When touring Ireland, any suggestions about where to find the nice geography and session in combination? Helps with planning.
I've often thought that it would be hard to find a better venue for a session than Krugers Pub at Dunquin, if its scenery that your looking for as well, although in bad weather you might be hard pressed making your way out the door after a few pints. Gives a whole new meaning to blow-ins.
What a great scene it is from the pub there.
Does anyone know if there are still sessions there?
Not a regular session here, but Bushe's bar in Baltimore always has sessions during the fiddle fair, with a lovely view of the harbour and Sherkin Island. For that matter there have been occasional sessions in the Jolly Roger on Sherkin, with a lovely view looking back towards Baltimore!
I can't think of a session I know that has a grandstand view of anything out of the window, but outside the Elm Tree in Durham you can see the city's Cathedral and Castle, commendably floodlit after dark. I do not know if one can see the Cathedral (rated by some obscure but supposedly august committee the finest building in the world) from the smoking area out back. I can't remember if I've noticed it, or looked for it, or not. That's what comes of living in the place.
A pub called The Moorcock on the edge of the west Durham moors, where there were sessions in the Seventies, again afforded grandstand views from outside, notably of Consett and its steelworks: huge multicoloured plumes of smoke and steam would stream from the latter, colouring the town's buildings and presumably the lungs of its inhabitants reddish-brown. The works were shut down in 1980 and no trace of them is left, at any rate as a skyline feature.
Better that, surely, than The Moorcock pub being opposite the sort of establishment that bc_box had to contend with. Now that would be very unfortunate. Droll, but unfortunate.
LOL.
You would be hard to find a session with better scenery than the Armarder hotel at spanish point just out side Miltown-malbay .I was there last year at the Willie clancy week but will not be able to attend this year .Enjoy the view
Duijera I was there in july and the willie clancy was on .There's sessions on every where that week .Its worth going just for the music .The good thing about the armada hotel is there a lot more room than in the pubs in Miltown malbay .Miltown and the Armada Hotel are about one and a half to two miles apart .Near the armada hotel at spanish point is a hotel Called the Belbridge and there.s lots of session.s there two .I think they have session,s there during the year two Des
We've been playing at The Crow's Nest at Port Gaverne, which is just round from Port Isaac, in Cornwall recently. You watch the sun going down over the ocean from a fair old height and the view stretches right up the cliff-girt coast as far as Tintagel Head. Stunning. Not Ireland but the best I can do.
I was at a session in the Glen Tavern in Glencolmcille one late June night some years ago. Around 11pm the sun finally set, suffusing not only the view west towards the beach and the ocean in a deep rosy glow but the musicians in the pub too. Hard to beat (and I never have).
Not sure why people keep posting ideas for sessions in the UK! The OP's request was 'When touring Ireland, any suggestions about where to find the nice geography and session in combination?'
Many years ago, when I was just a young shaver, and dinosaurs still roamed the world, I was sitting outside Tanners Hatch Youth Hostel, playing music with friends, and I raised my head from my guitar and looked across the valley in the evening sunset, with the tips of the grass golden and green, and it was indeed beautiful. But to have looked longer would have distracted all of us from the equally important joy of making music; so I bent my head to my guitar and continued, and when I looked up again the night had fallen and the view was gone.
Last time in Ireland, I had a memorable session in a great setting - Cloonacauneen Castle near Claregalway. It was a friendly, relaxed session in a nicely restored castle. Nothing touristy about it, but a beautiful spot for some tunes (once you've forgotten the traffic hassles getting there). Geraldine (an aussie fiddler living nearby) took us there.
OK, Ireland then. Just down the road from Glenties, in Ardara, in a pub which used to be a chemist shop. Lovely pub lovely village. Don't know if it's still there (the pub), as this was the early eighties, and most certainly don't know the name but was on the right hand side of the high street going towards Glenties, about half way through the village.
Dogbox, that'd be Geraldine who comes from Sydney, used to play at the sessions here. Lives in Galway now I think. The castle looks nice: http://www.clooncastle.com/castle_frame.htm
A bit different to some venues I'd say.
