Ruins, or Ireland Day 3

 We were off to an early start. When you travel and are 8 hours off your usual schedule, sometimes your body isn't quite sure when it is time to sleep and when it is time to wake up. We arrived at Rock of Cashel a good hour before tours started. There was a film we could watch in an indoor space about the history of the Rock of Cashel-- how it started out as a castle for kings and then was granted to the church. It became a mishmash of buildings jumbled together and has the only Romanesque frescos left in Ireland after Cromwell came through. The film seemed like the best choice since the wind was out to play and the sunshine was playing hide and seek.  We were told later that they have a lazy wind at the Rock of Cashel. It refuses to go around, so it'll go right through you. And it does, way up there on the limestone outcropping.

St. Cormac's Chapel: 

With what is left of those original frescos:

Once we had been around those ruins, we walked down the hill to Hore Abbey. This one was free, but you risked stepping in cow pies to get there.

Ryan was the only one who had to bend to get through this doorway.

You can see the Rock of Cashel in the background.

Once we'd had our fill here, we drove to the Athassel Priory. This is a tricky place to get to. If you plug in "Athassel Priory" into Google Maps, it takes you to a nice view of it from the wrong side of a river. But, once a tiny piece of information clicks in Mom's brain about "Oh this is the one you have to type 'Athassel Priory ENTRANCE' into Google Maps to actually get there," then things go more smoothly. After that pesky 10-minute drive to go around.

Then it was through another cow pasture we go! There was a metal gate to latch to make sure the cows don't get into the ruins.

I think I want a cool stone castle ruin in my pasture...

I find all of the ruins littered around Ireland haunting and sad. So much history crumbling all around! The Irish and poor British in me shakes my fist at the aristocracy in Britain for their terrible idea to tax roofs and windows. If a landowner had a building they no longer wanted to pay taxes for, they would pull off the roof. One Irish gentleman we talked to said they had a saying in Ireland about "stealing daylight" or "daylight robbery" because you had to pay to have window space (with or without glass) in your home.

Then it was about a two-hour drive to the town of Killarney. Ryan was worn out from driving at the end of the day.