Thursday Doors – A Quiet Blackrock

On a recent trip to stay with my mother I found myself in a very quiet Blackrock, a seaside town in County Louth that I have featured before on Thursday Doors. Gone are the days when you could find roughly six hotels and forty boarding houses there but it still attracts lots of day trippers and tourists and is a great base from which to travel around the east and north coast area. The first image is of the sundial in the centre of the main street. On a sunny day it’s a lovely place to sit and take in the sea view.

Most of the shops are closed during another strict lockdown and sadly the tea rooms where I held my first book launch of the Irish Family Saga is gone altogether. The craft shop next door might be locked up (or should I say down?) but the online store is still open.

This next business has also found a way to keep operating, I’ve eaten there a few times and the coffee is delicious so it’s nice to see they are still serving it as a takeaway. Next time I visit, I hope the restaurant will be fully open.

The Clermont underwent some big changes the year before the pandemic. They serve a vast array of ethnic food, so there is something for every palate. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to sample the cuisine before the lockdowns began so as soon as I can, I’ll be paying them a visit. It must be so difficult for all of these businesses to keep going, we should really try to support them as much as we can when they are finally allowed to reopen. This building has been here since the mid 1800s, when it was known as the Clermont Hotel.

It’s the same story with The Brake Tavern, closed due to another lockdown. This was originally known as The Blackrock Hotel and built around 1845 to accommodate the many tourists who came to the village from the midland towns of Ireland and from as far away as Scotland, even in those days. At one time, in the early 1900s, it was owned by my great grandparents. It also serves delicious food and I hope to pay them another visit once they can reopen.

See if you can spot the fake in the next photo. I’ve featured this one before, so some of you might remember it.

It was quite a blustery day when I took these shots and the sea was fully in. I’ll leave you with a short video I took, to make this virtual tour more realistic for you.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I have a few more images from a quiet Blackrock for next week’s post but in the meantime Dan has links to some great Thursday Doors over on his blog.