Saturday, September 6, 2003 (Roundwood - Republic of Ireland)
Worried about nothing in the end but being locked
in was a strange feeling. An enormous eighteenth century mansion. Never seen a
grain store that looked like this. Never a campsite when you need
one.
Day 178. As it turned out, the night passed
without incident or disturbance and we both slept relatively well. It has to be
said that the majority of places we’ve found to park the brick overnight
have been pretty good ones. We always seem to stumble into an out of the way
spot where we aren’t bothered. It wasn’t completely plain sailing
this time, however, as we immediately realised after we opened the curtains in
the morning. We parked about fifty metres or so inside the main gate and under
some trees along the avenue leading up to the house. A barrier about two metres
high had been swung into place between the pillars at the main gate and was now
padlocked solidly into place. We were essentially trapped inside the grounds
with no means of getting out. Cars could freely pass beneath the barrier but the
brick was way to high to get through. We were planning on going back to the
house to complete the tour that we didn’t get to see completely yesterday
so we weren’t initially overly concerned about an immediate departure but
the thought did occur to me that it was now Saturday and I was worried that the
barrier might now remain in place until Monday morning. The Dúchas staff at
the house might have a key to the obstacle so we took a ride up there only to
discover that the house was closed with nobody in sight. A sign near the door
revealed that the opening time for today would not be until one o’clock in
the afternoon so we decided to take a meander into town – we certainly
weren’t going anywhere with the brick for a
while.
The time eventually rolled
around to noon when a passing car stopped and a cheerful and friendly local
asked us how we managed to get the van into the grounds and through the barrier.
It turned out to be the grounds-keeper. At least we now had a means of escape.
The nice old man told us that he had a key for the barrier and that the soon to
be arriving staff would open the barrier anyway. Ironically, the sign on the
main door that posted the opening times also listed a phone number to call for
just this type of situation but we had overlooked
it.
We joined the first guided tour
of the day at around one thirty. Castleton House is an enormous eighteenth
century manor house with many rooms spread out over three levels. The place has
been under refurbishment for the past ten years or so with another ten planned.
The guided tour was by far the longest, at over an hour, and most thorough
we’ve yet encountered. It was fascinating to hear the various storied
about the furniture, wall and floor coverings, structural additions and
modifications and so on that the owners had commissioned throughout history. It
was well worth the temporary
captivity.
After the tour, we drove
around the immediate area, once again enjoying our freedom, admiring monuments
and other related buildings to the manor house. We got to see the strangest
looking helter-skelter like building that turned out to be a grain store. With a
narrow, spiralling stairway wrapped around the outside of the building, it
reminded me of the lighthouse tower at the entrance to the Universal Studios
Islands of Adventure theme park in
Orlando.
Having seen all that there
was to see in and a around Celbridge, our next major objective for the day was
to find a campsite. The battery needed charging and we needed to empty the
chemical toilet and top off the water tank. It turned out to be quite a task and
one that would occupy the remainder of the day. Thorough interrogations of the
map revealed just one campsite anywhere near the Dublin area in all directions.
At least we wouldn’t have to make an agonizing decision over where to go.
Celbridge is just West of Dublin and the campsite we were after is just South of
the city so we took the major arterial routes to get to it. However, the main
road we were driving along seemed to stop abruptly and we were forced to turn in
towards the city itself. It seems that our map is a little ahead of itself with
a substantial chunk of the route that we were going to follow being a
‘planned’ road. Stress levels increased when we both started to
argue about just which direction we needed to now follow to get to our intended
destination. Neither of us had the first clue where to aim for so we both just
made it up as we went.
After a
significant detour through the suburbs, we eventually found our way to the
general vicinity of the campsite but simply could not locate it. I stopped to
ask for directions and was told that the place we were looking for no longer
existed. Once again, our trusty map let us down and this did nothing to help
reduce the stress levels in the cab. The next closest campsite is another thirty
or so kilometres farther South of Dublin. This location would make it difficult
for us to use the campsite as a base for taking in Dublin itself but it was
relatively close to another historic landmark that Sandy was keen on seeing so
off we drove again. It was about half way that we got lost, again, and had to
ask for directions for the second time today. We spent the next forty minutes or
so traversing some very narrow country lanes before stumbling into the campsite.
It is the most expensive place we’ve stayed in yet but with pretty much no
other competition for the Dublin bound camper community, there really
isn’t much of an incentive for them to charge competitive prices. Finding
a parking bay that was even close to being level was also a task in and of
itself. Perhaps tomorrow will be a more enjoyable day.
Posted: Sat
- September 6, 2003 at 01:19 PM