Cashel and enroute to County Kerry

 

Cashel, Ireland – 6/14/2013

We left the sunny southern shores of Portugal and arrived in Cork, Ireland, where there was a slight misting outside when we hit the runway. By the time we got our bags and went through passport control, the rain was much more emphatic and blowing sideways. We were undaunted. Of course we realized that the reason Ireland is so beautiful and green is that they get more than their fair share of rainfall. Steve also seemed relatively undaunted to get in the car on the wrong side and start driving on the wrong (that means left) side of the road). We had a relatively uneventful couple of hours driving to Cashel (except for the fact that we hit a rotary with about 11 exits and missed ours by one so ended up driving through downtown Cork on a Friday).

Cashel is a lovely little Irish village, but the main draw here, and the reason it is on any tour you might find of Ireland is the Rock of Cashel. This prominatory has origins going back to St. Patrick, who is said to have baptized the king into the catholic faith here back in the 5th century. The buildings that remain are as old as the 12th century, and the architecture and stories seem to tell the history of Ireland as well as the history of this promintory in the middle of Ireland. There are two churches here, the 12th century chapel and the 17th century cathedral. Both are ruins (although I would say the chapel is actually in better shape), but combined with the very Gaelic cemetary, the feeling is very much as if you have stepped into ages gone by.

We stayed at a local B&B, Peggy O’Neil’s, where Peggy greeted us with a nice pot of tea and some great conversation. We chatted for over an hour about this, that and the other and she made us feel right at home in Cashel. Their claim to fame was that when the Queen made her historic first visit to Ireland in 2011, she stopped to see the Rock and her helicopter landed practically in their back yard. The security was too tight in town for her visitors to do much in town that afternoon, so the B&B hosted a BBQ and they all watched the hullaballoo as the Queen landed and was escorted away to do her tour.

After tea, we put our rain gear on and headed out to see the Rock. The video they showed us was uninspiring and although the rain was not a perfect backround for our pictures, it felt somehow fitting in this strange old place, full of Irish history and memories. Afterward, we got out of the rain with a visit to the pub (of course) and had a pint or two of real beer (delighful) followed up by some fish and chips at the locals’ favorite restaurant.

In the morning, wonder of wonders, the sky was bluish, so we hiked back out to the rock to take some pictures, stopping off at the delightful ruin of a monastary that served the rock at some point in history (which was in the middle of a cow field) and then happily headed across the green countryside toward County Kerry.

On the way, we stopped to see….you guessed it….another castle! This was in the next town over and came complete with a canal running up to the door. There was a tiny Saturday market in the parking lot for the castle and given that it is quite early in the season here (we have been told that the winter was so long, that all of the crops are 6 weeks behind) the only thing that looked really appetizing was the cheese. We tried 4 or 5 local cheeses and selected a couple to take with us that were absolutely delicious! The woman who sold us the cheese told us that we could walk about 20 minutes down the canal and see the “Swiss Cottage”, which was a lovely walk and place to see. Sounded great to us so we walked down to see this beautifully restored 18th century “Swiss Cottage”, and it did look like one, with a fantastic curving thach roof and in tudor style. Apparently, it was en vogue at the time to have a country cottage (if you were rich), take day trips there, and dress like peasants for a little R&R(????). Anyway, it was fun and pretty and we enjoyed our hike before getting in the car to cover the several hours drive to our beautiful vacation rental in Kenmare, county Kerry.