The must see scenery and walks in Co Laois
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The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
Well, we're broadcasting all morning here from Ballykilkavan Farm in County Leash, a truly beautiful part of the country. We are bathed in beautiful sunshine here alongside our wonderful audience who have come to be with us over the course of the morning. And keeping with the theme of it being a beautiful part of the country, we wanted to highlight some of the amazing scenery that you can take advantage of. If you come to the O'Moore County, so I'm joined by poet Pat Bourne, as well as travel consultant and author John G. O'Dwyer. You're both very well Welcome to the programme. Thank you for the invite, Clare. God, Pat, it's years since I've seen you.
What scenic locations are highlighted in Co Laois?
How are you? I'm good.
How could you be other on a day like that?
It's fabulous, isn't it? It is. And it's showing off Leash to its very, very best.
Well, it's reminded me, one of the first things I ever wrote when I was still in school was a kind of a short story about Rocket on a Mace. And I called it the seaside of Leash because it was the place we went to be elevated and to hear in the woods all around Leash. the wind blowing. So you had that sense if you closed your eyes and lay out in the grass, you were at the seaside. And today, everywhere seems to be the seaside, even the county that's most distracted, disconnected from the coast in the country.
Well, and John, it's just a beautiful place to walk, isn't it?
Absolutely. I have something to confess. First thing, I'm coming in here to talk about Leash, and I have to confess I'm actually a Tipperary man. I come in here to advise two Leash people about their own county.
Listen, you didn't have to tell us that. We'll forgive you for it. It's only down the road anyway.
Well, I'll tell you one thing is that we have plenty of walking in Tipperary. There's no doubt about it. But we regularly cross the border. Hill walking club, I mean mid-tip hill walkers, we regularly come up into Leash for the beautiful walks here and up into the Shleaf Blooms as well. So, you know, there's a lot to offer. We come here regularly.
And the Sleave Blooms, we were talking to Evelyn Cusack about it, they are beautiful for walking because they are really rolling hills. I know we have mountains in there as well, but for the most part, it's a gentle walking pace that you'll have there, isn't it?
Absolutely wonderful. The first thing I would think of is it's mostly a marketing person's dream. I mean, the Sleave Blue Mountains, it's evocative.
What makes walking in O'Moore County unique?
of flowers, and I'm sure today it's absolutely blooming. But that is the thing, and I have, you know, in my book on the Comoros Galtys and Shlee Blue Mountains, I have gone up and written about that, so I've walked, you know, nearly all of the Shlee Blooms, and that is the great thing about it. Once you get up there, It's very isolated and of course the reason for that is that she bloom suffered very badly in the famine Of course the land wasn't anything like it is down here The only thing that could grow was potatoes the plate was failed and people were forced out of the sleeve loom But now of course then that makes it a beautifully isolated area unspoiled and Yeah, unspiled, absolutely. And if you go down to Kerry, I mean, it's very steep ground, lots of cliffs that you have to navigate, you have to be very careful, almost any of the mountains in the west of Ireland.
But the great thing here is that you can lose yourself hardly meet anybody, but at the same time, you don't have to think too deeply about where you're going. You just follow something like the Schleebloom Way. There are some fantastic walks. And I know yourself, I think, you did a mill loop there for tracks and trails.
Yes.
And, of course, the deserted village, the people who were forced out.
Just a fabulous place. I mean, you talk about getting lost somewhere. That was the most beautiful... Isn't it? Isn't it funny, Pat, when you're so familiar with a county and it's in your bones that you sometimes forget to look at it, don't you?
Yeah, well, you see, Leeds doesn't have what I think of as drama.
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