Today was a pretty unplanned day. The tour I had booked was canceled1, so I was on my own with nothing scheduled. I slept in a bit, had a nice breakfast at Kilronan House, and then walked down to the big tourist information office on Suffolk Street to see if there was an interesting walking tour I could take.
It was pretty grey when I left the B&B, but the sky was nice and blue by the time I made it down to Grafton Street. I got overly optimistic at that point, and decided it was going to be another beautiful day.
At the tourist office, I found a flyer for the 1916 Easter Uprising Walking Tour. That looked interesting, so I decided that would be my morning. The tour started at 11:30, so I had about an hour to kill, which I spent wandering the streets.
The tour guide turned out to be the same fellow who conducted the first guided tour I took in Ireland last trip. I told him that, and he said, “Yeah, I moved on from there. No promotion, and I was looking for something better. I was there five years; longer than some of the prisoners’ sentences.”
The original parliament house of Ireland. Voted itself out of existence in 1801 when it voted to become part of the United Kingdom. To remove it as a symbol for the Republicans, the British government sold it off to the Bank of Ireland, on the condition that the bank eliminate any trace of the building’s former function. The bank defied that, preserving the House of Lords, and keeping it open for the public.
1801 was the first time that Ireland was officially governed by England, and it spurred a lot of Republican sentiment. The trail leading up to the 1916 Easter Uprising was a tangled mess involving promises, scandal, lies, dirty tricks, compromise, conspiracy, and the co-opting of different groups and movements on both sides of the issue.
The actual uprising was poorly organized and rushed, with sixty men riding the tram in from Cork armed to the teeth, paying for their tickets as a matter of principle. Noon on the Easter Monday, they stormed the GPO and set up their command centre.
Trinity College was the staging ground for the British troops. The roof was set up with snipers from the ANZACs. One of the best was on the top of the tower you can see in the upper right corner.The ANZAC sniper was engaged in a one-on-one battle with an Irish Volunteer sniper on the second green dome you see in the picture. They apparently ignored pretty much everything else and just worked on killing each other. They both survived, and the ANZAC brought the Volunteer sniper tea and biscuits “For auld lang syne.” They had tea together, discussing technique and experiences in various engagements.It was exam time at Trinity. The central lawn was filled with grazing horses and drilling soldiers, students had to show ID and submit to a search before being allowed to sit the exams. On the second day, they decided to suspend the exams indefinitely.The statue of Daniel O’Connell took a fair number of bullets from the Lewis gun emplacements on the other side of the Liffey. The British had also set up a mortar beside Trinity College. They couldn’t see the GPO, so they aimed “just to the left of Nelson’s Column” which was where the spire stands now.The GPO was the command centre. There’s a statue of Cuchullain in the window that used to be the main door. The mortar was not a very accurate weapon, so most of the entire street was in ruins, especially when the Helga, a British warship, pulled into the harbour and started using it’s heavy guns as artillery.When things started falling apart and burning (not euphemisms), the surviving men tried to make a run out the side of the GPO onto Henry Street. There was a sniper in a tower down near the docks that had complete coverage of this street, so the survivors had to dash across to Moore Lane. The O’Rahilly, one of the leaders, took a small party onto Moore Street, but that street was covered by a Lewis gun at the end, and they were shredded and pinned down.Moore Lane led from Henry Street in an L-shape and connected to Moore Street. The 350 survivors of the GPO, including Michael Collins, were trapped when they got up to Moore Street.Unable to progress down Moore Street, the survivors started mouse tunnelling, blasting through the walls of these houses to move down towards the hospital at the top of Moore Street.The sign is not from the period, but the Plunket sign marks Joseph Plunket’s house, where the surviving leaders of the rebellion held their final war council and made their surrender.
The O’Rahilly, who led the advance party to try and clear Moore Street, was shot several times, and crawled into a pub’s doorway, where he slowly died over 19 hours. A local man tried to go to O’Rahilly’s aid, but the British commander ordered the Lewis gun to fire at his feet to chase him away. When some British troopers protested that they had to help O’Rahilly and not leave him to bleed to death painfully on the street, they were ordered to make sure no one did anything to help the man.
