Bunratty Castle

From the plane the morning we left

cool car in front of Bunratty Park

Nikki wanted to bring these lambs home.

Isnt he a cute pony...

Do you see Nikki?

May 9
We left the lovely Adare Manor and went into Limerick and visited the Hunt Museum. Then we tried going to the Knappogue castle but it was closed this was the second time we tried to visit this castle. We then went to the Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. The folk park is a reconstruction of the village in the early 1900’s. The Bunratty Castle is the most complete and authentic medieval fortress in Ireland. Built in 1425 it was restored in 1954 to its former medieval splendor and now contains mainly 15th and 16th century furnishings, tapestries, and works of art which capture the mood of those times. Today, the castle stands peacefully in delightful grounds. The houses and cottages of the folk park spread out at the foot of its massive walls, much in the way that the cottages and crofts of old would have clustered around its base.
I enjoyed the castle and the folk park, that evening we went to the Medieval feast in the Castle which was a lot of fun as it was actually in the castle. They had great food and music. There was a harp player and some one playing the violin. There were 4 courses the first was soup and soda bread which you drank from your bowl and you were not given utensils. Then we were given some ribs and the main course was chicken and vegetable and potatoes. The final course was a fruit mouse and we were given a spoon to eat it with.

Galway and Adare Manor

Nikki and John the Butler

Thatched roof in the village shopping area

Cute little fox on the Manor

Hand Carved ceiling

Spanish Arch

Streets of Galway
May 8
We headed to Galway and did a bit of shopping and went to the Spanish arch. It started raining and had a hard time finding where we parked our car so were soaked when we got to the car. We then headed to the Adare Manor where we were staying for the night. This is a 5 star hotel and they treat you very well we were greeted by John the Butler who retrieved our bags and took them to our room then we were given our own personal tour of the Manor.

Here is a brief history of the manor. Adare Manor borrows it’s name from the nearby village of Adare complete with it’s delightful thatched roof cottages, lively pubs, and antique shops. The Manor “structurally” as it exists today was not begun until 1832. The Second Earl of Dunraven and his wife, Lady Caroline Wyndham, were living in a Georgian house built in the 1720's by Valentine Quin, grandfather of the first Earl. But Lord Dunraven, crippled with gout, was unable to participate in the usual activities of a landed gentleman of leisure, so Lady Caroline devised the idea of a new manor house to give him something important to do. As it turned out, it was a magnificent suggestion: the building of the house provided labour for the surrounding villagers during the terrible potato famine that devastated the country during the mid-19th century. Though Lady Caroline went to great lengths to establish the myth that Adare Manor was planned entirely by her husband without an architect, it is fairly certain today that much of the design work was completed by James Pain who, along with his brother George Richard, had been commissioned to design numerous public buildings and country homes. The actual construction was supervised by James Connolly, a local mason, until his death in 1852

Marble Arch Cave

Water fall the wind was so strong that it blew the water up and over

May 7
We left Bushmill and headed to the Marble Arch Cave. We gat to the cave and were excited about this cave because there is a river that runs through it and you get to take a boat ride through part of the cave. They said that they had so much rainfall that past couple of days that they were not running the boat, but we were able to see the entire part of the walking tour which was lucky because the day before the cave had been filled with water and they were not even doing tours. We really enjoyed the cave and it was cool having a river running through it. We also took a nice walk outside of the cave. Then we went to Knock where there is a shrine and in 1879 15 people witness an apparition of St. Mary. It was pouring rain and hail and very cold. We spent the night here.

Northern Ireland

May 6
Today we first stopped at Carrickfergus castle, it was a fun castle because they had lots of models through out the castle symbolizing what is may have been like. It was right on the coast and had a draw bridge.
We then headed to the Giant Causeway there is a fokelore tell about how the causeway was built
Finn McCool an Irish Giant lived on an Antrim headland and one day when going about his daily business a Scottish Giant named Fingal began to shout insults and hurl abuse from across the channel. In anger Finn lifted a clod of earth and threw it at the giant as a challenge, the earth landed in the sea.
Fingal retaliated with a rock thrown back at Finn and shouted that Finn was lucky that he wasn't a strong swimmer or he would have made sure he could never fight again.
Finn was enraged and began lifting huge clumps of earth from the shore, throwing them so as to make a pathway for the Scottish giant to come and face him. However by the time he finished making the crossing he had not slept for a week and so instead devised a cunning plan to fool the Scot.
Finn diguised himself as a baby in a cot and when his adversary came to face him Finn's wife told the Giant that Finn was away but showed him his son sleeping in the cradle. The Scottish giant became apprehensive, for if the son was so huge, what size would the father be?
In his haste to escape Fingal sped back along the causeway Finn had built, tearing it up as he went. He is said to have fled to a cave on Staffa which is to this day named 'Fingal's Cave'.

Then we went to the Carrick rope bridge that was built so that the fisherman could get to the island with out taking his boat. It was a beautiful walk along the coast to the bridge

Killkenny and Trinity college

St Patrick Catherdral in Downpatrick

View from our bed and breakfast in Downpatrick

May 5
We left Waterford and head to Kilkenny castle. The castle was being lived in until the early 1900. It was quite a large castle but were only showing a few rooms. I liked the library and the great hall with lots of portraits. The kitchen was large and the pans were very heavy.
We then headed to Dublin to see the Trinity College and the book of Kells. Thank goodness for our GPS. We then stopped and saw some high crosses (Monasterboice) Then we headed to our next Bed and Breakfast. It was located in Downpatrick which is the burial place for St Patrick