Ireland Day 5 ~

Day 5 ~
Today started off driving (once again)!! We drove through Gougane Barra on our way to the Ring of Kerry (a popular tourist scenic drive). Gougane Barra seemed to be a deserted mountainous region with not much to see. We were told it was beautiful! . . . . I think we must have missed the pretty part. . . oh well.

The Ring of Kerry is a long drive around the Kerry Peninsula. It lasted throughout most of the day. In the Ring of Kerry we saw many interesting sights and surroundings. We stopped in Kenmare for a breakfast . . . our first non-Irish breakfast (the Irish breakfast consists of a piece of sausage, bacon *thick though, not like ours at home*, an egg, mushrooms and tomatoes) of an omelets and French toast. The town was cute and colorful like so many of the other towns throughout Ireland. They were a little friendlier than usual. . . . a guy whistled at my mom three times!! Ha! They also seemed to have a fascination with our wellies that we wore (boots). We had so many comments about our boots and one guy went as far as to lean out of a two story building and yell “nice boots!!” as we were walking by on the street!! Hummmm. . . interesting.

Staigue Fort was our next stop along the ring. It was a very old fort made of slate stones and was dated to be in the early centuries AD before Christianity came to Ireland. It is assumed to be the home of a wealthy Irish chieftain who needed security. The wall was six meters high and four meters thick built without any mortar. By the way. . . this fort happened to be off of the main road about 3 km and somewhat in the middle of nowhere!! There were quite a few sheep to keep it company though. . . and the sheep were wonderful! The Irish grow multicolor sheep! I had never heard of or seen such colors on sheep!

In Killarney National Park there was a lovely lookout spot called Ladies View. It was extremely cold so we were only able to snap a few photos but the view was amazing! The view consisted of a wonderful valley, streams, lakes, etc. Ok. . . back to the car. . . I’m FREEZING!!

Also in Killarney National Park was a turnoff for Muckross House and Abbey. “Oh!! Let’s stop!” we thought! “Should I bring the umbrella??” mom asks?? “Nah. . . but you can if you want” was the reply. Lucky for me, she brought the umbrella. The walk to Muckross house was about 1.7 km and before we got halfway there . . . it started HAILING!! Out of nowhere! And not just a small amount of hail! It hurt!!!! Ran, we did, back to the car . . . discarding any notion of seeing the house. By the time we got back to the car it had stopped hailing, but we weren’t about to try it again, not after the beating I took. We drove down the road just a minute or two and saw a sign once again for Muckross house! Ha!! There was a spot to turn in and park without walking the 1.7 km! what do you know??!! And by now it was all sunshine! Ahhh. . . isn’t it ironic?

On the other side of Killarney city we found a sign for Ross Castle. A castle?? I’m there! We ended up taking a tour of the castle which had been in ruins and was restored to the original style of the castle with original furniture dating back to the 17th century. At this time in Ireland there were approximately 3,500 castles of this sort scattered throughout the island. One of the O’Donoghue Ross chieftains built the castle around the 15th century. It was pretty neat to see what an actual castle would have looked like inside. We were told that the last owner of the castle, before it fell into ruins, had torn off the roof to avoid paying extra tax and as a result the natural elements had caused the castle to fall. It was rebuilt on the instructions of a wealthy American (forgot his name) who made a deal with the Irish government that if they had rebuilt it in the actual fashion for it’s time, he would return the castle along with 16,000 acres of national park to the Irish. The Irish government now owns the castle and all of the land.

Lastly. . . we visited Carrigafoyl Castle. It was very neat, but they closed at 6 pm and it was about 7:30 pm. We didn’t get to see the inside of the ruins, but that didn’t stop us from taking pictures!! I think this castle dates back to the 16th century??

We checked into The Old Castle House B&B, located in Glin and right behind the old Glin Castle. We were almost certain we were at the wrong B&B because the place was beautiful!!!

There was a lovely stream and grounds surrounding the house and we were met by a very sweet Esther who immediately took us to our room and then offered hot tea and cookies, which we accepted readily! It was amazing! The room was decorated in old Victorian furniture and had a beautiful view of the front lawns and castle ruins. We had to double check our printed reservations to make sure that it was really only 70 euro for the night and not 70 euro apiece! We also checked online to double check on the rates for sure! LOVE the place!!!