Friday 23 March Galley Head Lighthouse

A one intrepid explorer holiday! This is the first time I've been on holiday without Andrew. The Cambridge Nutters are off to Galley Head Lighthouse, our first Irish Landmark Trust holiday, booked last December. Andrew is too busy at work to make it, and we've only been back from our honeymoon for 3 weeks. Nick collected me from the Elms at 1pm and we set off to Stansted to meet the Nutters, we have Nina, Jenny, Jennifer, Rick, Gavin, Louise, Bernie, Dave and John on this holiday. Went through usual check in stuff and settled in the bar for a pint before take off. We arrived at Cork airport and having collected baggage we set off to pick up the 3 cars we are hiring for the hols. We drove for just over an hour in convoy to Clonakilty where we stopped off at Super Valu for necessary shopping. Afterwards I phoned Gail the housekeeper who lives in Ross Carbery, as arranged and she met us at the lighthouse to let us in. She had a very welcoming fire going for us in the main sitting room. The accommodation comprises of 2 cottages next to a working lighthouse, one of which used to be the lighthouse keepers cottage. They each have one double and one twin bedroom and a bathroom upstairs. J's claimed the double and Nina and I the twin. In the other side Gav and Louise had the double and Rick and Dave the twin. Downstairs are two kitchens, the smaller of which became Bernie's bedroom, due to lack of beds we moved the largest sofa in there for him. The sitting room in J's, Nina & I's side was the largest and had the fire so became the main seating area. There is a walkway through both cottages downstairs, which is locked if smaller groups are renting separately. We used the larger kitchen in the other side to eat. In between are two smaller sitting rooms each with a sofa bed which were Nick and John's bedrooms. Between them was the third bathroom. So settled in, Gav and Nick drove back to Clonakilty to pick up an Indian take away. The rest of us settled down with beer and wine by the fire. I had a chat to Andrew and described the cottages to him, wish he was here too. Dave picked up the Book of Days by A. Miscellany. He read to us from the 23rd March in the 1800's. We eventually ate at around midnight, a very average Indian, but thank you to Gav and Nick for going! Nina and I shut the shutters for the night, as the lighthouse is directly in front of our window and beams straight into our room.