Day 6 - Errands in Armagh and Castle Leslie Estate including Snaffles Restaurant

Friday, 20 September 2019
Breakfast at Castle Leslie Lodge is taken in the same space as Snaffles Restaurant, upstairs. The beauty of reporting after we've returned home is that I can say without any hesitation that the breakfast at Castle Leslie Lodge was easily the best I had on this trip. This was because of the French Toast they do there. Cooked to perfection, served with a combination of a little pot of berries and a second little pot of thick sticky maple syrup, and just to round it off, a physallis complete with it's papery wings. Utterly divine.  Hubby is still stuck on the full Irish and is enjoying the mix of white and black pudding, and we enjoy trying the little triangles of potato bread though for the life of me I can't recall what it should be called.

What is that potato griddle scone thingy called?

Best French Toast ever! Totally first class.

Hubby's main occupation in life at the moment is keeping me in the land of the almost mentally stable, calm and reassuring. Without him I'd be just about ready to be sectioned (committed for hospital treatment). Yesterday coming back from afternoon tea we took our time as I made sure I captured photographs of the beautiful driveway to the castle, it's mossy shade and water tower, the church and the gorgeous garden seating and autumn creepers on the lodge building itself. Now the SD cards are corrupted again and they and the photos of afternoon tea are considered lost. In the end, our morning which was to be chilling in luxury, is allocated to heading into Armagh to an IT store to try for cables for downloading or at least a better quality card reader. We need at least one of the actual cameras ticking over nicely and for some reason even the iPhone isn't cooperating. Yeah I know, it's probably user error, a thought which doesn't really reduce my anxiety level.
The IT store is co-located with the post office. We have luckily nabbed a parking spot just outside. It's a small store but the lovely lass looking after the IT side of things helps us out with a cable for the EOS M5, so we have that at least. Weight off. Hubby is recommending we don't reformat and reuse the SD cards that are apparently corrupted, because we might be able to retrieve material from them when we get home. So that means the new 300 mb card we bought in Dublin is out of action and we need another. For that we head to Argos in Armagh and are assisted by another lovely chap. Always when travelling in the UK we find that LOTS of people have children or family in Australia, and or they have been to Australia or are planning to go in the near future. In Ireland that seems to be pretty much everyone and our two locals this morning are no exception!
Now we have got at least the M5 in operation, I set about finding a way to put the lost photos out of my mind. The main strategy there is to give up trying to journal. Move on. Relax. Live in the moment. It's what you should be doing all the time but it's extra important when on holiday!

So, what now? Well, I loved the Navan Centre so much yesterday and I'm beyond upset to have lost ALL the photos of the iron age dwelling experience so I process my grief by just doing that part again! And I'm glad we did. Really glad we did, but that's dealt with in yesterday's report so that all discussion of the Navan Centre is together.

We complete some further purchases in the Navan Centre gift shop and head back to Castle Leslie Lodge, about 20 mins away on the edge of Co Monaghan.  Determined to see at least some of the Estate, get some replacement photos along with some exercise to counter all the eating we're doing, we set off for a late afternoon walk. Hubby has obtained a map of the Estate Walks so first we go back down the drive to the castle, starting to relax as we enjoy the beauty around us.

An idyllic spot on a mild autumn afternoon

You'd go a long way to find a more beautiful driveway

Castle Leslie

The Castle gardens are closed, so we figure we will take a walk that takes us to the alternate lake viewing area on the map. I'm loitering behind a little composing my photographs. Hubby suggests we take the route signposted as the integrated constructed wetland walk. Sounds good. Looks inviting. Off we go. We find ourselves wandering through well maintained dry paths through a wilderness bordered by water and extensive reed beds. Birds call in the woodland. Sun shines overhead. An information board explains that this series of ponds is a sewerage treatment system for Glaslough village. You'd really never know. Wildlife generally loves such nutrient rich natural waste treatment systems. I'm a lazy birdwatcher, so a sewerage treatment system only has positive connotations for me, birds LOVE sewerage treatment ponds at home in Australia where water is so scarce in most areas. A natural wetland approach is just about perfection. Nice work Glaslough and Castle Leslie Estate. 

 

We cross a little bridge and find ourselves somewhat bewildered.  I amuse myself photographing umbellifers in various stages of flowering and seeding as Hubby studies the map with somewhat limited success. Eventually we decide to back track. Then we head up another wide path, but it starts to look a bit wet and boggy so we head back. Discretion is the better part of valour afterall. Back at the drive near the Castle we study the map again and decide to stick to the original plan and walk out towards the little Gothic Lodge and Old Stable Mews. The path is high and dry and gives us some views over Glasough. 

