Homestead Ruins & Pasture - Isle of Doagh Ireland

McColgan Farmhouse

In the late 1800’s, two brothers and their respective families lived and worked two side-by-side farms on the Isle of Doagh, County Donegal, Ireland.    One brother’s name was John McColgan and the other’s name was Edward McColgan. 

    

John and his wife Grace had fourteen children.  They lived in the “larger” farmhouse which was also the house where the two brothers had been born and raised.    Edward and his wife Bridget acquired the land next to this original homestead and had eight children of their own.    In late 1898, Edward contracted consumption, a contagious disease that reached epidemic levels in Ireland and Britain at that time.   Today, the disease is known as tuberculosis.  Sadly, his wife Bridget soon contracted the disease as well.   They died within a month of each other in the winter of 1899.  

Four of their daughters and one son, ages 10, 14, 16, 19 and 21 were orphaned.   Their two oldest daughters had emigrated to Boston years earlier, when they had turned eighteen.   Their son Michael Joseph (my grandfather) had also emigrated one year earlier.

  

There was discussion of the siblings staying in Ireland under the supervision of their aunt and uncle next door, but with fourteen children of their own, John and Grace were likely unable to support five more.  Hence in 1900, the five siblings travelled together to Boston and settled in with their older siblings. The younger daughters moved in with their older sisters, each of whom were married at that point.  One daughter enrolled in nursing school at Massachusetts General Hospital.

As for the property owned by Edward and Bridget, it was sold to a cousin who continued to farm the fields but let the house fall to ruin.   The original farmhouse still stands and is in good condition.   In fact, it was getting a new thatched roof during our visit.   If you Watch The Video, it is the neat little white farmhouse with the red doors.

Donegal Homestead

Maybe you can imagine the feeling I had as I stood on the cart path just above the two homesteads, one farmhouse still standing and the other, barely recognizable ruins.  I had a tingly feeling to think that this was the land of my ancestors, where they lived, worked and died.  The sheep and cattle were probably of the same lineage through the years. Why, even the wild raspberries I sampled were probably the same as those eaten by the family.     Spirits of the past!   This visit and paint-out may have been the most gratifying of all.   I’m hoping the deep rich crimson darks and vivid green lights of the land shine through.

Sun Sweeps In - Donegal, Ireland

Sun Sweeps In - Donegal, Ireland

I painted this scene once before.  That was after a trip to Donegal, Ireland to explore my roots.   The land depicted has special significance to me because it was these fields that were worked by my Great-grandfather back in the late 1800's.  The cartpath runs down to a culvert between the road I was on and the pasture.  Stone walls are all over tinted with greenish lichen and moss.

BUY NOW

Fegart, Donegal Pair

Fegart, Donegal Pair

One of my favorite locations in Ireland is all the way to the north in County Donegal.   My great-grandparents owned a farm on the Isle of Doagh, specifically an area called Cuill.   Some of the winding roads on the Isle are better walked than driven and it was on foot that we enjoyed the scene depicted in this pair of paintings.  Not far from Cuill was an area called Fegart with breathtaking views of Trawbreaga Bay.   This body of water separates the Isle of Doagh from Malin Head, the northern most tip of Ireland.

A stone structure overlooked the landscape and gradually sloped down to the waters' edge.    I would imagine that the stone structures that dot the countryside are hundreds of years old.  The stonework was often overgrown with green moss and lichen, a suitable match for the emerald green landscape.    When the sun was shining, it was just dazzling and I'm quite sure it looks no different than it did when my great-grandparents were here one hundred and thirty years ago.

Isle of Doagh, Donegal

Linen Sheet

Donegal Gray

I still have such vivid and wonderful memories of our epic trip to Ireland last year.   I have sold some of the paintings I created when I returned.  These were paintings that I probably should have kept, but I would tell myself, I can paint another!

For the two paintings in this post, I revisited - via photograph - a highlight of the trip.   Our amazing adventure took us to the northernmost region of Ireland to Cuill, Isle of Dough, County Donegal. This was the location of the ancestral home of my paternal great grandparents and their children.  Sadly, the parents died within a few weeks of each other in 1899, resulting in the subsequent emigration of their children (ages 11 through 23) to America, specifically Boston, Massachusetts.

Knowing the familial connection to this land made it special, and no painting or photograph could come close to capturing the breathtaking beauty of this region.    The moist, imposing clouds sat low over us as we hiked an old farm path (Fegart Road) to the top of a hill on the Isle of Doagh.

Isle of Dough - Donegal

Whenever the sun (or at least rays of sunshine) broke through, the light was truly amazing!    It was at those moments that the distant countryside emitted the iconic emerald green that Ireland is known for.   Being on an island with water all around, the gray clouds became lavender, pink, blue and pale yellow.

My goal in these two 8x10 inch paintings was to capture those fleeting, sunlit moments.  One painting includes an old stone farm (more decrepit in person than they may appear in the painting).   The other painting depicts a simple meadow with the Irish Sea and neck of land in the distance

I hope you can see the magic that I felt while I was there; if not, you must go and see/feel it in person!

Inspired by H.M. Trevor's The Fisherman's Mother

Inspired by The Fisherman's Wife Stage One

During the course of the last two years while researching my ancestors, I discovered that farming was the predominant occupation of my paternal ancestors - that is - until they emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts.   There, far from their farming roots, they took on a variety of occupations becoming pipefitters, longshoremen and nurses.     Some of my mother's paternal ancestors were from Canada and made their living in occupations related to the sea, mostly fishermen.  


