Game of Thrones, chocolate, monks

I counted the number of events/exhibits/performances at last night's culture night--nearly 200 in the space of five hours. Nuts.

After recovering, today we went to the Killyleagh Chocolate Festival, then the harvest festival at the local Presbyterian church, then the free pass day at Castle Ward, a National Trust property.

Killyleagh Castle looks like this. The forecourt (between the castle and an impressive looking gate) held a tent filled with artisinal chocolate makers--all from County Down.

A woman looked after Maysie while we were at the chocolate festival and a man looked after her while we had tea and shopped at the harvest festival down the hill. Both were apologetic that we couldn't take her in and they were offering to hold onto dogs for anyone who wanted to attend.

I told the man holding Maysie, who was also collecting two pounds from people parking in the church car park, that I've been challenged by a U.S. friend to take pictures of something ugly in Ireland because all my photos are so beautiful.
"Sure take a picture of the two of us--you'll not find worse in Ireland."

He then said we should buy a house in Killyleagh, not Belfast, and we should bring Maysie to his farm so she could run with his dogs. That is the Irish for you. In a nutshell.

Here is Castle Ward.

We didn't visit the house, but we enjoyed hiking the grounds, which sit alongside the lovely Strangford Lough. A lot of Game of Thrones filming happens here.

I haven't seen GOT so I don't know what landmarks are famous. The boathouse, with Portaferry on the opposite shore?

Audley's Tower?

The farmyard?

On the way back to Crawfordsburn, we took a sidetrip to Nendrum Monastery. It dates to the 5th Century and had a mill, built in 619 A.D., that was powered by the tides in and out of Strangford Lough. I find that absolutely amazing. Here's the tower, whose purpose was to ring a bell for timekeeping (i.e. worship) and to secure valuables.

9/20