Swinford (225)

When we arrived at Swinford last night and walked into the clubhouse we were greeted by Julie, Mary and Catherine (the lady Captain) who were hard at work sort out their 2008 calendar. What a fine trio of giggly ladies! We told them our usual yarn and in between swapping stories there was much laughter. They gave us the OK the park in the car park (we kept Catherine’s parking space warm for her under her orders) and since their bar was closed they recommended Mellett’s in the village, a mere hen’s run away. It was a chilly walk, but well worth it as the Guinness was amongst the nicest we have tasted in ages.

Swinford is 9 hole course in Co. Mayo. the weather wasn’t very overcast with a little bit of rain, but yesterday’s wind had died and we set off hoping the day would improve, which it more or less did by the time we on our way round for the second time.

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We’re back!

And we’ve got a new look too. Hope you like it.

Right now things aren’t working quite like I want them to behind the scenes so bear with me as I tweak some things over the next few weeks. (I might even decide to go with a completely new look if the tweaks don’t work out).

I’m giving the photos page a new makeover as well with some nice looking flash-based albums, so you’ll need Adobe Flash Player installed in order to see them. Currently there’s just a test link to an album from Portumna last year but I’ll be putting up loads more in the coming weeks and adding thumbnails.

I’m also planning to:

• add some links to Google maps so you can see exactly where each course is.
• add links to the course’s own web site, if they have one.
• finally start listing all of the courses we’ve played.
• do a little bit of a write up on our home course, Bright Castle.

Our first trip of 2008 is this weekend and we’ll be playing:

• Portumna, Co. Galway (we play it every Easter)
• Glenlo Abbey, Co. Galway and
• Swinford, Co. Mayo.

So keep checking back or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Castlebar Golf Club

Date played: 10 April 2007
Weather: Cloudy, breezy, some rain

We arrived at Castlebar at about 3.30pm to a packed car park - we had to park across the road. We found the pro’s booth near the first tee, told our story and grabbed a couple of cards for tomorrow’s competition. The pro there is David McQuillan from Belfast - a friendly northerner! He told is that there were so many cars there as there was Achill Island thing on the go.

After something to eat in the van we had a few pints in the clubhouse which had great views of the 16th and 18th greens. We watched some young boys play the 16th - putting us to shame as always. The bar was busy enough but nowhere near the same craic as there was is Walsh’s the night before! Clive spoke to the Captain just to let him know we were parking overnight, which he said would be fine. They were showing the cricket on TV (Ireland v New Zealand) but they switched it over to some football match we weren’t interested in.

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Ballintubber Abbey

This was one of those places where we just decided to stop off.

After playing at Dunmore we were making our way towards the next golf course, Castlebar. As would be expected there are well-preserved ruins, but the main part of the abbey has been restored and is now a catholic church. A pleasant young lady persuaded us to have a look at their 26min video describing the history of Ballintubber and, though showing its age, it was very informative and we enjoyed watching it.

Each year at Easter the local people participate in a reenactment of The Passion, some of which you see on the video, and it looks quite impressive. The crucifixion and entombment take place in the grounds of the abbey.

There’s no fee, but you are encouraged to leave a donation and we were happy to do so.