Old Famine House,,Newmarket,,Co.Kilkenny.

This is a reconstructed Farm Labourers Cottage of the Famine Times,,it is part of The Famine Memorial Gardens at Newmarket County Kilkenny and it Commemorates the Victims of the Great Famine 1845 - 1851,,,,The Cottage is the first stage and it has a plot of land to the front of the cottage,,,if I remember correctly called the Potatoe Garden,,,then you follow on the path,through a gap between two large standing stones [in fact I thought looked very much like the Prehistoric Standing Stones, [maybe not as tall,but very similar] to the Standing Stones throughout our land,,Which as we know are National Monuments,,,through here you enter another part,,,The Garden of Sorrows,,,this area has two Concrete & Limestone Bridges at angles to each other,,,they cross over an area of different types & sizes of Stones & Slate Pieces and those are Symbols of things of those very hard times of Death by starvation and disease due to the Blight of the Potatoe crop,,,one of the symbols to the left as you cross the first bridge as I remember,is a Ship fasioned from Bog Oak with sails and Skeletal parts,,,a Skeletal arm & hand,,,a skeleton head all carved in the fashion of Human remains,,,,this signifies a Coffin Ship I would imagine,,,after this area you move to Another garden,,,I think the Garden of Joy,,,this has a Beautiful circular stone wall capped with flat concrate,,just the right and comfortable height to sit around,,there is in the centre of this large circle a Centrepiece with a bowl shaped out of the centre,,it is meant to be a Holy Water Font,I am sure,,,as people sit and Pray The Holy Rosary,,,others sit and Contemplate,,,after this Garden,you can walk through a lovely Green area to the bottom gate,,,,,,The whole area from when you enter by the Cottage is all planted out with all of our Native Trees,,of Berries,,Nuts etc and all sorts of Herbs,,,,,I am very afraid I may not do this Magnificent Memorial Cottage & Gardens,The Justice & Honour it Really Deserves,,It is a stretch of time since I last visited,,and without the Explanatory Leaflet,,,it's all from Memory and not a very good one,,,,But it did have a really great influence on me indeed,,I must pay Homage to the Wonderful People that planned it and did all the hard work,,,God Bless You All !!