going to charge them now.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and I'm looking forward to you all sharing what you got up to.

Hello all, hope you enjoyed the weekend, weather has been very cold here in Ireland but no rain where I was :) Had a lovely weekend away with my boyfriend. Only problem was that it went too fast. What did you get up to? Here are a few photographs of my weekend away. Our hotel was really nice, very trendy and good value. The photoraph below is a lovely canvas in the hotel, how pretty and very girly.

We went to the seaside on Saturday to Strandhill with its long strand and the seaside village of Rosses Point, it was extremely cold and got very foggy too. Here are a few photos of the beach and views in and around  Strandhill

   

   

   

   

      

   

The further north we travelled it started to get very misty and foggy so the next few photographs aren't very clear, we couldn't even see the sea.

So as you can see the visibility on the West Coast of Ireland wasn't great, so we decided to head back to town and looked around the shops and got some food.

Today we relaxed and visited the seventeenth century Markree Castle on the way home. It is surrounded by mature demesne woodland and the River Unshin runs through the grounds. It is now a hotel and has been home to the Cooper family since Cromwell's time. Here are the charming entrance gates and some more views of the Castle.

Here are two photographs of the entrance, how elegant is that??

Up...

And back down...

Check out the website for some more photographs Markree Castle Hotel

The River Unshin

There are also luxury self catering cottages at Markree Castle Home Farm

This was such a wonderful demesne with its weatlth of built and natural heritage. We then said goodbye to Markree Castle and headed on the road for home.

Along the way we spotted a nice scenic viewing point of Lough Key

This sculptured metal horse with a Gaelic Chieftain marks the site of the Battle of the Curleius, which took place in 1599.

So thats the end of my lovely weekend away and as they say time flies when your having fun. What all did you get up to this weekend?