As he died, he wrote a letter to his wife, which was found by a sympathetic British trooper, and hand delivered to Nancy O’Rahilly after the uprising. It’s reproduced, including the handwriting, on a plaque near the place he died.This made our guide a little grumpy. The plaques here show the seven signatories of the Easter Proclamation, the document that first declared the Irish Republic. They’re attached to the gates of a car park with nothing to direct people there.Not far from where this happened, at the top of Parnell Street (which used to be Great Britain Street), there is the Garden of Remembrance. It’s there as a memorial for all who died in defence of Ireland, in whatever conflict.The reflecting pool is cross-shaped to honour Christianity. The mosaic in the pool honours the pre-Christian heritage of the island, showing Celtic weapons tossed down in honour of fallen warriors. There are numerous benches here, and it’s a popular picnic spot.The statue at the end of the garden is the Children of Lir. These are from a story of children turned into swans for 900 years, and finally returned to humanity. It’s meant to represent the emergence of a peaceful nation from 900 years of conflict.
That’s where the tour ended. I wandered back down O’Connell Street, stopped for some lunch, and came out to find that it was raining. Across the street was a theatre, so I went in to watch After Earth2. It was still raining when I came out, so I walked back to the B&B, stopping along the way to grab some sausage rolls and stuff for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow morning.
Yeah, tomorrow is my tour out to Blarney, Cork, and Cashel. It leaves at 6:50 from the tourist office on Suffolk Street, so I’ll have to leave the B&B by 6:15, well before breakfast is served. So, yeah, that means some picnic stuff.
Thanks to the rain, though, I was able to get a picture of the statue of Wolfe Tone at St. Stephen’s Green without a whole bunch of people around it.
Bed time now.
The let me know well in advance, so I appreciate that. [↩]
It’s got some good moments, but the movie is mainly full of dumb. [↩]
Up early this morning for another tour, this one of Trim Castle, Glendalough, and Lough Tay. It started raining last night, and continued through much of the day. Sometimes the rain faded back for a bit, and once or twice it picked up a fair bit, but the day was very like a lot of days on my last trip.
I am very impressed with our tour guide, Damien O’Reilly. He was very good at imparting the information of the tour in an entertaining manner, but that was the least of the good things about him. He was excellent at putting things in context, and forming connections between historical and modern events, and generally giving us a bit of understanding about where Ireland is and how it got there. I found it fascinating.
The early part of the tour went north of Dublin, to Trim Castle. There were only five people on the bus, so it felt like a private tour, and that was great. We picked up more in the afternoon, for the Glendalough part of the tour, but Damien was great at making everyone in the larger crowd feel included, as well.
Trim Castle was one of two castles used in the filming of Braveheart. It was the stand-in for York, and the grounds were used for London in the execution scene.There were donkeys in a nearby field. Apparently, there’s a donkey sanctuary nearby.Damien was kind enough to take a picture of me at Trim.The gatehouse led into the town, and contained the dungeon. It even had an oubliette.The keep is unusual – it’s a square central building, with four (now three) smaller square towers, one attached to each central face. The northern tower, thought to have contained the food stores, has collapsed.The outside of the barbican was spruced up to be the gates of York in Braveheart.Inside the barbican, you can see where wooden floors have long since rotted away.The river gate opens onto the banks of the Boyne River. The lower sections, where the gate out was, are mostly buried.Most of the floors are gone inside the castle. A few have been replaced, and some walkways built.The original great hall on the entry level has models of the castle in each of its three phases of construction. The models are white, because the castle was originally finished with plaster and whitewash.As is true of almost every castle I’ve been in, the stairs are narrow, uneven spirals.This was the solar. At least, during the middle stage of construction, before the third floor was added.The little cubbyhole in the chapel wall had a little depression in it that filled with rainwater from the water collection system of the castle. The water would be blessed, and any leftover would be let out a drain in the bottom to return to the earth.Up on the roof, there’s a great view of everything. This is the town gate from the roof.From the roof, you can see a bridge across the Boyne and the Yellow Steeple, one of the tallest surviving medieval structures. To the left of that is a house where Jonathan Swift used to live.The Sheep Gate is the last surviving gate into the walled city of Trim.One of the river god statues so prevalent in the southeast of Ireland. This is the Boyne.A bog-oak statue called Hunger for Knowledge. It features the salmon of knowledge, and is carved with various mathematical and scientific formulae. Obviously a modern work, but very cool.
After Trim Castle, we went back through Dublin, picked up the folks who had just signed up for the Glendalough leg of the tour, and then headed out south of the city into the Wicklow Mountains.
