A destination to explore and an experiment along my personal "road not taken" in 2008

The destination in the title was the Yew Tree Graveyard. Inspired by a conversation at Egan's Pub, with the folks pictured here, I decided to explore a place I'd bypassed time and again.

The Bradburys are Kehoe/Keogh descendants
 and possibly very distant relatives

I'd seen the brown sign, indicating a place of historical importance, on every trip to Ireland. It's right near Minmore Mews where I usually stay, and my previous thought was "so what?" Then on one of my recent trips to and from Bunclody or Carnew, I saw the same sign, pointing the other direction. I was passing both ends of a road I'd never travelled, so why not take that road?

The day began with a vigil, hovering over my keyboard, waiting for the message to check in for my flight from Dublin to Toronto tomorrow. There are 4 unsold seats, and 4 standby passengers. So far so good. If the unsold number remains the same, we'll all be airborne together. Finally, I got the email and immediately completed the procedure. Now it's a matter of crossed fingers and timely arrival at the airport.

So what about the rest of the day? Time to get out to visit that ancient graveyard. And so I did. No messing about with directions, I knew how to get there, but would it be obvious from the road when I got there? Yep.

Just beside this fence is the entrance, secured by a chain looped around a gate and fastened with a carabiner. Undoing it was a simple matter and I set off. In retrospect, I could have driven through the gate, up to the actual site and there was room to do a 25-point turn to get out. But I parked in a kind of clearing near the road and walked. It was an easy stroll, not much up and down.

Beside the road was a field where there was a great crop of, um, something green. I'll check that out later. And in the midst of all that green, was a clump of coral poppies. Unexpected and very pretty.

Eventually, well maybe half a kilometre later, I arrived at the entrance of the graveyard itself. Apparently, some families still own the rights to be buried there, but I saw no modern personalized headstones.

Here it is, complete with a "kissing" gate

Each of those stones marks a grave. The cemetery is very old.
From what I've read, there are no ancestors of mine interred there.

Once I'd wandered enough, I returned to the car and set out in the same direction to get to the end of the road nearest Minmore. Then I decided to drive along a road I'd been on once before, but only for a few hundred metres. I'd have to drive much farther to really explore it, and I did. 

I was pretty sure I knew where I'd end up and I DID. Along the way I pulled over, on the off chance that there would be another car, and took some pictures.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
OK, you can't see the yellow here but it was all around

And here's a closer look at the sign so you'll know precisely where I was:

There were no hikers along the Wicklow Way at the time
and you probably recognize some places I've named in the past week

The road was pretty much like this all the way
And I arrived in Shillelagh, eventually, despite going
in the opposite direction from the above sign.

This was the same road that Dad and I didn't take when we were searching for Coolruss in 2008. And what a blessing that decision was.

As the adventure-du-jour was over, I came back to the cottage and enjoyed a glass of Merlot followed by a wee nap. It will soon be time to pack. I didn't bring much so it should take about 15 minutes, if I don't rush.

I'll be heading out at zero dark thirty, to the airport. I'll make a sandwich this evening to bring along as it will be too early to eat. 

I expect my wrap-up post may be delayed until late Monday, since my arrival in Ottawa will be after midnight. The first thing I plan to do is go to bed. For me it will be after 5 am, having been on the go for 24 hours.