Carlingford is a small beautiful
seaside village in
Co. Louth,
Ireland.
Situated at the foot of the Mourne Mountains near the Cooley Peninsula, Carlingford is dominated by three main aesthetic features, the Lough, King John's Castle, and the huge, scenic mountains. There are also many traditional pubs in the village, the most famous of these being PJ's, which is probably the most well known pub in all of Co. Louth. It is a very traditional pub, with a shop out the back where you can buy your groceries, then come into the bar and have a few pints and a few oysters. Sundays and bank holidays are always good crack in PJ's, with Jazz bands and barbeques, attracting people of all ages and walks of life to it's homely atmosphere. The pub is also very popular with tourists. This may be due to the case of "Leprechaun Bones" that are kept in the window, supposedly the bones of a Leprechaun found in Carlingford many years ago.
Myth and legend have a great foothold in this part of Louth, it being the home of the great warrior Cu Chulainn and the Tain village is close by too.
Every year in Carlingford there is the Annual Leprechaun Hunt, where forty statues of Leprechauns are hidden in the surrounding mountains and marked with flags, each Leprechaun yields a cash prize, with the total monies totalling to nearly £3000, but people who go on the hunt don't really do it for the money, the do it for the "Craic".
The biggest event of the year in Carlingford though, has to be the Oyster Festival, where the oyster farmers celebrate the harvest with a week of street entertainment, dancing, story telling, eating and drinking. There are also sheep fairs, exhibitions of traditional farming equipment, and sailing races on the lough. It's a great time of the year for everybody involved.
Carlingford is a beautiful place, and I highly recommend it if you ever want a real taste of Irish hospitality, friendliness and craic.
ps. I am not biased just because I live 6 miles down the road!