Patricia O'Reilly - Sunday Tribune
My favorite retreat from the world is a small complex of log cabins on the shores of Lough Ree at Carnakilla Point, just a few miles from Glasson which Oliver Cromwell called "the village of the roses".

To paraphrase WB Yeats, it's a place where peace drop from the veils of the morning, where midnight's all a glimmer, noon a purple glow and evening full of linnet wings.

I've been there in all seasons. The height of dry, hot summer when doors and windows remained open. In the cold and damp of winter huddled around the wood burning stove . With spring bursting out greenly, and during the gold of Autumn.

As well as being a dream location for a writer it's a fisherman's paradise and they come from all over Europe to catch pike, trout and perch. The duck shooting season, which opens on the first of September, brings a different type of tourist. Throughout the year cruisers, in the company of families of swans, drift up and down the lake.

Whining woods where I walk daily with the resident dogs are a maze of the remnants of famine built walls and potato ridges. Wander far enough and you'll come upon a clearing, dominated by the stark ruins of an old house. Rumour has it that it was built as retreat during the 19th century by the eldest son of local land owner to escape the pressures of inheritance.