Schull Ballydehob and Skibbereen Railway

The Train Returns to Schull

After two named storms (first Austen and then Boelo), and before the next yellow warning and epic rainfall hits tomorrow, the Schull Samhain Parade took place tonight. Samhain (pronounced Sow -to rhyme with how – in) is what we call Halloween, and Fionn Mac Cumhaill must have been keeping an eye on us from Mount Gabriel, because we had a warm and moonlit evening for it. The harbour was looking calmer than it has in days.

The theme of the parade was The Railway Returns. Here’s the poster designed by local gal Liadh Pyburn.

You can read all about the days when the railway ran from Skibbereen to Ballydehob and then on to Schull in Robert’s post Tracking the Trains

So tonight the Ghost Train arrived! It was so cleverly done, as you can see in the photos – lots of huffing and puffing and tooting and steam!

There were little vignettes – this one was about the cattle car and the dealing and wheeling at the fair.

Here are the first class passengers, snug inside the car.

And the second class passengers, who had to get out and push.

The ghost conductor was having a ball.

And the kids, as always, stole our hearts.

It felt great to be out in my new home village, laughing and cheering with all my friends and neighbours, and in complete awe at the endless creativity of Schull.

And if you wander down to the Harbour one day, you will see Robert’s poster all about the old Railway Days.

The Day the Sun Came Out – in Ballydehob!

It always happens: you go through a ferocious winter of gales, floods and bitingly cold winds and then one day – probably not too long after St Brigid’s – you realise that spring is arriving! It happened this week, here in Ballydehob. Suddenly, the sun came out; the sky was deep blue and all the coloured houses, bars and shops lit up and made us remember what a wonderful place we live in.

Ballydehob – that’s the name in Irish, above, on the gable of the community’s Bank House. A literal translation would be Town of the ford at the estuary of two rivers and, indeed, the Bawnakeane and Rathravane streams converge here before flowing out into Ballydehob Bay, once a hive of water-borne commerce with coasters, schooners, sand-boats, and punts and skiffs from the inhabited offshore islands arriving and leaving, while the tiny train puffed and rumbled across the viaduct on its way from Skibbereen to the Schull terminus.

When you feel the spring in the air for the first time, you begin to look anew at your surroundings. Shapes, reflections, the play of images on water: there’s such a difference as the ‘ordinary’ is changed through the quality of the light. That’s the freshness of annual renewal.

There are so many little details in the townscape that we can overlook, or just take for granted. Ballydehob has a long history of creativity, which is reflected in shop signs, decoration, window dressings. Take a stroll in the sunshine and see if you can find anything new!

You don’t have to wander far from home to welcome and experience the joys of a new spring. You will also find yourself looking forward to the seasons still to come, which will bring Ballydehob to life with its visitors, galleries, festivals and gatherings. Not to mention the hostelries which feed the body as well as the soul.

We are looking forward to many sunny days to come as the year warms up. Meanwhile, we can always revisit happy memories of our village life through our photographic archives. Thanks to Judi Whitton for the endpiece watercolour featuring our wonderful Budds, just turned five years old this weekend: congratulations to Jamie and his dedicated team!