Glaslough - The Green Lake

Gothic Lodge, Castle Leslie Estate

A silent and sullen lady walks briskly past us back towards the castle,  seemingly oblivious to our greeting. We carry on. Soon enough we reach the derelict lodge and ornate gate to the road which could also use a bit of a spruce up. The ground is a bit boggy looking but with the dry weather, it's not too bad.  Now, I'm not one for backtracking if there's an alternative, so against Hubby's preference I encourage a new direction into the wood.  

We chat as we go, and we get along pretty well. For a while. Then we come to some patches of muddy puddles. Nothing too drastic we venture further and further into the mire until I start experiencing two persistent thoughts. 1. I'm channelling my mother at the Valley of the Winds. Surely it's easier to press forward than to walk all that way back 2. We're going to have to declare our footwear to the bio-security checks when we head back through customs in Australia. 

Before long, I'm wondering what the bloody hell I was thinking. Penny drops and I figure this must be the other end of the path we turned back on earlier. I hoik up my pants out of the mud, we step around, muddy bog on one side, stinging nettles on the other. Water seeping and mud sucking at our shoes. We laugh, and I stop to photograph Hubby trying to navigate a particular nasty section. Well this will be a memorable walk at any rate. I start to imagine riders cantering along this track spraying mud as they pass, wondering what sort of idiot comes this way through the mud, and develop an underlying preoccupation with declarations for bio-security when we go home. 

Hubby's doing a lovely job of controlling a surely tempting opportunity for an I told you so. Or maybe he's just thinking of the Battle of the Packing and his insistence that he might need a change of shoes, feeling smug. The anticipated improvement in the track never seems to materialise. Eventually we reach a place where we can get along by the fence and back onto solid ground. We reach reception and Hubby enquires from the doorway how best to get to the boot room, we're anxious not to muddy up their floors. No problem just come through here directly and over the patch of carpet in the hall, they're not bothered. Thank goodness for the boot room! We clean up our shoes and put them on a shelf to dry and pad back to our room in our socks. Well, that was an adventure. Not quite what I had been imagining an exploration of the estate would involve. Oh well, it was much needed exercise at least.

There's now time for some relaxation before dinner in Snaffles, the more upmarket of the dining venues here at the Lodge. 

Time for our reservation, Hubby leads the way to the venue and we are seated next to each other on one side of a fairly large round table facing away from the body of the restaurant. We are having a 6 course tasting menu, so that involves a combination of dishes we choose and others that are a delightful surprise. First up, as expected among a well established dining format, some complimentary soda bread as we order our drinks. Then we are presented with cute little three cornered dishes containing what my notes describe as Cheese Custard with Pickled Apple. It was as delicious as it looks and if memory serves it involved the teeniest little muscles, rounding out the flavour combination. What a good start. 

Round 1 commences with the delivery of our starters. We've fallen into our predictable pattern of choices, Hubby opting for the Foie gras terrine,  pain d'epices, plums and smoked eel while I snatch the opportunity for Seared Scallops, brown butter sand, lemon gel, dilisk and curried fennel. No opportunity for controversy or disappointment there. 

Our next gift from the kitchen is tiny handled glass mugs with a taste of Celeriac Soup. Mmm. Delicious. Very good.  Good food is always a mood lifter isn't it. This is great. 

For our mains, again, if I describe our choices, I don't think those who know us well would find it difficult to pick who the wait staff should hand the plates to on arrival at table: Truffle corn fed chicken breast, roscoff onions, leeks, truffle puree, truffle potato puree, buttermilk.  Obviously for Hubby but only because the alternative is Potato Gnocchi, onion petals, confit shitake mushroom, dried tomatoes. A dish of gnocchi arriving at our table will pretty much always be for me rather than Hubby, though I did throw a curve ball in there choosing something with a species of mushroom involved, the combination of confit style and shitake species giving the dish a free pass through my mild mushroom phobia.  Along the way tonight we've basically abandoned our usual competition. We must be tired! 

These delicious plates tucked away in satisfied bellies we are keen to see what our options are for dessert. Hubby is again predictable choosing the Chocolate and passionfruit tart, chocolate mousse, opaline, passionfruit sorbet while the mention of apricots steers me towards the carrot cake, glazed apricot, apricot sorbet, creme fraiche, dill.  Overall our desserts were a little disappointing, not being at quite the same level as the other courses. That's a shame. An Irish Coffee for Hubby and a round of neat little petit fours see our meal to it's conclusion and we retire to our comfy room.