A Little R & R

This week, I went on a 3-day retreat with the rest of the YAV team in Belfast. The eight of us, plus our supervisor, travelled to the Crom Estate in Fermanagh, the far south-western corner of Northern Ireland. Part of the estate, including the castle, is still privately owned by the Earl of Erne, but much of it is a part of the National Trust. (This is a charity organization which preserves natural and historic sites.) The National Trust owns about 2,000 acres of land on the Crom Estate, including the ruins of an old castle and two ancient yew trees – legend has it that O’Neill, fleeing from Queen Elizabeth I’s army, said his last goodbyes to his lover under these trees. There are lots of trails for walking, though most of them were at least slightly muddy. We stayed in a holiday cottage on the estate. The cottage used to be servants’ quarters, when the castle was in full operation. It’s a lovely stone building, fully furnished with modern amenities inside, right on the edge of Lough Erne. I found it quite nice to be away for a few days. To be honest, when I was getting ready to leave on Monday morning, I was a bit hesitant. In some ways I haven’t quite settled in enough here to feel like I can leave to go on vacation. This isn’t home enough yet for me to make it a base for travelling from. Also, I had a really busy week last week (including preaching the sermon and helping with a 24-hour prayer event), and didn’t want to put preparation into anything else, including packing. However, once I saw the estate, with its lake and castle and sheep and fireplace in the cottage and general amazingness, I never wanted to leave again. Also, I finally got to spend time with the rest of my team, who are all very cool people. The downside of all this is that since I relaxed for a few days, my body went off high alert and promptly caught a cold. So I’m all sniffly and tired now. But I’m chugging the orange juice, so it should be gone in a few days. Word of the Week: Lough. It’s roughly pronounced “lock,” and is the Northern Irish equivalent of the Scottish “loch.” And it means “lake.” Although in the case of Lough Erne, the lake is actually just a very wide, slow-moving bit of a river. (Much like Long Lake in Spokane.) The Crom Castle, as seen from across Lough Erne.

The old castle ruins.

The castle ruins, framed against the sunset, with sheep in the foreground. (I apologise for the bad lighting in this picture.)

The old castle ruins and the lough at sunset.