On tourist attractions

This area's gorgeous. It's very scenic, it's very countrified and it's also very friendly. Unfortunately, up until now, it's also been impossible to see because it's been a) foggy, b) icy or c) both. And so, as the bright yellow object in the sky made an appearance towards the end of last week, we headed out with TDT's mum (TDP, for that will be her nickname from now on) to find my ultimate tourist attraction. As mentioned before, Father Ted was filmed in this area (watch out for the house and also the cliffs of Moher), so I'd always wanted to see the most famous "Parochial house" from Craggy Island.

We knew roughly where it was, but TDT's insistance that "I've past it before, so I know where it is" meant we drove around country lanes for 2 hours, before we stopped and looked it up on a map. We were close, but were in the wrong ball park. It didn't help that it's not exactly pinpointed anywhere on the web, so I thought I'd do all Father Ted fans a service, and post a link to it's exact location here.

As you can see, it's a little bit run down. Apparently it'a just a normal family living there. In the summer they offer tours (for a small fee, of course) but the inside of the house not surprisingly isn't anything like the series. The other thing was the fact that even though it's probably one of the most famous places in the area, there was no mention of it anywhere. No signs, no plaques, nothing. And yet, people still find it easily enough, and even whilst we were there there was another car, also getting pictures. They were impressed with a tame black lamb that they were getting a cuddle from, and my retort of "is it a small lamb, or just far away?" made me feel like a fan. Which, being honest, I am. It was a great series, and apparently the locals (TDT included) don't find it funny because it makes them look silly. But I have to say that's the whole area's charm. When Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan wrote it, they came up with comedy gold, and the untimely death of Dermot Morgan ('Father Ted') put a stop to what would have gone on to become one of the greatest series of all time.
Become a fan, you know you want to. Ah, go on.

Go on.

Go on.

Go on.

Go on.

Go on.

Go on.