Saying farewell to Shetland and arriving in County Donegal

Friday, 27 June 2014
     We said farewell to Betty and Peter Black of Lerwick when our taxi picked us up at 9:15 AM.  We had a very affable driver who proceeded to tell us about the different small hamlets and villages that are between Lerwick and the airport at Sumburgh.  We arrived about 10:00 AM for our flight to Glasgow and we breezed through security for the fist time.  It was sad to leave as the likelihood of our returning is remote at best.  We met and enjoyed many marvelous people.  Having made all the standard goofs of the inexperienced travel we did learn the ropes of travel security. 
     Our Flybe flight was uneventful and landed more or less on time.  Now we waited for our Flybe flight to the County Donegal airport.  We had a lunch at Starbucks in the airport and we arrived in Carrickfin, Donegal airport, late in the afternoon.  We arranged for our car hire after a most unhelpful clerk at the car hire counter made it more difficult than necessary for us.  One of the airport workers asked where were we going and I said to Jim and Marion Boyd`s Limekiln House.  He called the Boyds and they came to lead us to their house. We could finally relax and that we did even though we had a 10:00AM appointment with the rector of Ardara and Glencolumbcille.  We enjoyed the peat fire as well as the tea and `sweets`` our hosts provided.  We retired around 10:30PM.

Arrival in County Donegal

Saturday 28th
We were up early, had a great breakfast and left for Ardara and our meeting with the Rev. John Deane, the rector of Ardara, Glencolumbcille, Glenties, Inniskeel and Lettermacaward.  After making a couple of inquiries we found the rectory nestled in trees just off the main road.  Rev. Deane had "tea and sweets" ready for us along with the register from Glencolumbcille which gave us the dates of some of  Rev. Henry T Carre's children who were born while he served there.  The original register had been "confiscated" by Public Records Ireland but the rector at that time copied all the records out by hand and this register is still in use today.  On the bottom of each copied page is the statement "Copied from and compared with original record of Births confiscated by Public Records Ireland Amendment Act 1875 38'39 Vic Chap 59 and an exact and faithful copy signed David Thompson Rector 27 August 1876".   This was an exceptional moment to hold on such an old and revered piece of history!  Also of note taped to the inside of the register is a letter dated June 1845 from the General Register Office, Queen's Inn, Dublin outlining the rules regarding marriage registration.  The fact that this original letter is "scotch" taped to the inside of the register sends archivists running for the hills screaming as the tape damages the paper.  Aside from that, we did note that the Rev. Henry T Carre performed the very first marriage in St. Columba Church, Glencolumbcille under the new rules.

Photo of Original document

Photo of the hand copied register of births complete with statement by the copying Rector

     We only had a couple of hours with Rev. Deane as he had a funeral to officiate but we left expressing our heartfelt thanks at being able to handle and view such a piece of history.

     Rev. Deane then offered to lead us part of the way to the Glencolumbcille and that was up a very steep and curvy road.  Once at the top he pulled over and gave us all the necessary instruction to get to the church.  The view of the countryside from this elevation was just spectacular!  We arrived and parked the car.  Even though we knew this church had been there a long time, being there really brought the concept home as some graves are only marked with a headstone with no markings at all and some are very hard to read.  We were not there long before we were met by Ann King who had some photocopied material for us and a good knowledge of the church and its history.