I still think Krugers at Dunquin is right up there with all of the posts. Spectacular. Only trouble was, the day I went there, pulled up the car - great plenty of parking, no one around - opened the car door and the wind nearly took it off. Got out of the car, then the wind took off my glasses and deposited them somewhere - needless to say I could see to find them, in the lashing rain as well. So here I am scrapplin around on the ground, found the glasses before someone ran over them, get to the door of the pub, pinned to it with the wind and gettin lashed by rain, trying the door handle, and the bloody boozer is shut! Geez, all around the world for that - knew I should have called first. Headed back to the car twenty metres away, head into the wind, coat flyin backwards, only took twenty minutes, pretty good going in the circumstances. Anyway the view that day anyway was great each time the windscreen wiper blades cleared a space. Never did get to the pub, but I can recommend it, if you can get in.
If you ever come to Arkansas, on the last weekend of every month, there is a jam session on the second floor of a restaurant in Hot Springs Village. Since this restaurant is on the shore of a lake, you can look out over the lake to the hills on the other side of the lake while you are attempting to make the organized noise called music. This session used to be at another place in Hot Springs Village where you could look out on a golf course and watch the golfers while we were playing music.
Sessions with the best scenery
Sessions with the best scenery
When touring Ireland, any suggestions about where to find the nice geography and session in combination? Helps with planning.
I've often thought that it would be hard to find a better venue for a session than Krugers Pub at Dunquin, if its scenery that your looking for as well, although in bad weather you might be hard pressed making your way out the door after a few pints. Gives a whole new meaning to blow-ins.
What a great scene it is from the pub there.
Does anyone know if there are still sessions there?
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Duijera Dubh
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
I was at Brogans in Ennis one night and the scenery was gorgeous; She had red hair and played fiddle.
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Phantom Button
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Not *that* sort of geography, pb! Geeez!
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Duijera Dubh
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Watching the sun set over the sea from Chesil Beach. Session was at The Cove Inn Portland - Dorset UK that is.
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by mehere
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Sorry, not a Session, but I did organize a small concert, a couple of years ago, in the corner of this cafe:
http://thumb10.webshots.net/t/63/663/1/3/81/2589103810102469810TohjYJ_th.jpg
That window actually looked out over the Giant's Causeway & across the North Atlantic Ocean & the view was simply amazing, as the sun set that night.
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Ptarmigan
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Sorry, try this one:
http://inlinethumb03.webshots.com/2946/2589103810102469810S600x600Q85.jpg
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Ptarmigan
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Not a regular session here, but Bushe's bar in Baltimore always has sessions during the fiddle fair, with a lovely view of the harbour and Sherkin Island. For that matter there have been occasional sessions in the Jolly Roger on Sherkin, with a lovely view looking back towards Baltimore!
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by cathycook
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
I can't think of a session I know that has a grandstand view of anything out of the window, but outside the Elm Tree in Durham you can see the city's Cathedral and Castle, commendably floodlit after dark. I do not know if one can see the Cathedral (rated by some obscure but supposedly august committee the finest building in the world) from the smoking area out back. I can't remember if I've noticed it, or looked for it, or not. That's what comes of living in the place.
A pub called The Moorcock on the edge of the west Durham moors, where there were sessions in the Seventies, again afforded grandstand views from outside, notably of Consett and its steelworks: huge multicoloured plumes of smoke and steam would stream from the latter, colouring the town's buildings and presumably the lungs of its inhabitants reddish-brown. The works were shut down in 1980 and no trace of them is left, at any rate as a skyline feature.
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
The pub we used to session on the front verandah of was opposite the local brothel. That made for some interesting viewing at times.
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by bc_box_player
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Very droll, nicholas and bc_box...
ahm, maybe you guys should swap session venues.
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Duijera Dubh
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Better that, surely, than The Moorcock pub being opposite the sort of establishment that bc_box had to contend with. Now that would be very unfortunate. Droll, but unfortunate.
LOL.
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Duijera Dubh
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
You would be hard to find a session with better scenery than the Armarder hotel at spanish point just out side Miltown-malbay .I was there last year at the Willie clancy week but will not be able to attend this year .Enjoy the view
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by DES RYNNE
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
That looks great, Des. Did they have sessions there?
http://www.armadahotel.com/
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Duijera Dubh
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
"...opposite the local brothel..."
Funny, as soon as I saw that I thought, "This could only be in Australia..."
So I looked up bc_box_player's details, and found I'd got it right in one.
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Duijera I was there in july and the willie clancy was on .There's sessions on every where that week .Its worth going just for the music .The good thing about the armada hotel is there a lot more room than in the pubs in Miltown malbay .Miltown and the Armada Hotel are about one and a half to two miles apart .Near the armada hotel at spanish point is a hotel Called the Belbridge and there.s lots of session.s there two .I think they have session,s there during the year two Des
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by DES RYNNE
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
We've been playing at The Crow's Nest at Port Gaverne, which is just round from Port Isaac, in Cornwall recently. You watch the sun going down over the ocean from a fair old height and the view stretches right up the cliff-girt coast as far as Tintagel Head. Stunning. Not Ireland but the best I can do.
