It was a perfect thing to go to visit the Dunbroady Famine ship on a rainy day like that. Dunbroady famine ship was one of these so-called “Coffin ships” that carried thousands of immigrants to North America between 1845 and 1851.
The trip lasted for six weeks and all the passengers were picked into the ship like sardines in a can. The wealthier passengers who were able to buy more expensive tickets were allowed a bit better circumstances but actually, it seemed awfully terrible anyway. All the second class passengers had to live together in the hold of the ship and the whole family had to sleep in the same bunk bed, despite the number of people in the family. So the number of the passengers was much smaller when they arrived at last because a lot of them died and were buried in the ocean.
When you want to visit the ship you have to take a tour and the guide gives a good overview of the life of the passengers who were immigrating because of the big Famine in the middle of the 19th century. To make it more attractive there are also two actresses who play the part of the passengers and tell their stories. One of them is a woman of the upper deck and the other is the poor one who has to live in the hold with all the other who couldn’t afford an expensive ticket.
After the tour, it is possible to wander around on your own and take some photos and that’s what we did. The rain hadn’t stopped. We had a tea at the cafe and drove back home. It was pretty dreadful to imagine the lives of these big families who just wanted to afford a better life for their children.
The tickets to the tour were made after the real tickets of the people who had really immigrated by that ship. The ticket proved that the passenger had paid and was ready to board a ship. You can also see the amount of food that every grown-up passenger was afforded and that’s very little.
I cannot leave out the fact that after our lunch we were given the free vouchers for the Castle tour and were welcomed back any time. The 
With a rainy day, we visited the most haunted house in Ireland – the Loftushall. It is said that the Devil himself had visited that place and put a hex on a daughter so that her ghost hasn’t found peace till now and haunts in the house. In the 90-s one boldfaced man started to run a hotel in the house but on one night all the guests and staff ran away without any explanations and left all their belongings into the house and never came back to take away a thing. After that, the house has been abandoned and no one had wanted to come to live there. Nowadays it’s a tourist place, where they make guided tours with ghosts jumping from around the corners and spooking the poor tourists who have willingly paid for getting scared. But it is said that the house decides on its own who can stay there and for how long time. It seemed that our stay was quite accepted because we didn’t meet any real ghosts but of course, we did our tour and went quickly away. Maybe the ghost has got used to the crowds and stays still in some hidden place 🙂
Tintern Abbey was founded in 1200 by Count William of Marshall and it got its name after the bigger namesake in Wales.
One of the vainest family members let to build such kind of a bridge, just only because its decorative and beautiful appearance. And especially decorative it looks seen through the upper window of the Abbey where our tour guide tells us stories about the Colclough family’s history. Yes, we are having a guided tour, so smart. The tour guide makes the place more alive, especially that she knows a lot about the characters and habits of every single person who has lived there.
That’s how they built the walls during the old times – the blend between the lattice was made from so many different ingredients that the restoration workers of nowadays were not able to catch up on it. But at least they tried! And it’s possible to see the wall building process in different stages. The guide says that this filling made the walls warm keeping and let the stone breathe. Probably it will make sense for our school’s construction department 🙂
The little road that goes through the wood takes you to the Colclough Walled Gardens, which have been restored and trimmed recently and look quite nice. You need to buy a ticket again when entering the gardens, but I think they are collecting money for some more restoration work. The gardens are nice, full of flowers and there’s also an orchard part with vegetables and scarecrow which looks huge and decorative, probably not so decorative for the crows. In Estonia, we call these things not Scarecrows, but Scarepeas, instead, although they are meant to scare the crows, not the peas 🙂
It was located on the top of the cliff, overlooking the Atlantic’s and the views were breathtaking. It’s a very popular place among the locals, especially for weddings, but not only. It’s a perfect place to start your day or to come over and chat with your friends at the weekend with a nice drink and delicious food.
It is said that between 1845 – 1950 over 6 million people have emigrated from Ireland and over 2,5 million of them have started from Cobh or Queenstown. So this port plays an important part of the immigration history.
At the entrance stands the statue of Annie Moore and her two brothers.
Frank Browne started his journey from London by a train called “Titanic Special” which was taking the passengers from London to Southampton port to board Titanic, The queen of the Ocean.
Dublin Accent 