The Oldest Lighthouse in the World

Internet has been very hit and miss - mostly miss! Thursday was a bright sunny day and we set out with the intention of roaming far and wide. We actually roamed about 40 kms.
First stop was 4 kms at the lovely seaside village of Duncannon. It deserved some poking around time.
Second stop - the headquarters of the Knights Templar set up in the 1100's.

 They were famous for their banking system. A traveller could deposit money in his local Templar branch and withdraw it at other branches all over Europe. Provided he made it to where he was going.

Third stop was at the Hook Lighthouse at the end of the Hook Peninsula, the oldest continuously working lighthouse in the world. The one we saw was built, again in the 1100's, a marvellous feat of engineering for the time. The top, where a beacon was kept lit always, has been replaced of course. For 400 years before the house was built, the local monks from just up the road kept the beacon going. George and John went for a stroll along the sea cliffs.



After a wonderful lunch at Fethard on Sea, we stopped at Tintern Abbey.

 Same story as we had heard in Iceland - the Earl Marshall promised to build an abbey if he were saved from a storm. Abbey duly built in 1120 and monks sent from Tintern Abbey in Wales to populate the place. After Henry V111, the Abbey was given to a friend of his. The last standing member of that family gave it to the State in 1953.







That family built a massive walled garden which became overgrown to the point of disappearing in the early 1900's. In 2010, volunteers started clearing and restoring it to a plan found from 1830.

 A massive job it has been. We had to contemplate the beauty for several hours.

And then it was after 6pm and it was time to head home. George and I managed to keep ourselves awake until 9:45 and headed back to Duncannon to the Strand pub for their night of traditional music. It was everything we'd hoped it would be. Well worth being "dirty stopouts" as my Dad would say!