Our Lady's Island and Chour

St. Margarets is on a sort of peninsula. Getting here gave our satnav considerable difficulty and we seemed to drive in circles for a few miles. On the drive in we passed several fingerposts for Our Lady's Island as the largest settlement nearby; an odd name for a village. So today, we got on our bikes to explore.

Augustus Pugin, architect/designer of much of the Houses of Parliament in London, came here to build a local church. He died before it was complete and his son finished the design and construction. The Pugin clan built quite a few Irish churches it seems (Pugin is one of my architectural heroes as it happens).

The village of Our Lady's Island is actually beside the eponymous island also known as Inish. A short causeway leads out to the remains of a gothic church tower. A circuit round the island is an ancient place of pilgrimage leading out into a small lagoon populated with boulders and another low lying island, Sgarbheen. This is one of only 2 nesting places in Europe of the rare Roseate Tern. Other sea birds share the island and the noise emanating from them all was quite amazing.

Lagoon by Our Lady's Island

We continued on to the coastline at Chour, arriving at extensive dunes and a huge beach stretching as far as the eye could see in both directions. Needless to say there was not a sinner about and we had the whole strand to ourselves. To the east were a clutch of windmills and to the west we found the entrance to the lagoon; banks of sand rising several feet high and sculpted by the wind. At this time there was no direct link between the sea and the lagoon, a tall sand bank was blocking one from the other. In the winter when the water level in the lagoon can rise to threaten nearby farm land, a channel is dug to the sea to release the winter waters.

Although the sun was bright and the sky blue, there was a serious wind blowing. Definitely too strong for canoeing but the sea birds were loving it. Taking off from sand bars in the lagoon, chasing each other or trying to hover in the wind pretending to look for fish in the shallows.

Sandbanks at Chour

With an excess of ozone and feeling quite exhilarated, on our way back we discovered a little pub just setting by the roadside begging for our custom. Course we could not refuse enjoying an excellent pint of Guinness and some wonderful food.