Day 16: July 15 - Journal Entry
Today we have plans to go to Craggaunowen Castle. It is just over a two hour drive, but it doesn’t open until 10:30, so we don’t have to leave until about 8am.
It had rained all night and was still coming down when we got up. I had showered and dressed when Jonathan got up. He was worried about driving so far in the rain, and what if the rain made our tour cancel? We looked up the weather in Galway county, where the castle was located, and it looked like the weather was going to clear up before we got there. So we decided to go for it.
I made us each a sandwich and we filled our water bottles, grabbed our rain coats and headed out. I am getting used to driving here, but with the rain coming down we had to be extra careful. Jonathan was worried we would hydroplane on a puddle and kept telling me to slow down. I was already going slower than the rest of the traffic.
The rain continued on and off for most of the drive. We took a little longer than expected because we had to stop twice for Jonathan to pee, the second stop was down a dead end road and a couple of horses in the field walked over to see what we were up to. Molly and I had a bit of a laugh at that. Then we made one more stop for gas and a girly potty break.
When we finally got off the main motorway to head down to the castle we ended up on one of the skinny L roads that are barely wide enough for one way travel, so I was tense and nervous as we traveled the last dozen kilometers or so.
Craggaunowen Castle
There was a car park on site and we were one of the first 10 cars to arrive. We got our backpacks and raincoats and started following the walk towards the castle. We first came to a man with a pail of grain, he clanged on the pail and a handful of sheep came running in from the field. “Maaaaaa”. Wow, were they ever noisy! Some were small, some shaggy, some sheered, and some with horns.
We found our way to the welcome house, where a man scanned our tickets and gave us a map of the property. Stop #1-the castle.
We noticed a few trails leading into the woods as we approached the castle. The sign read that John Hunt was credited with the restoration of this castle and has carved his initials in the front corner stone. When we entered the castle there was a woman dressed in medieval clothes and working a pedal loom. She talked to us about how life in the castle would have been, showed us how to card and pull sheep’s wool, and we watched as she spun the wool to yarn.
Then we got to explore the castle, different rooms, spiral staircase, even the battlement (which had puddles from all of the rain overnight. The view of the lough, forest, and countryside from the top of the castle was amazing. A few of the rooms had a small wooden frame on the floor with a straw filled sack for a pad to make a bed. It looked itchy, and Molly was very glad that beds have improved since then.
After we left the castle, we walked past the waters edge down a small forest trail and found a wooden wall with a hut on stilts over the entrance. This was the “craggon”, a pre-historic village that predated medieval castles. There was a man dressed in a costume from that time period. He told us about the fire made of bog turf, that burns with little to no flame and even stays lit in the rain. He gave us a tour and story about the round house, the long house, and the oghram writing style. Then he entertained us with some music. He demonstrated throat singing, a primitive drum, and a unique bagpipe. ( he said it originated in Germany and he was the only one in Ireland that could play it still today).
Next we walked the forest trail until we came to the “souterrain”, this was a stone entrance to a tunnel that led under the ringfort, but it was blocked off, so we walked around to the opening in the ringed wall. There were a few stone huts with thatched roofs and one had an opening in the floor. So of course Jonathan climbs down the small rickety ladder into the ground tunnel full of spiders, which we didn’t notice until we were down there. A squeal later and we were all above ground and shaking out our coats.
We opened our sandwiches and ate as we walked more of the forest trail. Next we came to a glass structure with a good sized double-masted vessel inside, “The Brendan”. This was the boat that a 6th century saint was said to have used to sail the Atlantic Ocean. Well, a recreation of the boat, made by Tim Severin in 1976.
We walked the rest of the forest trail, finding fairy tale sites, a large boar that Jonathan talked to, and a few stones with the “oghram” language on them. Then we found the entrance back by our noisy sheep.
Back in the car we decided that instead of going home and driving all the way back out to Limerick again tomorrow, that we would drive the 20 minutes to Bunratty castle today, and this would make Jonathan late for work, but he felt that was better than making the drive again the next day.
Why, why, why does google maps always direct us down these tiny little L roads? Well, thanks to Jonathan’s map search and rerouting, we made it to a slightly larger road and to the next site in just over 20 minutes.
Bunratty Castle and Folk Park.
Bunratty has a much different feel than Craggaunowen did. There were a lot more people, and the castle was restored to be more like a museum than a reenactment. We still got to walk through the castle and see the rooms, spiral staircases, and view from the rooftop, but the grounds had several old thatched roof houses, a fairy forest trail, a small cathedral, a manor house, a tinker’s wagon, a blacksmith house, and a tea room/ gift shop.
I think about an hour or so in we had all gotten a bit tired and sort of dragged through. But we got good pictures and enjoyed the sites. Jonathan even tried to get Molly to dance when we came across a man dressed up playing the fiddle. It was fun to spend the day absorbing history.
The drive home was long and tiring. My watch shows that we walked over 4 and a half miles today, but we sat in the car for close to 5 hours. Why are long car rides so draining?
Back in Multyfarnham, Poppy was super excited to see Molly. They played outside while Jonathan worked and I made dinner. Now that we have visited Bunratty today, we have an open schedule tomorrow. Not sure what we will fill it with, but there is still a lot to see and our month here is half over.