Ireland - (Feb 16-23) - Day 2 - Castles and Ladies View

Day 2 started with the first of our mini-disasters.  After a good night's sleep we got packed up and realised we needed to fill the water tank on the van, the only issue was that the hose we had been given with the van was too short to reach the tap when we were parked on the hardstand.  The only way we could manage to fill up was to back carefully onto the grass.

This maneuver went well until (much heavier from filling with water) we tried to leave.  I'll let the pictures tell the story:

Filling with water

The grass under the ice wasn't as firm as it looked

Yep, that's not going anywhere

Kris tried to turn the wheels a few different ways to kick us back onto the hardstand, but we were stuck.  To avoid churning up too much of the grass and digging a deeper hole, we asked the site owners for help.  They had been out calving since 4am so were already awake and in the middle of breakfast, but soon arrived with a tractor and gave us a tug free from the mud.

We were away!

We started with a trip down to the Rock of Cashel.

The Rock is also known as St Patrick's Rock and is located in Cashel (surprisingly) in Tipperary County.

The oldest remaining building at the Rock is believed to have been built in the 1100s, but the site has been home to fortifications for much longer.

Irish folk law says that the Rock was created when St Patrick banished Satan from a cave, and it is also believed to be the site where the King of Muster (SW Ireland) was converted to Christianity by St Patrick. The Rock was the seat of the Kings of Munster for many years before it was donated to the church in 1101.

Approaching the Rock of Cashel

Rock of Cashel

The Rock is ruined now, but the oldest building still standing is the round tower, which dates from 1100.  The other main structures are Cormac's Chapel (The Chapel of King Cormac Mac Carthaigh), built in 1127 (consecrated in 1134) and the Cathedral, built in 1235-1270.  The grounds are also the site of many graves, old and new, often with Celtic cross headstones.

Rock of Cashel from the carpark - Round Tower clearly visible in the middle of shot

Left to right - Cormac's Chapel, the Cathedral and the Round Tower

Expanded shot also showing the tomb to the right

Rock of Cashel

Gravestones at Rock of Cashel

Unfortunately we couldn't access Cormac's Chapel as it was undergoing repairs - the walls are lined with paintings that were being attacked by a mold and so the whole building was being subjected to high intensity UV light to kill the mold.

Layout of the Rock of Cashel

 We started by watching a short movie about the history of the Rock and fortifications throughout Ireland, in the Vicar's Choral room (Red), and then headed over to the Cathedral (Blue)
 

Entering the Cathedral

Niche of the "Sall Amorial Plaque"

The Sall Amorial Plaque

The Sall Amorial Plaque reads "Laus Deo 1574 Scutum Sall", or "Praise to God 1574, The Shield of Sall" and is believed to be a tribute the the Sall/Saul family, Norman merchants in Cashel, believed to show an early example of a merchant's mark and the E &K are possibly the initials of Mr Sall and his wife.

Cathedral with the Round Tower behind

One of the Graves in the Cathedral for Theo Pennefather Esq, who died in what appears to be 1843

More graves in the Cathedral

Niche over the graves (left side of above photo)

Niche

One of the graves from 1865

Engravings

Coat of Arms engraving at the head of Milar Macgraths Tomb

Another coat of arms - at the side of the tomb of  Miler Magrath

Engraving at the foot of Miler Magrath's Tomb

Miler Magrath

Engraving above the tomb

Miler Magrath was a Irish Archbishop (1523-1622) who began as a Roman Catholic and then converted to become Anglican and then became the Protestant Archbishop of Cashel.  He is disliked by both Protestant and Catholics because of corruption during the Reformation.  It is reported that he demanded bribes in England for accepting the Reformation and managed to remain prelate for both the Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland (Anglican) faith for nine years before being stripped of his Bishop title for heresy.

The Protestants blamed him for financial corruption and a being a drunk.  The Catholics saw him as an apostate priest and a collaborated with anti-christian groups.

The engraving above his tomb is an ode written in Latin, the Ode to Miler Magrath, Archbishop of Cashel to the Passer-by.

Standing under the arch of the Cathedral to give an idea of scale

From the Cathedral we passed through a door to the rear of the area and through a small graveyard to the Round Tower.

Graves and view from the hill

The Round Tower

Celtic Cross Gravestone

Wall of the Cathedral with the Round Tower on the left

Other ruins below the castle hill

We then headed back through the cathedral, back to the main courtyard and headed towards the back of the site.

Graves and the Round Tower

The side of Cormac's Chapel

Tomb at the rear of the Castle grounds

Markings around the edge of the tomb

Recreation of the St Patrick's Cross

St Patrick's cross is one of the famous sights of the Rock of Cashel.  It does not have the ring around the head like other Celtic crosses and it has supports up the sides to hold the arms of the cross.

Our final location was in a room below the reception, where we saw some of the artifacts associated with the site:

Details

Artifacts

Medieval Coats of Arms recovered from the castle

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh's signature in the guest book from their visit in 2011.

The original St Patrick's Cross

We stopped in the town of Cashel for some pastries:

and then headed off to our next stop - Blarney Castle.

Blarney Castle is a castle in Blarney, near Cork.  It was build around 1466 and houses the famous Blarney Stone.

There are several parts to the site, including a rock garden, poisonous plant garden and of course the tower and stone.

