Missing things

Crowds and crowds

The station in the garden

Can't get the photos in the right place! Something wrong still.

The River Erne

We weren't planning to go in to Cavan again. Instead we went off to Galloon where they have a pumpout for the holding tank, planning to go back to Quivvy, then home the next day. Starboard engine wouldn't start - flat battery. No prob as we can start one engine off the other, but the boat needed a good run to charge everything up.

Did the holding tank job. Messy business with hoses and unsavoury odours. They're building a new toilet and shower block at Galloon. It's a tiny place, and there never seems to be anyone there, but I suppose there is the infrastructure for such things. It's a beautiful spot. Looks like nothing from the water, but when you're tied up, and the sun comes out after a torrential rain shower, and it's flat calm and there's a little bunch of swans in the distance it's fabulous. There's an interesting little graveyard here too. It's very old, and some of the gravestones have a skull and crossbone symbol on them. We were told these were masonic graves.

So Joe said will we go into Cavan tonight to see Sharon Shannon? She was on the Gig Rig. We could get the shuttle bus in, he said. Eat in town. And maybe we don't have to go home tomorrow. We could stay another day.

Ok. So sudden change of plan. I don't always like that, but this one sounded good. Off we went back to Belturbet. Our space was still free. It was getting late though. The shuttle but was going every hour, so we got on the nine o'clock. Arrived into Cavan around twenty past. Into a little Italian place on a side street and ordered the food. Hoped to get to Sharon for the last half hour of her set. Then there was the winner of the Céilí completition and then there were to be fireworks.

We were a bit late, but should have got the last twenty minutes or so of Sharon. But the guards had a barrier across the street. Too many people, they said. Not letting anyone else in. It's dangerous. Then it came out that she'd finished anyway. We went around the back and got close to the stage to see them packing up. No Céilí comp winners. They were playing in the Dome (which isn't a dome - it's a very big and very angular marquee). And no fireworks either. The space they were to set them off from was full of camper vans.

This has been the story of our week going to the Fleadh in Cavan. Just missing everything.

Heard this morning that they'd cut Sharon short because of the crowds.

There's more to Belturbet than we'd realised. You can tie up at the end of navigation at the bridge. A delightful spot. It's where steamers used to tie up at the old quay. The quay was built for the SS Belturbet. Later the SS Knockninny Rock and the SS Countess of Milan used it. SS means Steam Ship. The steamers used to go up to Enniskillen and Knockninny. Beyond the bridge is a walk along the river and back - they've put in decking in places, and a footbridge. Halfway back there is the site of a Motte and Bailey built by Norman invaders in 1210 or 1211. It's on Turbet Island, a strip of land where the River Erne splits into two channels. Belturbet was of strategic importance, as it was the only possible fording place on the River Erne.

There's part of the old railway station in someone's bungalow garden down near the river. Looks a little out of place. Every time we walked past we'd talk about why someone had such an ornate thing in their garden. Was it a band stand? Was it a strange sort of car port?