Carpets and Pottery

Wednesday

Today we walked around Killybegs. I changed my last paper British money to Euros at the bank, then we did a little souvenir shopping, and finally headed for the carpet factory, where we saw a movie about what they used to do there. Then we were able to tour the factory.

 

The Carpet Factory once designed, dyed and wove wool by hand-knotters, and produced world-class Donegal Carpets that can still be seen in such places as Dublin Castle, The Oval Room at the White House, the Vatican, Buckingham Palace, stately homes, and foreign embassies throughout the globe. It is the home of the largest hand-knotted loom in the world.

Making the carpets was an incredibly labor-intensive job, from the original designs, to dying the wool, to individually hand knotting each stitch of the carpet. Women had to be able to do 365 knots per hour to work there (there was a year-long training) and the carpets cost €2000 a square yard. The loom was absolutely huge. I tried my hand at doing a knot, and let’s just say they wouldn’t be asking me to come work there! Now they just do smaller items, such as wall hangings. We saw some they were working on.

 Thursday

Today we went with Bill & Shari’s neighbor Tim to Northern Ireland. We first stopped at Balleek Pottery, and went through the showroom. I’ve added a graphic of the pottery they make there. It is very delicate and quite beautiful, and as you might guess, expensive.

 

Interestingly, we simply drove into Northern Ireland. There was nothing to mark the border, and we did not need our passports (which we had brought, just in case). It was strange to be back in the UK again, with their signage, and the red post boxes, instead of the green ones of the Republic of Ireland.

We headed towards Enniskillen, driving along Lough Erne, which is quite beautiful – tree-lined and peaceful. The town of Enniskillen is about twelve thousand people. There is a long street with older buildings, all holding businesses. One place we visited was the Butter Market, which consists of craft shops around a café. At the end of town is a modern shopping center. We ate lunch in the old part of town, and did a bunch of window shopping, but didn’t buy anything. We came home along the other side of the lough.

 The Butter Market 

It was a lovely sunny day, and the rain held off until we were nearly back to Killybegs.