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Today we are traveling over two hours south to Cahir Castle, Rock of Cashel, and if we have time, Kilkenny Castle. Jon likes to be early, so we are leaving at 9am, our first tour is at noon.

Cahir Castle

Cahir Castle is set in the middle of a cute little town. It has a river running by and there was a mote around it at some point but it is dried up now. Our tour guide is a cute old man who keeps saying “ok”. He is taking us through the castle as if it is under siege. Telling us how each defence was used and overcome. Ultimately the 250 men inside would lose to the 4 to 5 thousand attacking, but they didn’t go down easily. The castle is fairly well preserved and the guide said for that reason, several movies have been filmed using this castle as a backdrop. There are two cannon balls embedded in the outer wall, which makes it evident that the attack was extreme. But the walls were tall, they had a barbary gate, and a small courtyard trap to dwindle the attacking numbers. They also had battlements around the whole of the inter wall for next level defence, and so many arrow slots. It really was an entertaining tour.

Rock of Cashel

Next we went to the Rock of Cashel. Our tour time here was for 3pm, but because we were able to take an earlier tour at Cahir, we got to The Rock of Cashel at 1:30. This location was for self guided tours, so we started when we arrived. The Cashel is an old cathedral with a story of a dark archbishop. The ruins are still very impressive, with much of the stone still in place and even a faint amount of artwork on the wall inside a cove where the sun didn’t fade it as fast. The cathedral is in the middle of a cemetery, and from what we could tell people were still being buried there until the mid 1900’s. The site is at the top of a hill with amazing views of the valleys that surround it. There was a walk to the ruins of an old Bishops house, but we skipped the walk and took pictures from the top of the hill so we could have time to go to Kilkenny Castle.

Kilkenny

Kilkenny is in the middle of a town, parking was stressful. We found a park and pay lot, but it was only open until 6pm, and if you don’t get out in time your car would be stuck overnight. So with that stress on us, we walked up the long shopping district street to view the castle. Kilkenny has been renovated, so it is more like a medieval museum in the shell of a castle, but a very impressive one. The river runs along the side and the castle was designed in a sort of U-shape. It has a huge courtyard and extensive grounds. I can’t imagine the cost and work to upkeep such a property. We were able to get in on the tour, but it was a scan and read info tour. We took a lot of pictures, but I felt the outside was more impressive than the inside.

By the time we finished it was after 5 and we were all hungry, so we decided to find a bite to eat as we walked back to the car. We stopped in a small food court, finding gluten free for Molly has been a little challenging. She got a chicken caesar salad, and ate most of it. At ten to six we were running for the car so that we could get out before the gate locked. Luckily we made it out just in time, and had a long drive home. Extra tired from trying to hit three stops in one day, we are all excited that tomorrow is Sunday and we can enjoy a slower pace.

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