We woke up today full of piss and vinegar (the good kind)
and headed out for a bunch of old wall circles.
After driving through a bunch of too narrow roads Google told us to stop
behind a random field. There were a
couple farmers loading cows into a trailer so we asked them where to go for
Rathgall Hillfort and he grunted and pointed down a path pretty much straight
through the cowpasture. We walked a ways
until we got to a gate and dumbly stood in front of it talking about climbing
over. The farmer yelled at us to just
push the gate and it swung freely open.
Looking like some dumb tourists we continued across this farmer’s field
to another gate. After a few more
instructions from the farmer we found a few steps to get over this fence. So, in the middle of this farmer’s fields
surrounded by cows is a gigantic bronze age fort ruin. Basically, it’s just 4 concentric circles of
6 foot tall rock walls beyond which is a panorama of mountain views. We were the only ones there walking around on
heather laden bog touching these ancient stones. It was magical.
Next we went to Duckett’s Grove which is a castle that was
made in 1745. It was clearly made by a
pretty unique rich dude that had a love affair with old castles. They made this huge castle and then added a
walled garden and then added another walled garden just for kicks. There were only 2 other people there so we
wandered around and enjoyed the enormity of the castle ruins. There were still some candle and tea shops
but otherwise there was barely anything going on there. It was cool.
Following that we continued south to the Rock of Dunamase
which is another castle ruin but this time up much higher. This one was built back in the 9th
century way on top of a big rock so after a bit of a hike up the views were
insane! You could see the wind rippling
miles of grass fields below and plenty of mountains in the distance. There were some kids playing hide-and-seek
around the ruins which was fun to watch.
Cris spent most of her time hugging rocks and talking about the floor
plan and what probably occurred in each room.
I listened very well and never rolled my eyes, I also picked up the
biggest rock over my head.
Crazily enough this still wasn’t the end of the day. It’s daylight for almost 19 hours a day so we
wear out before the sun does each day.
St. Canice’s Cathedral was up next in the cool little town of
Kilkenny. One cool thing about Ireland is that a lot of the old stuff still is not touristy and you just randomly come across it as you're heading to something in the guidebooks. We were driving along and saw a sign for Brownshill Dolmen which is an gigantic rock leaning on some other rocks that they used for a tomb thousands of years ago. It was just chillin' in the middle of a farmers field so we helped hold it up for a while.
Then we kept going down the road and there was a super old cemetery with a pretty sweet view so we stopped again. We finally made it to St. Canice's Cathedral. It was a super fancy church with a super tall round tower. The
pictures really don’t do the inside of the church justice, the craftsmanship
was amazing. The church is still used so
it was neat to see all the normal things you’d see in a church, but in a
structure that is nearly 800 years old.
Then
we went outside to the round tower where I made clucking noises at Cris until
she told me that there is no way I’d ever be able to get her to go up to the
top. I went up without her. Being 6’6” and broad shouldered isn’t great
for climbing a structure that was built for underfed, ancient monks but I
managed to make it up all 121 steps.
Next up is Smithwick’s brewery (the W is silent of
course). They had a pretty lame
multimedia presentation with moving pictures and whatnot. Then we got to drink 3 beers which were
adequate. The building was cool and they
are super proud of being the oldest brewery in the universe or something.
Finally, we went to a pub for dinner and got to hear some
Trad music. It was super cool. The three guys sat down with their
instruments and then two waiters came up and poured some tea at the same
time. Then the stepped back together,
grabbed cream, and poured it into the tea at the same time. I guess that’s a tradition, but it was only
the start of an amazing performance. The
three guys played guitar, fiddle, and accordion and harmonized vocals at the
same time. That part was amazing, but
then two of them went to go get some Guinness and left the lone fiddler to do
his thing. He closed his eyes and belted
out the most powerful Irish ballad ever and followed it with a fiddle solo
until the others came back with brews.
What a great end to a great day.
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