Lough Boora Parklands Easter Sunday
What an amazingly sunny day it was today, absolutely perfect for a day trip and another picnic. I'm a fan of picnics as you can tell, and for lots of reasons - cafe or roadside sandwiches can often be overpriced and pretty disgusting to be honest. Also our daughter Izzy has multiple food allergies which means that many times we've been faced with a situation of finding absolutely nothing that she can safely eat.
So picnic it is! Sometimes I do a somewhat gourmet version with various salads and crusty bread and other nibbles but today we just had bread rolls with cheese and home made guacamole and a flask of tea, nothing could be nicer!
I've never been to Lough Boora before and the first thing that struck me when we went in was the plentiful picnic tables situated in the car park with lots of newly planted trees around them. I've always found Ireland to be very lacking in facilities for families if you just want to go out and explore and eat al fresco. This was just perfect.
I've never been to Lough Boora before and the first thing that struck me when we went in was the plentiful picnic tables situated in the car park with lots of newly planted trees around them. I've always found Ireland to be very lacking in facilities for families if you just want to go out and explore and eat al fresco. This was just perfect.
Once we were fed and watered we set off to explore Lough Boora. The first thing we came across was the bike hire area, a great idea and loads of bikes available, even including little trailers for small kids to go in and tandem bikes too which makes it ideal for an outing for the whole family. We decided to walk but loads of people were on bikes and there's plenty of room on the paths. Maybe it was the incredible weather but everyone seemed to have a smile on their face and there was a lovely atmosphere. I have to mention also that Mark popped into the Visitor Centre and found the staff helpful and friendly.
This is a place that is wild, not a manicured flower bed in sight but abundant in heather and gorse and tiny dandelions dotted everywhere. All around is the beautiful rich and dark peaty soil and rushes galore. It really is a vast area and although we didn't get to the wetlands, walking and looking at the sculptures took up several very pleasurable hours.
One of the first we saw was Bog Oak Road, majestic against the sky and it's hard to convey through a photo the incredible texture and different shades and patterns in the wood, definitely one of my favourites
We then moved on through areas of willow sculptures, literally living and twined into arches and seats and tunnels and everywhere natural seating made from stone or huge pieces of bog oak.
Then the pyramid by Eileen MacDonagh who also has sculptures in Burtown house (see my post about our visit there - Snowdrops at Burtown House).
Boora Convergence was two fantastic huge sculptures, the vast space of Lough Boora is ideal for them, the structures against the wide open sky are something to behold.
This next one was another favourite and Izzy straight away saw that it was like skimming stones on the water
It made me think of a serpent rising from the water and the reflections of the water completed the circles.
Finally the sky train, actually the first we saw but somehow it seemed so much more interesting from a distance, like a toy train from a fairytale :)
And last but not least, to end a perfect day, we saw this beautiful hare on the way back..
I hope you've enjoyed my post and will think about a visit to this fabulous place and that you've all had a chocolate filled Easter Sunday :)