Inspired by The Fisherman's Wife

I was immediately drawn to a painting at the National Gallery in Dublin and I took a photograph of it, which inspired this painting.    The original painting was done by Irish artist Helen Mabel Trevor in 1892.   She was fascinated by the fishing culture of Brittany and particularly the strength of the women whose husbands and sons faced the dangers of sea.   The rosary beads and cane complete the image of an elderly woman who has experienced a lifetime worry, though tempered with piety, and the years are plainly displayed on her face.

McColgan Homestead - Part Two

This painting was begun back in early October.  It was the first Ireland painting since returning from our epic trip in September.  See my post entitled, Magical Ireland if you are interested in reading "Part One."   We travelled to the Isle of Doagh, the northernmost region of County Donegal, Ireland, and it made a deep impression on me.   I have worked on this painting from photos off and on for a few weeks now.  The dimensions are 24" by 36" and it depicts the ancestral home of my paternal great grandparents.  

McColgan Homestead - Stage Two

I mentioned in my first post of this painting that I would share the story of finding this farm.   Using a combination of Ireland's Griffiths Land Valuation from 1864, assorted family vital records, and the help of my cousin, we knew we were looking for "Cuill, Isle of Doagh, County Donegal, Ireland."   We used an overlay of the 1864 map with a modern map to locate the earliest plot of land, which according to historical records was farmed by my Great, Great Grandfather Denis McColgan and my GGGM Sarah Bradley.  They farmed the land, but didn't own the land, according to records. That's how things worked back then.  We thought that this was the same land that subsequent ancestors owned but we found out later that we were mistaken. This land had a modern looking yellow stucco house on it, not a farmhouse as we had expected.

McColgan Ancestral Land - Isle of Doagh

Overgrown Ruins of GGF Edward McColgan Farmhouse

We drove and hiked around the area, through green pastures of sheep corralled by stone walls with an occasional farmhouse.  It wasn't all that big an area that the Cuill farmhouse should have been so hard to find.    It wasn't until we finally stopped our vehicle to ask three farmers who were talking at the side of the road that we got the best guidance of all.

They couldn't have been more gracious and helpful when we told them who had last lived at the farmhouse.   Yes, they knew him and remembered him fondly - Second Cousin Margaret McColgan's husband Danny McGonigle who had passed away just this year.  Not only did they tell us, they in fact show us where it was. The "senior" farmer in the group directed his son-in-law (with kidding, as you can imagine, as to who was the boss) to take us to the farmhouse.  The son-in-law jumped in his car and we followed him in our car, and never would we have spotted the somewhat hidden entrance if it hadn't been for their kindness.   We asked him if he thought it was okay to look around.  "Of course," he said.   "...after all, you've come all this way, and no one is living here right now."   The farmhouse had a beautiful thatched roof and the exterior walls were painted white with bright red trim. He drove off and we lingered, not bothered in the least by the heavier rain.

It was easy to imagine that this scene looked just about the same as it did 150 years ago  It was surreal walking through the property and even more exciting to discover the ruins of the next farmhouse, which belonged to my GGF Edward McColgan.

McColgan Homestead - Final

So this painting is a personal favorite, and not one I'd ever part with.  The photograph that I'm working from, taken in the rain and the fog, was taken looking uphill from a road along the water below. The land that goes with the remaining farmhouse slopes down from the thick trees to the right.  It belonged to John McColgan, the brother of my GGF Edward McColgan.  The land of GGF Edward, is the next plot to the left, toward the middle of the painting, shown with sheep. The farmhouse that had stood on that land is now in ruins (see photo). (We later learned that GGGF Denis and Sarah Bradley moved onto this different 23 acre parcel on a west facing slope less than a mile away from our initial land discovery.   This was the 23 acre parcel where Denis and Sarah's sons, John and Edward farmed and the land was then split between the two brothers.

There is a part three to the story.   And that is the real tale of how the magic dust surrounded us and resulted in our coincidental meeting with my third cousin who owns the remaining farmhouse!

 Video bonus: Even if we had never found the actual land and farmhouse, it would have not been hugely disappointing.  We knew that this was the incredibly spectacular, but rugged area inhabited by my ancestors. I have included (yet another) video - arriving at the top of the crest above what turned out to be the land we were searching for.

Magical Ireland

Ireland was pure magic.    Words can't adequately describe the breathtaking vistas, dazzling, sunlit cow pastures, peaceful fields of sheep, and wildly varied clouds against cobalt blue skies.  I don't think a hundred paintings would adequately describe it either.   I stood there taking in all that my senses could absorb.  I took pictures and videos, hoping to be able to re-live this feast-for-the-eyes later.   It's never the same.  How could it be?

Homestead - Cuill, Isle of Doagh

We quickly learned that the country's hillsides, the green and gold patchwork typically shown in travel brochures, were not just infrequent, opportunistic scenes.     The iconic vistas in every shade of green represented the majority of the places we saw in this magical land.   Furthermore, on most days we had full sunshine which only served to illuminate the vivid greens in the land of our ancestors.

Do you sense a string of Ireland paintings coming?  If so, you sense correctly!

McColgan Homestead - Cuill Isle of Doagh - Stage 1 Block In

The photo above will be used to create a large painting that I expect will take a few painting sessions (24" x 36").   It is one of my favorite locations from the trip because it depicts the two McColgan family tracts of land on the Isle of Doagh, on the Inishowen Penninsula, Donegal.   One of the properties still has a farmhouse complete with thatched roof, a barn and various other utility buildings. The property next door  (to the left in the photo) was that of my great-grandparents Edward McColgan and Brigid Gubbins.   This is where they lived before their deaths in 1899 (within a month of each other -shortly thereafter all of their children emigrated to Boston).   Only two of the stone corner walls of their house were visible from the road - barely - and the remaining ruins we could make out were overgrown with vines.

Stage 1 shows the block-in for this special painting.  There is an interesting story on how we found this land during our trip which I will share when I post more progress on the painting.