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Mirror reporter Ray O’Shaughnessy ventured onto a river cruise in Ireland, where he discovered amazing wildlife, the art of distillation and an inspiring landscape
It’s a spirited claim which may be hard to swallow for the Scots – but a top whiskey expert in Ireland insists that the drink was invented on the Emerald Isle.
Timmy Donovan tells a convincing tale of how monks near Athlone worked on perfumes from the Middle East to perfect the art of distillation and create the powerful aqua vitae – water of life – almost 1,000 years ago.
The monks, based near the banks of the River Shannon, later spread their wings and set up churches in Iona and other Scottish isles where they brought distillation with them. The rest, as they say, is history with whiskey becoming “moonshine” in the US and a huge industry across the world.
The Irish version is, of course, spelt with an “e” but that got lost somewhere across the Irish Sea and it is whisky in Scotland, which also lays claim to being the real home of the spirit. Scots experts argue that whisky-making began in the country as winemaking methods spread from monasteries in Europe. Monks, who had no access to grapes, used grain mash instead.
Timmy, who is working on a Netflix series about the origins of whiskey, recounts his tale in the historic Sean’s Bar in Athlone, which dates from 900 AD, making it the oldest pub in Ireland and possibly the world. Athlone – right in the heart of the country – is the launch point for our exploration of the wonders of the Shannon by cruise. Tourism chiefs are keen to encourage visitors to look beyond the well-trodden paths to Dublin, Cork and Galway and delve into the ‘Hidden Heartlands’.
The Shannon – the longest river in the British Isles, just pipping the Severn at 224 miles – cuts a swathe through the middle of Ireland and was home to many historic settlements. These include the monastic site at Clonmacnoise where a series of churches, towers, Celtic crosses and a spectacular collapsed castle overlook the grand sweep of the river on whose banks it sits. Pope John Paul II visited the site in 1979, drawing massive crowds as he toured Ireland, with nearly three million people flocking to see him over the course of three days.
We boarded a cruiser to reach Clonmacnoise – a great way to appreciate the stunning landscape and wildlife teeming around the Shannon’s banks. Herons swooping for fish perched nearby as cows grazed at the water’s edge and the sun and clouds created dappled fields as we floated by at 10mph.
We stopped off at the village of Shannonbridge – it “does what it says on the tin”, with a bridge over the Shannon as its centrepiece. Here, a fort built by the English to see off the threat of invasion by the French from the west coast of Ireland still stands, with an infantry barracks now turned into a cafe and sometime wedding venue. Its roof offers a commanding view of the village and the impressive, twisting river and lush, green fields below.
We returned to base on our cruiser, which is part of a Carrick Craft fleet with hundreds of boats which have now been converted from diesel power to run on HVO – hydro-treated vegetable oil – in a bid to be kinder to the environment. The sustainability move mirrors the decision by fast food giant McDonald’s to use cooking oil from its kitchens as bio-diesel for delivery trucks.
We headed north to the town of Carrick-On-Shannon, home to the smallest church in Ireland and the second smallest in the world at just 16ft by 12ft. The Costello Chapel was built by a grieving husband in 1879 after his wife died. He later passed away and now both their coffins lie in glass cabinets inside the building with a small altar in between.
Carrick nestles by the Shannon and is a popular hen and stag do destination with Guinness-filled pubs and fine restaurants such as The Oarsman and Red Bank generously scattered through its historic streets.
We plunged into the gentle pace offered by river travel again as we cruised from Carrick to nearby Lough Key, hailing fellow cruiser captains as we navigated around small islands and passed through a different kind of lock into an open bay where we picked up the pace to a heady 11mph.
Lough Key was once home to a wealthy family who built the grand mansion Rockingham House in the idyllic spot but it was badly damaged in a fire in 1860. It was rebuilt but was destroyed in a second blaze sparked by an electrical fault in 1957.
However, the tunnels used by the servants to bring food and other provisions to the house without troubling the family by being seen still exist. They provide a fascinating way of reaching the lough’s edge where a surprisingly ‘brutalist’ modern tower hundreds of feet high gives us commanding views of the serene landscape, including a castle folly built on a nearby island.
Lough Key has been transformed into a family-friendly retreat, with a ‘walkway’ winding through the treetops offering more breathtaking views of the countryside. The site also offers an adventure play area for younger children and a Crystal Maze-type challenge with 47 rooms along with bike trails and boat tours.
Our tour of the Shannon, which starts in the mountains at County Cavan and eventually flows into the Atlantic in Limerick, was over far too quickly, even though we never got above 11mph. The relaxed pace of cruising allows you to literally go with the flow as you “un-lough” the secrets of a beautiful part of Ireland.
Book the holiday
- Ryanair flies from Glasgow to Dublin starting at £42 return, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Leeds Bradford, Liverpool, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted, Manchester, Newcastle and Newquay, also available. ryanair.com
- Rooms at the Glasson Lake Hotel in Co. Westmeath start at around £196 a night B&B. glassonlakehouse.ie
- Rooms at the Landmark Hotel in Co. Leitrim start at around £92 a night B&B. thelandmarkhotel.com
- A three-night Shannon cruise from Banagher or from Shannonbridge costs from around £410, based on two sharing a Tyrone Class boat in April. carrickcraft.com
- More info at ireland.com
