Honeymoon

After spending about a week at Banagher, the newly-weds travelled along the banks of the Shannon and Lough Derg to Limerick, where they took a boat – either the Erin-go-Brath or the Garryowen – to Kilkee. The Koh-i-noor steamer was then out of commission, having met with an accident near Foune.

the West End Hotel

From Kilkee on Tuesday, July 18th, 1854, Charlotte wrote to Catherine Wooler, her former teacher:

'My Dear Miss Catherine, - Your kind letter reached me in a wild and remote spot - a little watering-place on the South West Coast of Ireland' and she gave her a synopsis of her honeymoon tour in Wales and Ireland, adding: I had heard a great deal about Irish negligence & I own that till I came to Kilkee - I saw little of it. Here at our Inn - splendidly designated 'the West End Hotel' - there is a good deal to carp at, were in a carping humour - but we laugh instead of grumbling -for out of doors there is much indeed to compensate for any indoor shortcomings, so magnificent an ocean - so bold and grand a coast - I never yet saw. My husband calls me -.

Dr. Barker remarks of this letter: 'It was a very long time since Charlotte had written anything so light-hearted as this careless valediction or, indeed, enjoyed the intimacy of shared humour.

Later in the same month, Charlotte wrote again about her Kilkee experience, which had greatly impressed her, in a letter to her friend, Catherine Winkworth. In her enthusiasm for Kilkee. Charlotte gave only the briefest account possible of her honeymoon (and strangely omits all reference to Banagher):

'After a short sojourn in the capital - went to the coast - such a wild iron-bound coast - with such an ocean-view as I had not yet seen and such battling of waves with rocks as I had never imagined. 'My husband is not a poet or a poetical man - and one of my grand doubts before marriage was about 'congenial tastes' and so on.

The first morning we went out on to the cliffs and saw the Atlantic coming in all white foam, I did not know whether I should get leave or time to take the matter in my own way. I did not want to talk - but I did want to look and be silent. Having hinted a petition, licence was not refused – covered with a rug to keep o f f the spray I was allowed to sit where I chose - and he only interrupted me when he thought I crept too near the edge of the cliff.  So far he is always good in this way - and this protection which does not interfere or pretend is I believe a thousand times better than any half sort of pseudo sympathy.

limerick Charlotte Bronte's Kilkee

Kilkee civic trust sea wall