Ireland Day 6 ~

Day 6 ~

Today we went down and enjoyed an Irish breakfast as usual (an egg, some bacon that looks more like slabs of ham, sausage, tomato, mushroom, cereal). . . but something unexpected occurred! There seemed to be two different types of sausage on our plates! The link sausage and some type of sausage patty. The only thing was, one of them looked to be burnt to a crisp while the other looked normal. HUMMMMM. . . . mine was the same way as my moms. After some pondering, I figured out that it must be white and black pudding, an Irish specialty. I came to Ireland telling my mother “whatever you do, don’t eat the black pudding” but now I had a strange desire to taste it for myself! And I did!! Ha! (Black pudding is made out of some interesting ingredients. . . . something having to do with the life’s source. You may want to look it up)

Our drive for the day consisted of going north to the Cliffs of Moher and driving back down through Ennis, Limerick, and a few other small cities before coming back to Glin. The quickest and easiest way to get to the Cliffs of Moher from Glin was to take a car ferry across and complete the drive on the other side of the bay. That was fun!! I just drove my car right onto the ferry!

There was a beach along the way near the town of Spanish Point. We decided to stop and enjoy the view, air and sand. It was very beautiful and almost felt like we were in a completely different country than we had been in the previous day.

The Cliffs of Moher were fantastic!! They were sheer cliffs that rose to a height of 700 feet tall! Absolutely amazing! They reminded me of the “cliffs of Insanity” LOL!!

We stopped by Quinn Abbey and took some pictures, but because we were running short on time and it kind of looked like every other abbey (that is HORRIBLE to say!!) we decided to bypass the inside of the abbey and get down the road to Knappogue Castle.

Knappogue Castle was built in 1467 by Sean MacNamara. The castle has since been returned to its original glory due to the extensive restoration done by Mark Edwin Andrews of Houston Texas. This castle was beautiful (from the outside at least). It is supposed to be open as a hotel, but when we arrived . . . the castle was completely closed down! There was nobody there at all! Sooo. . . we took our liberty and posed for several pictures. The grounds were beautiful and all around the Castle were rolling Irish hills. It was very serene and peaceful!

We stopped at Craggaunowen Project, a castle and whole town system set up for modern viewing of a medieval lifestyle, and were about to purchase tickets to see the whole display when the lady at the counter mentioned that Bunratty Castle (our next stop) closed in 30 minutes and we would not be able to make it in time. I wanted to see Bunratty Castle!! We jumped in the car and got there as quick as possible (going the wrong way a couple of times) and were still able to purchase tickets and get about a half hour in the castle. Bunratty was also set up as a whole village with the castle being somewhat restored to how it would have looked in its medieval time period. The castle was built in 1270 by Robert De Muscegros. The castle has quite an extensive history of being taken over by many chieftains of clans as well as the forces of Confederate Ireland. The castle was completely furnished with original furniture dating back as far as the 13th century. We found out that the reason Bunratty closes at 4 o’clock everyday is that there is a medieval banquet every night where guests can enjoy a meal and entertainment in various rooms of the castle. If we would have known this earlier we might have tried to fit it in the schedule. It looked as if it would be very memorable. After touring the castle (it haled quite a bit while we were in there) we visited the grounds where there was an extensive folk park featuring reconstructions of historical cottages and buildings, recreating the general feel of the 19th century with a period style village main street. There were old tools, furniture and artifacts on display with the village kept alive by some inhabited shops and peat fires in the cottages. In the town was the Dr.’s house and office. I thought it might be cool to get a photo inside the procedure room with some of the tools since the barrier keeping people out was pushed off a little to one side. “Mom. . get a shot of this!!” I said. (she had no idea what was in my head). I then attempted to go around the barrier and pick up a tool to make a face and have my picture taken. *weewooo wee-owww wee-ooow* went the alarm! That was the fastest I have moved in quite a while. I was out of that room in a few seconds fast. After I was out of imminent danger, and there were no guards coming to arrest me, we had ourselves quite a laugh! Sometimes I don’t know about myself!

One of the bed chambers

I forgot what this room was called. . . . but it was beautiful!

This was the dinning hall getting ready for the night's banquet

The Great hall. . .

Beautiful stained glass windows. . .

One of the thatched cottages. . .

Inside of the cottage. . .

Blacksmiths shop. . .

The "Dr.'s house" . . . . :-)

We then made our way over to Dromoland Castle, now a luxury hotel with a golf course. The original building construction dates back to the 15th or 16th centuries, however the present building was completed in 1835. It was a very beautiful castle and, by asking about accommodations, we were able to walk through many of the rooms and view the inside as well as the outside of this majestic building.

Driving back to Glin, we stopped at Askeaton Castle. This castle was in the middle of the town of Askeaton and we were unable to get close to view the castle as it was currently being restored/preserved. We were able to snap a few pictures from the closest we could get. It was located right next to, if not on, a river running through the town and was quite lovely.

Once again, we were on the road back to our B&B, bed, and a warm meal when I spotted something along the coastline! It was a building so captivating that I had to find out what it was! There were no little brown signs to guide the way, which we had been accustomed to looking for, so we backtracked and started driving down random roads. We finally asked a local who was taking out his trash and he replied “oh yeah, that’s a castle. It’s not a medieval one though! It was built in the 1800’s for the Lord of Limerick.” He then gave us directions on how to see it and we made our way back down a deserted and “private – no trespassing” road. The castle was run down with no security guarding it. I just had to have a look inside! It was beautiful! Run down, yet beautiful! I decided that I NEED this castle. I would have liked to check it out in more detail but it was getting dark and I had a very nervous mother wanting to get out of there before someone caught us or before some straggler attacked us! Hahaha!! Oh well. . . I guess I will have all the time in the world once it is in my possession.

Dinner at a quick little restaurant on the way home and we were in bed sleeping soundly.