Ballingeary, County Cork Church
While at
Gougane Barra in Ballingeary, County Cork, we had lunch at the hotel. The hotel
restaurant was quaint and the food amazingly good. The lake behind the hotel
was lovely. Since it was cold and sunny we decided to go for a walk. We came
across a small stone church on the side of the lake that held maybe thirty people.
Its history dates back to 623AD!
This is
where we came up with the idea of the church on the Lyonsmaine estate in our
book and its role in the mystery.
As we
traveled around Ireland we found churches dotted throughout the countryside that
has the most amazing histories. In the Republic
of Ireland, we found numerous abandoned stone churches. Many of these small churches held, at the
most, twenty or thirty worshippers. Though abandoned, many still had intact stained
glass windows.
In the Republic of Ireland (south) we were surprised to find
so many empty or abandoned Anglican churches on the outskirts of towns. Yet the
Catholic Churches were old, and huge with incredible histories. Even the small
towns, hamlets, had good size Catholic churches.
When we
traveled to Northern Ireland, the Anglican Churches were everywhere, while the
Catholic churches were small, some abandoned.
It is
amazing how the various places we visited spark our imagination.
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