October Sketching Trip to Castletown House, Celbridge, Co. Kildare

Long time no see folks! Hope you all had a good summer. Apologies that I didn't get a chance to organise any outing in the hottest August and September months in history! The lovely autumnal sun has not quite deserted us yet though so am making up for lost time by putting up this outing to Celbridge, Co. Kildare, where I used to live a loooonnnnng time ago!! It is an elegant stately home with beautiful grounds... and if I remember from a tour I did as a kid, with many not-too-scary ghost stories perfect for this Halloween month :)

The walk through the tree-lined avenue to the estate itself is wonderful and always very spiritual to me even as a teenager. Not sure if memories make things more beautiful than they are but judging by the website, they have done a great job of preserving the grounds and house (with the exception of chopping down an enormous and beautifully snarled old tree next to the house, but this was gone years ago because the tree was diseased... well one cannot have everything and some things do have to pass on).

Anyway, it was the lovely suggestion of Paula from the July outing that reminded me of this country gem. And the great thing is that it should be an all-weather venue allowing us to sketch indoors or outdoors depending on mood and temperature.

There is also a cafe on the grounds which would be perfect for us to regroup after some strenuous sketching.

Weather forecasts says that the weekend of the 15/16th should be sunny, and at least the bus stop on O'Connell Bridge should be super-easy to find for Dubliners and non-Dubliners alike!

The idea is that we will get the 11.30am bus together from O'Connell bridge and then arrive at Celbridge main street around 12.30pm. Then take a stroll up the tree-lined avenue to Castletown House in time for their 1pm tour. If we miss the 1pm tour there is another one at 2pm. We can decide how to spread out and when to grab a bite to eat etc. after we got there and have done the tour together to get an idea of our various favourite sketching spots.

More details to come. See below for more info.

http://www.castletown.ie/VisitorInformation/

Time-table for Bus 67

http://www.dublinbus.ie/Your-Journey1/Timetables/All-Timetables/67/