Marston Cottage,
Cloonbeg, Ballyduff, Co Waterford. I spend a lot of my time holed up in a lovely cottage on the banks of the River Blackwater in West Waterford, just over the line from County Cork. The valley is majestic, hidden Ireland stuff, and not much messed with by time. The idea was to fish for elusive salmon but mostly there I fish for words. My wife Jamie and I devote a lot of energy as well in trying to grow things faster than those monsters from the Celtic Twilight -- slugs, snails, and rabbits -- can eat them.
It is a supremely beautiful place where time stops for us, and fruit -- apples, pears, strawberries, elderberries, blackberries -- ripens in its own sweet time, and extraordinary bird life luffs up and down the river while I ponder my latest utility bill and attempt to avoid the inevitability of concentration upon some new idea.
Stage left is what I intended to be doing a lot more of, as I am passionate about fly fishing as seen from just above the bench on our property. But sometimes just looking at the river outside our door does the job. Some of the most premier salmon angling beats in Ireland lie close by up and down the fabled Blackwater, a magic and historic valley in every sense. No wonder the Vikings and Normans and Cronwellians centered their invasions in this fertile place apart, with a shot-up ancient castle across our way, and the Duke of Devonshire's stunning pile and luxurious gardens just down the pike in quaint and quirky Lismore.
Our trade-off with the Ultimate Bank Manager pulling the strings on our groans and smiles is that we rent the place out for a week or weeks at a time to people who have a taste for savouring the same things we love most about Ireland ourselves -- a sense of deep serenity in our beautiful gardens, glorious untrammeled landscapes (here at least); lovely walks; old world pubs in the nearby village of Ballyduff; and inspiring nearby stops from seaside vistas to hidden charming restaurants in great estates; or, more likely for me, the chipper on wheels after one of the passionate local hurling matches, or displays of amazing local theatre.
In spring, summer, and fall, we do rent Marston Cottage out a lot, and anyone interested can either contact me directly at davidmonagan@eircom.net or follow the link below. It's a place to restore all the good parts of life, and from which to explore, explore.
How to Rent It:
Holiday cottage in County Waterford, Ireland
Or contact me direct: davidmonagan@eircom.net
How to Find It:
Follow the Yellow Brick Road and I will guide you. It's only 45 minutes from Cork airport, two hours from Shannon, and just off the Irish version of a superhighway from Cork to Dublin -- accessible to great swathes of the Southwest.
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How You Would Have Gotten There
A friend of mine, Eamonn Coghlan, produced this wonderful map from a bygone time. This map depicts the area around Marston Cottage and the village of Ballyduff in 1845, the year of the Great Famine in Ireland.
