Wednesday 14 September 2016

Myrtle Grove.


We went for another ride out the other day.  This time it was to Youghal in East Cork.  Youghal is famous for being the location scenes for Moby Dick which starred Gregory Peck.  

Youghal was also the occasional home of Sir Walter Raleigh.  No he didn't invent bicycles in Nottingham.  But he did bring tobacco and potatoes back with from the 'New World'.



 Myrtle Grove is a private residence.  You can just get a glimpse of it behind the big foreboding gates.  Apparently Sir Walter Raleigh grew potatoes here in the garden.  I think we all know the story of him growing spudatoes and his servants served up the green stalks of the haulm instead of the tubers.  Oh yeah.  There was also the tale of him smoking some of his tobacco and his servant thought he was on fire and threw water over him.  


I think this was a gate house.  But after looking at Google images me thinks it's a wing part of the house.

  Apparently it's open to the world and his wife several times a year.  But it wasn't open when we visited it. 

Never mind.  It was a good run out.  If Sir Walter Raleigh had waited 400 years.  He could have got some frozen chips and meat and potato pies from Iceland down the road in Midleton.

14 comments:

  1. I visited the Kennedy ancestral home when I was down that way. I had no idea about the Earth Apples as Spuds are called in Austria.

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    1. Hi Gwil. Yes Youghal is on the road to Rosslare port and New Ross: ancestral home of President Kennedy. Never heard them called Earth Apples. Thanks!

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    2. Yes I Googled them Gwil. I believe potatoes are also called Kartoffels in Southern Germany. Like Michael Caine famously said: "not many people know that!"

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  2. I used to live in Myrtle Grove in Newcastle. How strange. I often wondered why it was called Myrtle Grove. It was a poor street of terraced houses, no gardens, just a back yard.

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    1. How canny is that Rachel? I would like to have seen Lindisfarne in the nineteen seventies. Did you ever go to St James Park? I have walked past it and I once saw Sunderland play Stoke at Roker Park. Thanks!

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    2. I went to every home game, and we went to Roker Park, and Hartlepool and Elland Road and Middlesbrough! We used to go to all the football grounds in the area. My boyfriend at the time was an Arsenal supporter, not the first but the second Arsenal supporter I had gone out with! Roker Park was one of those old grounds full of atmosphere - well you will have seen that. St James Park likewise but much more modern than Roker Park even in the 1970s. We used to go to the Lindisfarne Christmas Concert that they did annually in Newcastle City Hall. They were very good days for me.

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  3. You would have seen Super Mac play for Newcastle Rachel. Didn't he play for the Arsenal also?

    Roker Park was famous for it's "Roker Roar." I remember the home supporters shouting: "Celtic, Ranger", Celtic, Rangers"..

    I use to have a Lindisfarne Christmas Concert LP. They gave it to the concert goers on the night of the concert at Manchester Apollo. It had all the famous sad and very amusing tracks like "Fog On The Tyne", "Meet Me On The Corner", "Lady Eleanor" and a very memorable track about Douglas Bader like character flying a "Fokker".

    Sounds like a wonder time in your life. Think I will have a can of Newcastle Brown Ale later. Thanks!

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    1. Yes, we used to see Mac and Tudor and Terry McDermott. I remember Mac less at Arsenal though; I think I had a few years off following Arsenal closely after I left Newcastle and returned to Norfolk.

      The Lindisfarne Christmas concert all seemed to be about Fog on the Tyne and everybody waiting for them to sing it!

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    2. I remember watching the 1974 FA Cup Final between Newcastle and Liverpool on television. Must have been black and white back then.

      Fog on the Tyne is a classic. Sounds like an amazing Christmas concert.

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  4. Hey Dave, What is your favourite potatoe dish?

    Do they have Heritage open days over there?

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    1. Hi Sol, Probably jacket potatoes does in the solid fuel range and sprinkled with sea salt.

      Yes there are Heritage open days over here. There are also many varieties of potatoes. You can get: Lumpers which were the potatoes most people ate during the potato famines. We usually grow Orla which come from Scotland and are more blight resistant than the traditional Irish varieties my grandfather grew like: British Queens and Kerr Pinks. The climate is wet which makes great tubers but it's also a climate that is very prone to blight. Thanks Sol.

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  5. I used to know a drag queen called myrtle Grove

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    1. Trust you John. You always make me laugh. Thanks!

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