Blarney

Tammy and I both decided to try porridge this morning for breakfast. It's probably best described as creamy oatmeal... not bad. After breakfast, we left Cork for Blarney Castle. The castle itself is interesting, but the real reason we were there was to kiss the Blarney Stone. Tammy went first...

... and then it was Jim's turn.

The pictures are oriented correctly. In order to kiss the Blarney Stone, you have to lay down on the castle wall, and bend backwards over the ledge!

After we finished exploring the castle and walking the grounds of Blarney Castle, we drove northwest to Killarney, where we're staying for the next two days. We spent the afternoon driving the Ring of Kerry, a 112-mile loop around the Iveragh Peninsula on the West Coast. It's a beautiful drive, starting out along Kells Bay, looking across to the Dingle Peninsula.

Near Waterville (about halfway around), there are spectacular views out into the North Atlantic.

As you come back across the south side of the peninsula, you rise in elevation until you cross the gap... note the clouds obstructing the mountain tops along the top of the picture.

We really enjoyed the drive... very picturesque like the Blue Ridge Parkway or the Road to Hana in Hawaii.

As a side note, we noticed a lot of O'Sullivan's here.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the O'Sullivan clan was originally located in County Tipperary, but was driven by the Anglo-Normans to the West. They settled mostly in the Kerry Peninsula (O'Sullivan Mor) and the Beara Peninsula to the south (O'Sullivan Beare).

Tomorrow we're off to the National Park.

Back Where We Began

We started this morning with another great breakfast... there seems to be a trend developing, huh? After breakfast, we packed up and headed out of Kilkenny. Our first stop was the Rock of Cashel, originally the seat of the Kings of Munster (the southwestern province of Ireland). The rock rises about 300 feet around the surrounding plain, providing the king with miles of visibility in every direction. Legend has it that St. Patrick converted the King of Munster to Christianity here in about 450 A.D.

None of the original fortifications survived... the oldest structure remaining today is the round tower from 1101, shown below on the right of the picture. The property was later given to the Church, which built St. Patrick's Cathedral, the other building in the photo, between 1235 and 1270.

We went down the road a little to Cahir, and visited the Cahir Castle, built in the 13th century. It was granted to James Butler, the Royal Butler to King Edward III, in 1375.

Both of these villages are located in County Tipperary, the original homeland of the O'Sullivan clan. It's a beautiful, rural area with green, rolling hills. We would have loved to stay longer, but from here we headed south to Middleton for a visit to the Jameson Distillery.

The tour was well done, explaining the steps in the process all the way from harvesting the barley to aging the whiskey in the oak barrels. The tour takes place in the original distillery, which has been replaced with a modern facility nearby.

Our stop for the night was in Cork. We found a nice restaurant and Jim enjoyed a pint of Murphy's (brewed here).

After dinner, we took a walking tour around the town to learn a little about Cork... here's the cathedral.

Off to Blarney Castle in the morning...

This Is More Like It

Today Ireland began living up to its reputation for soggy weather... it basically rained all day.

We started out the morning with another terrific breakfast, thanks to Mairead. We had eggs, bacon (more like ham here), smoked salmon, a fresh fruit cocktail, scones, and brown Irish soda bread.

After breakfast we headed up to Dunmore Caves, just north of Kilkenny. It's about 150 ft deep (350 steps!), but has some interesting history and archeological significance. In this picture, you can see some of the joints between the sheets of limestone.

Here's the stalactite formation they call The Buffalo...

After that, we stopped for a quick lunch in Kilkenny before driving down to Jerpoint Abbey. The Abbey was constructed in 1180 by Cistercian monks under the direction of Donogh O'Donoghoe Mac Gilla Patraic. It contains both Gothic and Romanesque architecture, being constructed near the transition in time between these two styles. You can see both here:

The abbey is well known for the detail in the carvings on the columns of the arcade around the cloister,

and also for the detailed carvings on the tomb of Bishop O'Dulaney.

On our way back to Kilkenny, we stopped to see Kells Priory. The Augustine priory was originally founded in 1193, but was attacked and burned three times between 1252 and 1327. It's believed the walls and fortifications of the outer enclosure were added as a consequence of this. The tower houses and walls of the enclosure give it the appearance of a medieval fort.

After our visit here, we returned to Kyteler's Inn for dinner, accompanied by a live band. At the end of the day, it's hard to beat a plate of bangers and mash, a pint of Smithwick's, and traditional Irish music.

Tomorrow we're headed west to County Tipperary!

Off To The Country

We enjoyed our first Irish breakfast this morning, courtesy of Eileen at the B&B... yum! After checking out, we headed to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, a beautifully ornate, hand-written and illustrated copy of the four Gospels... the detail was amazing. Unfortunately, they didn't allow pictures, so you'll just have to come see it for yourself. Just after that, we wandered into The Long Room, more than 200 ft long and filled with more than a quarter million vintage books.

After our visit to the College, we discovered that the power port in our car wasn't working (and there was only one!) This was a problem, since we're depending on our GPS to get us from one place to another. Fortunately, there was a Hertz office on our way out of town, and they provided us with another car.

We drove into the Wicklow Mountains, which aren't as high as the ones back home, but are still beautiful. They call this area "the Garden of Ireland". Tammy found a waterfall hike, which gave us a nice opportunity to stretch our legs.

While there, we also visited Glendalough, a sixth-century monastic site, with structures dating from the 11th and 12th centuries. It once had a reputation throughout Europe as a site for learning.

After our trek through the mountains, we moved on to Kilkenny. This is the area where Tammy's mother's side of the family is originally from. We ate dinner at Kyteler's Inn, a place with an interesting history. Jim ordered his first (but definitely not his last!) Irish Coffee, though he's fairly certain Tammy drank half of it!

First Day

We landed in Ireland this morning about 8:30 AM local time (3:30 AM Eastern). We picked up our rental car, and after a few minutes of familiarization we were ready to go. Despite sitting on the wrong side of the car and driving on the wrong side of the road, we successfully made it to the bed and breakfast where we're staying our first night.

Our first stop was at St. Patrick's Cathedral, a beautiful 13th century building.

We stopped in to O'Neills for lunch, then were off to Dublin Castle

We tried some Bailey's Irish Cream ice cream at Christ Church Cathedral,

before heading to Guiness' Storehouse.

This was Tammy's idea of a free sample,

and this was Jim's.

Until tomorrow, Cheers!