 The name Blarney is rumored to have been created by Queen Elizabeth I.  When her emissary Sir George Carew as trying to persuade the MacCarthy chieftain to accept English rule, the response was always long, eloquent protests filled with flattery but with no agreement.  In frustration, Queen Elizabeth is said to have exclaimed "This is all Blarney.  What he says he never means."

The Blarney stone is famous for this purpose, it is said that anyone who kisses the Blarney stone will be granted the gift of eloquence.  Well, unfortunately it doesn't work (at least in all cases), as I've kissed the stone and I still write ramblingly.

First view of the castle

The slight blurring effect on the picture above is due to the rearmost tower being covered for renovations.

Blarney Castle

The castle

Crossing the bridge to the castle

Looking across the bridge, the castle was an imposing sight

A seam can be seen running down the centre of the castle - this shows that it was originally constructed as a single tall thin tower (on the right) and then expanded upon.  The window jutting from the wall would have been the Earl's bedroom and the other holes are for the garderobes to drop waste from the castle.

Standing at the base of the tower

The castle is built on an eight-meter high cliff of rock, which also formed the quarry for the stone used in the castle.

At the base of the castle was the entry to the kennels and also the prisons:

Kennel and Prison entry

Inside the dungeon was narrow and low, the kids managed to get further than we did, because we weren't too keen on crawling through the mud.

Inside

Cam heading in

The kids heading deeper in - we did consider running off at this point, but the ground was too slippery

Outside this area was the old Watch Keeper's Tower:

Lookout Tower

Side of the castle

We decided to head into the Rock Close to start:

Entry to the Rock Close - Kris and I had to duck

Inside the Rock Close

Unfortunately, as it was winter, most of the plants did not have their full compliment of  leaves, so the Rock Close did not look as good as it would in summer, but it was still an interesting walk.

Waterfalls

The hedge arch was a little sparse

Our first stop was the Dolmen, a great rock suspended between two others:

The Dolmen

Cam under the Dolmen

Next stop was the wishing steps.  The story was if you could walk down and up the steps with your eyes closed your wish would come true.  With how wet and slippery the steps were the only wish it looked likely to grant would be broken bones.  In addition, the top of the stairs was so low I had to duck to get under it, so with my eyes closed I'd likely have received a nice concussion and tumble back to the bottom.

Details

The wishing steps - this is where Tom scared to poor ladies almost to death by doing his Mother Shipshin (see our Scotland/England trip) witch impression as they walked past

Tom trying to do the wishing steps with closed eyes (well, squinted)

Even Alana had to duck at the top

Next stop was the witches kitchen at the top of the stairs:

The kitchen was at the base of this tree

Witches Kitchen

Next was the Druid's Cave:

Druid's Cave

Then the witch stone:

Witch stone

and the Druid Stones:

In there somewhere...

While I was trying to find the druid stones, Tom made a new friend, a small bird that came up to him when he sat quietly.  He spent about 10 minutes watching it, until Cam moved too fast and scared it off.

Watching the bird

Tom's Bird

Final stop in the Rock Close was the sacrificial altar:

The Altar

We then headed back to the castle and headed up to the top to see the Blarney Stone.

Looking down from part way up (that's the poison garden)

Looking down on the bridge

Details on the stone

Cam going down to kiss the stone

To kiss the Blarney stone you lie down and grip two poles and then lower yourself backwards to kiss the stone.  It's now much safer than in the olden days when it was four foot below the parapet.  It's now fully sealed in, only about a foot down and there are two helpers to assist and take photos that you can buy later (of course).  The shiny gray rock just below his head is the Blarney stone.

A little too high.

Unfortunately Cam was the only one we photographed kissing the stone (well just above it).  It tasted like disinfectant, which is probably a good thing.

Our final stop was the poison garden.  It housed a variety of plants that were deadly to eat, or in some cases to touch.  But most were pretty unimpressive at winter:

Henbane

Foxglove

Alana was excited to see Mandrakes, but there wasn't much to see

Tea was a surprising one

There was one plant in a huge cage - Wow that must be deadly... Nope they just didn't want it stolen.  I did disagree with it being classified a poison though

The kids sitting under the poisonous (only if you eat the seeds) Jimson Weed.  That's Cam's fake scared face

It was hard to tell if Cam was scared of having some kind of reaction to the tree....

Our final stop was the Seven Sisters:

Information

The Seven Sisters

Our final stop for the day (before camping down for the night) was the Ladies View.    Ladies View is a scenic panaramic viewing point at the start of the Ring of Kerry in Killarney National Park.  It was named Ladies View after Queen Victoria's Ladies-in-Waiting admired the view in 1861.

Ladies View

Driving out of Ladies View on one of the wider roads

View of Moll's Gap just above Ladies View

Our campsite for the night was the Hidden Valley Pet Farm.  It was a carpark listed in the  Safe Nights Ireland guide and we were able to stay and use the toilet for €10, the owner also offered to let us see the animals and use their shower in the morning, but unfortunately our second disaster meant we had to miss that.

Disaster 2

The photo above shows the key that is used for everything except starting the van (fortunately).  It opens the gas bottle holder, the waste water and fresh water tanks as well as the storage area and the area where you can plug in an electrical supply.

We were fine for the night, but we had almost 100% waste water and we couldn't open the compartment to dump it (at a dumping point).  But it was late, so that would need to be a job for the next day.

Day 2 - Drive

Distance driven - day 2: 277km
Total Distance: 417km