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-went to the coast…..with such an ocean-view I had not yet seen - …..
 | | ‘I did not want to talk - but I did want to look and be silent.’ |
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Charlotte and Arthur arrived after a long day of travelling from Banagher at their hotel on the west end of Kilkee. They must have felt rather jaded, just as my Brontë travelling companion Alison and I felt following our similar journey.
Charlotte’s and Arthur’s journey would have taken 11+ hours from Banagher to Kilkee travelling on two paddle steamers and along three horse drawn sections of road. Our 2022 journey could have been done by car in 2.5 to 3 hours had we gone direct from Banagher to Kilkee, but we stopped off en route to enjoy, or attempt to enjoy, other places and views on the way.
On leaving Banagher we went to Clonfert Cathedral (see earlier blog post) then to nearby Birr Castle, the home of the Parsons family. I think Charlotte would have enjoyed a visit to the castle with its amazing telescope but we shall never know if she actually did go. I would guess she didn’t, given it is an 8 mile (12km) journey away, which would have taken an hour by horse and carriage, and then a one hour journey back. Perhaps this outing would have been just a step too far given Charlotte had arrived in Banagher feeling rather unwell, needing to be nursed back to better health for a few days after her arrival. For her to then head off to Birr castle, possibly sail the Shannon to Clonmacnoise (see earlier blog post) and visit all of Banagher’s own places of interest (see earlier blog post) might have been too much in the one week she said she spent there.
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| Birr Castle. |
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| Birr Castle |
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| The third Earl of Rosse built this telescope in 1845 and for 70 years it was the largest in the world. |
Walking to the great telescope
The Earl discovered the ‘Whirlpool nebulae’ with this telescope.
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The tube of the telescope is 55 feet (17m) long
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| It is a reflecting telescope with a giant mirror inside. |
The 3rd Earl of Rosse married a Yorkshire girl called Mary Field who was born three years earlier than Charlotte in 1813 and who had lived just down the road from Haworth at Heaton Hall, Bradford. Mary became the Countess of Rosse and was a fascinating woman in her own right being an amateur astronomer, a furniture designer, an architect and a pioneering photographer. In 1854 she had just started to learn photography. Arthur may have told Charlotte about the family at Birr Castle and the Countess of Rosse and how she had been a near neighbour of Charlotte’s from Yorkshire. All of this may have been a reason to pay a visit. But given Charlotte’s reticence to socialise with new people (remember how she had hidden behind Elizabeth Gaskell’s drawing room curtains to avoid meeting one of Elizabeth’s friends!) I doubt Charlotte would have been keen to call, notwithstanding the time and health constraints.
Imagine though if she had paid a visit; a famous Yorkshire author visiting a Countess with interests in astronomy and photography. Maybe the Countess would have taken a photo of Charlotte which we could have seen today.
Our onward journey took Alison and I to Killaloe where it was so busy with crowds enjoying Lough (Lake) Derg on a beautiful, sunny, August day that there was nowhere for us to park and potter. Limerick, with St John’s Castle and the quays, was very difficult to access because of the roadworks. So, drawn by the need to escape the crowds and the traffic we made for County Clare.
We had opted to stay outside of Kilkee at a tiny place called Knockerra. This had the advantage of being ten minutes from the Shannon Ferry we would use to cross between County Clare and the Kingdom of Kerry as well as allowing us to travel easily to Kilkee 20 minutes away and throughout the county of Clare.
What peace and tranquillity we enjoyed in Knockerra sitting in the garden of an excellent Airbnb with long views across fields to the Shannon estuary and the mountains of Kerry in the distance. There was no traffic noise at all. Just peace and calm.
No doubt when Charlotte and Arthur arrived in Kilkee they too felt a sense of relief to be able to, like us, stop, sit and stare! Their view, however, would have been of the beautiful sweep of Kilkee bay.
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| The sweeping horseshoe bay at Kilkee. |
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| The West End Hotel marked in yellow where Charlotte & Arthur stayed. |
Their hotel circled seen from the other side of the sweeping, sandy bay.
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| A grand sight of Kilkee Bay |
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| 19th century Kilkee with bathing machines on the beach. |
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| Looking across Kilkee Bay to the West End where Charlotte and Arthur stayed. |
We stopped, we rested and recovered. We had been on the go since Saturday travelling from Lancashire (an hour from Haworth) to Conwy in North Wales as the honeymooners did, pottering around the lovely town as they did, then travelling on to Holyhead, sailing to Dublin to visit Trinity College, travelling to Banagher and sailing along the Shannon to Clonmacnoise, touring around Banagher, Clonfert Cathedral, Birr Castle, journeying by and across the Shannon estuary to County Clare- 4 solid days of activity and travel. It was good to stop
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I’m sure Charlotte and Arthur said the same thing to each other when they arrived!
