Saturday, March 31, 2012

ireland - day 5

Today the plan was to drive south along the coast, take in the cliffs of moher and drive the ring of kerry. Well, we decided we were tired of driving. So we chatted with Mary at the B&B and she suggested we spend the day in the Burrens looking for ruins. She first tried to tell us to go visit their mountains. We told her we were from Utah and saw mountains every day. We wanted to see something different. So, she sent us to the ruins and told us we had to go to Bunratty. Armed with a map that had little pink stars on it, our GPS and the amazing navigation skills of the kids, we had a pretty good day! After Bunratty, where we stayed longer than expected, we still had a two-hour drive to our B&B, as I thought we were going to be much, much further south by the end of the day. I was a bit anxious to get there but we made it.

 The first place we went was right on the road. This parking area was flanked by houses with thatched roofs.
 Dunguaire Castle. Pretty small but still imposing right on the road. The gates were closed. I guess it doesn't open until later in the spring. It looked like you could walk right up and in but we, obviously, didn't.
 The entry to the inside. We wished for a bit.
 We did walk around the castle (took us about 10 minutes) and enjoyed some stunning scenery. The following are all pics from outside the castle.
  

 Our next stop was Corcomroe Abbey. We passed a woolen mill on the way and thought we found it but then decided to go back and ask for sure. At the woolen mill, I bought a sweater and the kids both got tin whistles. We then asked for directions and it is a good thing we did or we would never have found it. It was tucked back in behind a few farms. We were very glad we had stopped though. It was interesting. You can see some of the peaks have been rebuilt but a lot of the main structure is original. And check out the date...1182. That's older than Kaitlyn's persona! :)



 

 Next on the map was the Alliwee Cave. This cave was discovered in the '40s but not explored until the '70s. When they explored it, they found bones of bears that have been extinct for 1,000 years. I guess that was a very exciting find. We toured the inside, about a mile walk.
 Straws. The beginnings of stalactites. The insides are hollow and as the water and minerals drip down the hollow section, the ends grow...about 1 cm/50 years.
 And when the hollow center gets plugged for some reason, the water and minerals drip down the sides and create what we expect in cave. The stalagmite in this picture has been dated to be 10,000 years old.
Random water fall. Pretty cool pic. After this, we went looking for the Leamaneh Castle. We passed and drove by Cahercommaun Stone Fort (looking pretty much like what the round tower). We were a little lost and drove by a castle that looked interesting but didn't stop. About five minutes later, Kaitlyn figured out it the Leamaneh Castle that we wanted to see. We got to see a drive by but no pictures!
 Then on to the Cliffs of Moher. Have you seen the cliffs of insanity in the Princess Bride? Or the cliffs where Harry Potter looks for a horcrux? Well, we say them in person! Beautiful place. The tallest point of the cliffs is 700 feet high.
 Looking good!
Looking at the cliffs from the southern view point. See that little town up on the hill? Well, believe it or not, it is pretty tiny. A person fills the doorway. I was really surprised to see that is was that small. I guess when you have the cliffs to help protect you and you have such a great vantage point, you really don't need anything big. 
  A close up of the tower. 

See that ledge down there with all the people on it? It was beyond the safe wall but wells went out there anyway. He was pretty smart about not getting too close to the end but other people are not so smart. Anyway, wells got an amazing shot of the cliffs. See next.



 We feel in love with this saying. Not sure how to say it in Irish, but in English it is Safe Home. No, drive safely, be careful, or anything like that...just Safe Home.
 So, our next adventure was to find Dysert O'dea. This was definitely our biggest adventure of the day. The maps were not a big help to us and we ended up on some pretty back roads. We stopped and asked for directions twice and finally made it, but seriously, look at this road! The people who gave us directions kept saying "It is a really narrow road. Be careful."
 After more time than we wanted to take, we finally made it to Dysert O'Dea Castle. We went to find the high cross and were disappointed we couldn't see it...or go in the castle. But then! When we were walking back to the car, we saw a sign for the abbey and high cross.
success! We finally found a Celtic High Cross! My trip was now complete. :) We kinda hurried through Dysert O'Dea 1, because it took us so long to find it and 2. because we wanted to get to Bunratty Castle before it closed and it was still a 45 minute drive. So, off we went.
 When we got to Bunratty Castle, we found that the clock in our car was an hour slow. So, instead of it being 3:30 and having 2 hours for a tour, it was 4:30 and they wouldn't let us in the castle. The kids were very disappointed. This was the one castle they would be able to see that was restored! So, we got tickets for the Folk Park and started walking around.  The following are just random pics of the folk park.
  

  


 Kaitlyn storming the castle! She felt like she could actually take the kids' version.
 

 While we were walking around, saddened that we couldn't get into the castle, we thought about our options. So, we decided to stay for the Medieval feast that night. That would let us in parts but not all of the castle. The kids felt it was a good consolation prize.
 Going to dinner at Bunratty.
 Stairs you walked up to get to the great room.
 The kids started dancing to the music. It was fun to watch them. People around us didn't know if they were part of the show or not. That was humorous.
 A peak into the dungeon.
 We were sitting by the funnest group of Irish natives! We got to talk about all kinds of things, that were not necessarily touristy. They agreed the Irish roads are magical. The following pic is a shot of the map we were trying to follow all day. Weren't we adventurous?

1 comment:

  1. Crazy roads...but shouldn't you be used to that? Looks like lots of fun!

    ReplyDelete