August 17: Today we docked in Liverpool. Cool and sunny start to the day, which you might think would be consumed with Beatle mania type activities, but we opted for another trip to Wales where we visited Plas Newydd.
Plas Newydd is notable as the home where two Irish ladies, Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby (the Ladies of Llangollen) left Ireland and set up house together in the late 18th century. It was originally a five-roomed stone cottage, but over the years was enlarged to include many Gothic features, made by recycling gothic style furniture – chopping it up and using it to make puzzle type wooden pieces such as doors and other ornate wooden structures.
The ladies also expanded and improved the gardens, adding many Gothic features such as a “ruined” archway, rustic bridges over rushing torrents and a temple that included a font removed from the ruined Valle Crucis Abbey. Ornate greenhouses grew exotic fruit, and poetic notices were attached to trees.[1]
They rented the structure for many years, along with their maid/house manager. Unknown to them, the maid shrewdly made a tidy sum of money from charging people to visit the home and gardens. Upon her death, the maid will her estate to the ladies, enough to purchase the entire property.
After their deaths in 1829 and 1831, the property passed through various hands and saw a number of changes. General John Yorke added the black and white features on the exterior and filled the interior with oddities from around the world. In 1932 the house was acquired by Llangollen Urban District Council and it is now a museum.
Following our tour here, we travelled to Llangollen via steam train and from there back to the ship.
Tomorrow we visit Giants Causeway in Ireland. It’s a 7:20 a.m. start ….. 😝 Donna and Stephen will be joining us (we think 🤣)
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