Our road trip to our new Airbnb stay in Wicklow took us past another beautiful Avoca. An Irish colourful manufacturing success. Quite a warming story to see that the weaving products first established in a rural village mill of Avoca in 1723 are a global hit to this day. You’ll find Avoca in some of Ireland’s most spectacular locations. We seemed to be on an Avoca trail which we were pleased to embark on after our first experience in the Avoca Dublin store. We arrived at the world acclaimed Mount Usher Gardens and Avoca Mill. The garden setting was just magical surrounded by stone cottage mill buildings.
The beautiful array of salads looked amazing. We sat in the gardens with a few tasty treats from the Avoca cafe. We also grabbed a loaf of freshly baked bread to try. Our last host had given us some Avoca marmalade which had a real citrus twist, not overly sweet which was great.
Our next accommodation was 5 minutes from the quaint village of Avoca. We were greeted by the friendly Nelly and Toohey who were very excited to make friends.
Our accommodation was in a cute stone cottage which had panoramic views over the green roaming pastoral hills. We also made friends with the ducks who had kindly left us some rather large eggs.
We walked with Nelly and Toohey each afternoon. They were keen to walk with us and they were ever so good around the grazing cattle.
We had stunning views on our walks through the fields above. As the sun set Rob loved watching the pinking of the sky and then he would stoke the fire to warm the stone cottage.
We were keen to head to nearby village of Avoca where Avoca manufacturing was first established. We arrived at Avoca – Ireland’s oldest mill. Established in 1723. We had a tour around the handweavers mill and explored the once again pretty grounds full of quaint stone cottages and flowing streams with a hot mocca in hand. It was hard to resist purchasing some woolly weaves. Great for this climate here, but back at home they would be useless. Just padding for a drawer left closed due to the forever hot tropical climate of Queensland Australia.
We drove out to Arklow where we took a leisurely walk along the Arklow Duck Pond. The vast nature reserve was once n industrial site which produced dynamite. During the war it produced bombs and bullets. This was a dangerous occupation with several fatal explosions. One in which 27 people were killed in September of 1917.
The Arklow Duck Pond is a small lake behind the dunes that is home to a variety of bird life. Our favourites were the stunning swam family. The adult swans were still closely guarding their near fully grown cygnets. We have been closely watching how swans care for their young family since early spring. Swans are amazingly wonderful parents.
We walked through the fairy door forest or that is what we called it as fairy doors are very popular here in Ireland.
We watched a tiny robin in the forest which is a sign that Christmas will soon be here.
We reached the sea front walking path where part of the path had been washed down the hill in a typhoon storm.
Another place we explored was Tinahely Farm. A place to enjoy well cared for farm animals, antiques and great homemade fresh farm products. We treated ourselves to an apple and rhubarb pie. Yummy!!! This became our dessert for the next 2 nights of our stay.