Having spent a quiet and peaceful first evening in Knockerra we headed off next morning, very excited to visit Kilkee for the first time. We knew how much the honeymooners had enjoyed it and we hoped we would discover it’s magic too! We did!
We had agreed to meet Dr Michael O’Dowd and his wife Christine again in Kilkee. We had met them two days previously on the Monday when they had joined author Pauline Clooney and her husband Dave and local Banagher historian James Scully on the memorable Shannon cruise we had enjoyed to Clonmacnoise. (See previous blog post) Michael and Pauline are the authors of two excellent books on the Brontë/Nicholls honeymoon.
Michael and Christine had kindly driven three hours from Galway to join us. We arrived an hour before our rendezvous time as we only had a twenty minute drive to Kilkee.
Fortunately, when we arrived the tide was out. We made our way to the wonderful west end Diamond Rock café with free parking and headed right out onto the rocks toward the famous pollock holes which Kilkee is known for. It was magical.
It was wonderful to sit and watch the waves rolling in and the turquoise sea swirling around. It was a beautiful, blue sky day with little wind, but the waves were still spectacular some crashing against the rocks before us and the high cliffs to the left of us. What would it be like on a windy day or in a storm? The waves would be awesome in those situations - they were pretty spectacular now in light winds. So now was the time to sit on a rock and stare!
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| The rocks on Kilkee beach at low tide |
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| The rocks looking to the cliffs across Kilkee bay. |
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| We spent an hour walking and sitting on the rocks watching the waves. |
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| Swimming in the pollock holes. |
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Swimming in Kilkee’s famous pollock holes
where, for part of the year pollock also swim!
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Watching the waves on a calm day, with just a light breeze. Listening to the oyster catchers on the rocks in Kilkee bay.
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| From the end of the rocks at sea level. |
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| Kilkee is bound on both sides by dramatic, unspoilt cliffs. |
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| The cliffs at Kilkee fortunately free of any inappropriate development. |
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| Waves on a calm day with a light breeze. Imagine it when it’s windy! |
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Watching the turquoise sea from the rocks by the sea at Kilkee bay.
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Having rested, breathed in the sea air and marvelled at the colour of the sea and the movement of the waves we picked our way back across the rocks to meet Michael and Christine. The plan was to stoke up on a convivial lunch to help fuel our walk up onto the mighty Kilkee cliffs. We would very much be walking in the footsteps of Charlotte and Arthur. Indeed I wondered whether Michael had packed a rug as Arthur did!!!!!
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| Brontë enthusiasts who lunch! |
If you go to Kilkee do head for the well-run Diamond Rock café with beautiful sea views, excellent food and efficient, friendly service!
Replete with sustenance we headed off and up the cliffs just as Charlotte and Arthur had done 168 years previously.
Wow! Wow! Wow! It was breathtaking!
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| Alison and Christine walking up onto the cliffs at Kilkee. |
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| The amphitheatre. |
Christine doing her Charlotte impression watching the waves from the cliffs. Here at the amphitheatre.
Joanne’s turn to do her Charlotte impression!
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| Michael doing his Arthur impression! |
Wherever Charlotte sat to watch the waves from the cliffs, her view would have been spectacular.
Charlotte and Arthur wrote very little to family and friends when on honeymoon. The reality is, as I also found out, there would have been little time to write, so busy were they touring and drinking in the beauty around them.
Of note, however, is that both Charlotte and Arthur did find time to write about and share the wonder of Kilkee and the lasting impression it's seascape had on them.
Charlotte wrote to Catherine Winkworth on 27 July 1854 from Cork,
‘The first morning we went out onto the cliffs and saw the Atlantic coming in all white foam, I did not know if I should get leave or time to take the matter in my own way. I did not want to talk - but I did want to look and be silent. Having hinted a petition, licence was not refused - covered with a rug to keep off the spray I was allowed to sit where I chose- and he only interrupted me when he thought I crept too near to the edge of the cliff.’
To Catherine Wooler from Kilkee on 18 July 1854 she wrote,
‘-so magnificent an ocean, so bold and grand a coast - I never yet saw’
Arthur, in one extant letter about the honeymoon to Sutcliffe Sowden’s brother George, on 10 August 1854, wrote,
‘…we also diverged to Kilkee, a glorious watering-place, with the finest shore I ever saw - completely girdled with stupendous cliffs - it was most refreshing to sit on a rock and look out on the broad Atlantic boiling & foaming at our feet -…’
Glorious? Yes!
Stupendous cliffs? Yes!
Finest shore? Yes!
Atlantic boiling and foaming? Yes!
A magnificent ocean? Yes!
Bold and grand? Yes!
Refreshing? Yes!
We utterly and thoroughly loved Kilkee and fully understand how and why Charlotte & Arthur fell in love with it too…and probably a little more with each other, thanks to this wonderful, shared experience.
It truly was 'so magnificent'.
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Marina