A Sabbatical Six weeks in the UK and Ireland
A “road” to our cottage in Dernagree, IRE
Dear Daybook friends,
Our sabbatical draws to a close in just a few days. We’ve been back in the U.S. for a couple of weeks and trying to figure out how to hold on to the good of our trip with open hands and hearts for the good of our home and neighborhood. Throughout the past three months, I’ve learned a lot about the nature of deep rest, and hopefully, I’ll be able to put some of it into words here and in the book I’m writing. Some of it, I imagine, will be kept quietly between Brian and me, and a few things will be kept only in that center space of belovedness with my friend Jesus.
Thank you for celebrating the book pre-order with me! Several of you let me know that your email to request a postcard from Ireland bounced back to you. If that happened to you, I’m so sorry! Please feel free to email me at tamarahillmurphy@gmail.com to let me know if you’ve pre-ordered the book. I have a few lovely postcards left over, and I’d be delighted to send them to you from CT!
I hope you are well and that you are finding encouraging resources to worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty through the Ordinary Time archives and the Ordinary Time Retreat Series page. I’d love to hear from you! How has God been moving in your life this summer? Feel free to send me a note anytime.
Peace,
Tamara
p.s. Here are a few highlights from our travels in the UK and Ireland! I’ve also shared a teeny bit on Instagram.
IRELAND / N. IRELAND
Dublin - Co. Cork - Dingle - Annalong - Belfast
We love Ireland. I don’t know why I often feel the need to apologize for that, but I do. Maybe because in terms of international travel, this is beginner-level. From the length of the flight to the language, it’s not a giant culture shock. It does require driving on the opposite of very twisty, turny, low-visibility roads, which, thanks be to God, Brian is highly competent. It’s not a foodie mecca or a fashion mecca. The Roman Empire didn’t even bother with Ireland, which on reflection, might be part of the draw for me. What you see is kind of what you get from the beginning of civilization. Certainly, from what we’ve learned in our visits, the British Empire made its mark - for good and for ill. And eventually, Rome, in the form of the Church, did the same. The Cathedrals and monasteries make this evident. Yet, for those with eyes to see, the spiritual soil of Ireland, which in its earliest form included and embraced Patrick, is the authentic spirituality of a people rooted and beloved in the place of Ireland. It’s in the nature of Christianity to send and to go, and the Celts did just that (which has been named beautifully as the “Irish saving civilization”), yet Ireland remains a geography of the Celtic soul, and I find it irresistible. It is, in fact, a thin place between me and heaven.
It’s worth saying that Brian and I are fairly simple folks. I do appreciate a comfortable mattress, hot shower, and easy access to decent food. I’m no rustic. I do, however, crave authentic beauty. I can enjoy a tourist destination like the next American girl, but I’m much more drawn to the back-door pathways that few others have noticed. I avoid crowds like the plague (a phrase that has taken on ironic potency these days) and would rather miss the bucket list sites in favor of unspoiled, untrampled pathways. Ireland fits these requirements beautifully.
For the six weeks we spent out of the U.S., Ireland was our home base. Generous friends gave us air miles for our flight into Dublin, where we spent a few days getting adjusted to the time change. We then flew to England and, eventually, took trains to Scotland before flying back to Dublin for the final 3 weeks.
Here’s a painfully short list of highlights:
Dublin - Trinity College and the Book of Kells (I cried)
Dublin - Old Library (aka, the “Long Room”) at Trinity College
Cork City - Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral (labyrinth)
Cork City - The English Market (our favorite market find of the entire sabbatical)
Dernagree (Co. Cork) - the forest trail near our rural cottage
Ardmore (Co. Cork) - monastic round tower on Declan’s Way (which we also loved in our 2016 visit)
Millstreet (Co. Cork) - view of the town we called home for 2 weeks from Brian’s hike up Mount Claragh
Slea Head Drive (Co. Kerry) - stunning views from the Dingle Peninsula (Probably our favorite part of Ireland, although the word is out on this place and the crowds are growing!)
Gallarus Oratory (Co. Kerry) - holy ground on the Slea Head Drive
Giant’s Causeway (Co. Antrim) - the northern coast of Northern Ireland
Annalong (Co. Down) - our Airbnb garage apartment on the Irish Sea in Northern Ireland (This is another return location for us; same Airbnb hosts, and now we’re friends!)