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Steve Shaw
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Fabulous view of the South Circular every time the door to the Blythe opens. Can't beat it.
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by maxF
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Better than turning round and seeing Key Maniac Lad's face
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Dow
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
I was at a session in the Glen Tavern in Glencolmcille one late June night some years ago. Around 11pm the sun finally set, suffusing not only the view west towards the beach and the ocean in a deep rosy glow but the musicians in the pub too. Hard to beat (and I never have).
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Floss the Tethers
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Whoops, that should have read the Glen Bar - the Glen Tavern's just to the east of Glenties and it too has some mighty fine scenery in midsummer.
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Floss the Tethers
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Very nice it is too, Steve:
Crows Nest Pub, Port Gaverne
http://www.totaltravel.co.uk/link.asp?fid=649272
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Duijera Dubh
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Hard to beat The Eel's Foot in Eastbridge, Suffolk, England, UK, for a location:
http://www.thesession.org/sessions/display/783
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Not sure why people keep posting ideas for sessions in the UK! The OP's request was 'When touring Ireland, any suggestions about where to find the nice geography and session in combination?'
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Floss the Tethers
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Oops.
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
See... at least I was on topic...
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Phantom Button
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Many years ago, when I was just a young shaver, and dinosaurs still roamed the world, I was sitting outside Tanners Hatch Youth Hostel, playing music with friends, and I raised my head from my guitar and looked across the valley in the evening sunset, with the tips of the grass golden and green, and it was indeed beautiful. But to have looked longer would have distracted all of us from the equally important joy of making music; so I bent my head to my guitar and continued, and when I looked up again the night had fallen and the view was gone.
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Last time in Ireland, I had a memorable session in a great setting - Cloonacauneen Castle near Claregalway. It was a friendly, relaxed session in a nicely restored castle. Nothing touristy about it, but a beautiful spot for some tunes (once you've forgotten the traffic hassles getting there). Geraldine (an aussie fiddler living nearby) took us there.
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by dogbox
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
I did apologise, Geoff. I just can't keep my gob shut.
# Posted on March 30th 2008 by Steve Shaw
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
So, Geoff, when was the last time a discussion kept on topic on here?
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
OK, Ireland then. Just down the road from Glenties, in Ardara, in a pub which used to be a chemist shop. Lovely pub lovely village. Don't know if it's still there (the pub), as this was the early eighties, and most certainly don't know the name but was on the right hand side of the high street going towards Glenties, about half way through the village.
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Dogbox, that'd be Geraldine who comes from Sydney, used to play at the sessions here. Lives in Galway now I think. The castle looks nice:
http://www.clooncastle.com/castle_frame.htm
A bit different to some venues I'd say.
I still think Krugers at Dunquin is right up there with all of the posts. Spectacular. Only trouble was, the day I went there, pulled up the car - great plenty of parking, no one around - opened the car door and the wind nearly took it off. Got out of the car, then the wind took off my glasses and deposited them somewhere - needless to say I could see to find them, in the lashing rain as well. So here I am scrapplin around on the ground, found the glasses before someone ran over them, get to the door of the pub, pinned to it with the wind and gettin lashed by rain, trying the door handle, and the bloody boozer is shut! Geez, all around the world for that - knew I should have called first. Headed back to the car twenty metres away, head into the wind, coat flyin backwards, only took twenty minutes, pretty good going in the circumstances. Anyway the view that day anyway was great each time the windscreen wiper blades cleared a space. Never did get to the pub, but I can recommend it, if you can get in.
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by Duijera Dubh
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
Actually, "couldn't see to find them"
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by Duijera Dubh
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
inisboffin
# Posted on April 2nd 2008 by balledfan
Re: Sessions with the best scenery
If you ever come to Arkansas, on the last weekend of every month, there is a jam session on the second floor of a restaurant in Hot Springs Village. Since this restaurant is on the shore of a lake, you can look out over the lake to the hills on the other side of the lake while you are attempting to make the organized noise called music. This session used to be at another place in Hot Springs Village where you could look out on a golf course and watch the golfers while we were playing music.
# Posted on April 8th 2008 by fauxcelt