ENGLAND
Cumbria - London - Yorkshire Dales
We’d been praying about how to orient our time in the UK. Should we follow a pilgrim path of saints of old or the itinerary of our favorite travel guide? I even briefly considered building our itinerary around my favorite British murder mysteries. In the early stages of planning our sabbatical, we knew the beginning and ending date and that, in addition, to the generous gift of airline miles to Dublin, we were invited and generously given lodging and travel expenses to participate in a special event in Scotland in mid-August. Once we began building around the dates, we learned that two other family friends would be in England at the same time, and that’s when it felt like God was inviting us to follow the footsteps of the ordinary saints who make up our rich friendships. Maybe a strange choice for introverts like us, yet, in this year of emerging from lockdowns and virtually-mediated conversations, this seemed right and good to do. Also, Brian and I love each other’s company and can spend a LOT of time together but a few days here and there to be with others was probably a very good thing for our marriage.
Cumbria - two rectors on sabbatical talking passionately about things not related to church
Lanercost Priory (Cumbria) - hiking and sightseeing with our godson’s family
Cumbria - generally aware of the stunning countryside and deeply engaged in conversation
Lanercost Circular trail- We skimmed the edges of the Hadrian’s Wall Path and loved every minute.
Westminister Abbey - A Sunday service I’ll never forget only a few weeks before this building and these pastors led Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral.
Big Ben - “I never expected it to be beautiful!” I kept saying about a clock to this dear friend whom I’ve known to be beautiful for a long time.
Kensington Gardens - The London heatwave damaged the greenery of this park, but a moonlight stroll in the Italian Gardens was still dreamy.
Grassington (Yorkshire Dales) - fans of the rebooted All Creatures Great and Small should recognize this pub and this street corner
Yorkshire Dales Visitor’s Center - beginning our walk toward Linton Falls
Yorkshire Dales - old stone barns on the Grassington Meadows / Grassington Woods / River Wharfe hike, which was hotter than I’d like but will remain one of my best memories of the entire sabbatical.
SCOTLAND
Edinburgh - Perth - St. Andrews
We spent about ten days in Scotland and barely scratched the surface. On the one hand, Edinburgh was even better than I expected; on the other, it was hot and crowded with Fringe Festival-goers. On the other hand, we were there - in some of the same places - only a few weeks before the Queen’s funeral procession. We went to Scotland primarily to celebrate our friends’ graduation from spiritual direction training, which also gave us the opportunity to connect with the Selah community as well as a former parishioner-turned-friend in Saint Andrew’s. There’s so much more to discover in this elegant and lovely country. I hope to return someday.
Edinburgh Castle - a view from our hop-on-hop-off bus tour
Scott monument - Another tour bus view. My favorite fact about this monument? It’s the “second-largest monument to a writer in the world”. (Havana boasts the largest.)
The Royal Mile - The reason we opted for tour bus views!
Meeting up with friends! Also, another glimpse of the heat and crowds of Edinburgh.
St. Giles Cathedral - Whose history now includes Roman Catholics, the Church of Scotland, the fiery John Knox, and, a few weeks after our visit, a memorial service for the queen.
Scottish National Museum - I’d wanted to walk to the Modern One to view an exhibit, but this small but elegant collection was close by our hotel and doubled as an opportunity to get out of the heat.
Poussin’s Sacraments - One of our favorite displays. This was especially meaningful to Brian from his sabbatical context.
A Sunday walk to church through Edinburgh’s “new town” on a gloriously misty morning.
Perth - Our dreamy secret garden Airbnb.
St. Mary’s Monastery (Perth) - A glimpse of Selah-Europe’s rescheduled graduation service for the 2019-2021 cohort and our reason for being here. Well done, friends!
St. Andrew’s Cathedral ruins- Our friend and former parishioner, Rosemary, walked us through this stunning part of Scotland. She is a Ph.D. student and is very smart about so many things, yet kind enough to make us tea in her flat and care about our work in CT.
READING & WRITING
I could dedicate entire posts to the beautiful spaces we found for reading and writing our way across the UK and Ireland. Here’s a teeny-tiny glimpse.
One of Brian’s hikes, overlooking Perth (Scotland) and thinking ahead to Ireland.
Writing desk at our Dernagree (Ireland) cottage.
The best librarian in the whole world who made our two weeks in rural Ireland a complete delight.
BOOK UPDATES
The manuscript is due on December 1, and I welcome your prayer! I’ll be sharing updates as I go, but for now, please share my pre-order link with your friends!
You can pre-order the book from the following online booksellers:
Thank you again for all of your encouragement and for celebrating these good gifts with me!
While I won’t be adding weekly devotional posts through the sabbatical, I’ve created an archive for you to access every Ordinary Time devotional post I’ve ever written. You might choose to follow along weekly from the appropriate liturgical week or select whatever seems to be drawing you to linger with Scripture, art, and prayer at your own pace. You can also download one, two, or all three of the Ordinary Time retreat guidebooks I created last year as a companion guide to the Ordinary Time chapters in Living the Christain Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God by Bobby Gross. If you’re looking for a resource to share with a small group of friends this summer, I highly recommend the retreat guides. Please feel free to share them privately with your close friends.