Glendalough had a thriving monastic community from about the 6th century up to the 13th century. These are the gates leading into the monastic city.Just inside the gates is a stone inscribed with a cross. This is the Sanctuary Stone. In medieval times, if you were in trouble, and you could get to the monastery and touch the stone, you were granted sanctuary for up to 90 days.There are a number of Celtic crosses in the cemetery. This Victorian one is particularly nice.The main feature of the surviving monastic structures is the 10th century round tower.This cemetery, like many in Ireland, contains a lot of yew trees. These were planted here because they are toxic to wildlife, and it kept the shallow graves from being dug up by scavengers. There are few other yew trees in the country – they were depleted by the Anglo-Normans who wanted them for longbows.This church was built around the 10th or 11th century. The windowsill on this wall served as the altar.This stone was probably used as a mortar by the pre-Christians who lived in this area before the arrival of St. Kevin. Such a stone would be used primarily for grinding herbs for medicine by the holy men/women of the clan. It was taken to be the cornerstone of the new church here.This is the view of the Glendalough site from across the little river, as I start up the trail towards the two loughs.The valley runs a long way down. The name Glendalough means Valley of Two Lakes.I’m walking the other direction up the valley towards the loughs. There are a few houses on the far side of the valley, despite the fact that this area can get isolated pretty quickly by either snow or flooding.The trail up the valley is very picturesque, with the occasional whitethorn tree.The bus was waiting for us between the first and second loughs. By the time I got there, it was raining hard enough that I didn’t walk up to the upper lough.
Damien took us one other place, though he was worried that the clouds and rain would keep us from seeing what he wanted to show us. He needn’t have worried.
Lough Tay is owned by the Guinness family. As a wedding present for one of the women marrying into the family, they bought an estate at the edge of this lough, and imported sand to make the dark lough water look like a pint of Guinness with a head.This is the Guinness estate. You can kind of see the house in the trees. Apparently, a movie company is getting ready to film something in the area – there were signs of construction down by the edge of the lough.The cloudy day had some benefits. The clouds trailing down the side of the mountain were pretty cool.
Then it was back to Dublin. I wandered around Grafton Street and O’Connell Street for a while, having some dinner and trying to decide if I still had the energy to go hear some music or something, and decided that I didn’t, so I came back to the guest house.
Tomorrow, my tour has been canceled. What I do instead is going to depend on the weather. If it’s dry, there are a couple of walking tours I can take. If it’s raining, I can hit some museums or maybe a movie. Either way, I’ll find something to do.
But first, I’m gonna sleep in a bit. Probably until 8:00. That’ll be nice.
My initial plan was the catch the 8:28 train from Kilkenny to Dublin, but it occurred to me that this initial plan involved me getting to Dublin four hours before I could check in to Kilronan house. So, I decided to sleep in a bit, have a leisurely breakfast, and take the 11:41 train.
The weather turned this morning in Kilkenny. The sky clouded over, and the temperature dropped. I have to say, I found the coolness very welcome after the last couple of days.
Train travel in Ireland is very nice. The coaches are large, the seats are comfortable, there’s wifi on the train, and it’s just a very relaxing way to travel. What it isn’t is punctual. I don’t think I’ve been on a train that arrived or left on time. They’re never very late – only train that was more than ten minutes late was the one that broke down before leaving the station.
So, I got in to Heuston Station around 1:201, got a cab in to Kilronan House, and checked in a  few minutes before 2:00.
I’ve got a nice, comfy little room at the top of the house. There’s a lot of steps – 59 of them – plus five more up from my bedroom to the bathroom. It’s a great room, but I’m gonna hate those steps by the time I leave on Sunday.
I dropped my luggage in my room, cleaned up a bit, then went waling for a few hours. My goal was to get a little exercise, scope out where I have to meet the tours I’ve got scheduled, and refamiliarize myself with the city centre.
I made it back to Grafton Street. It was very busy – the weather in Dublin was nicer than it had been in Kilkenny, and everyone was taking advantage of it.Among the buskers and performers, there was one man doing these sand sculptures of dogs. Beautiful work.I wandered across the street into St. Stephen’s Green under the Fusilier’s Arch. The park was packed with people today. Again, nice weather that everyone was taking advantage of.Another picture of the Three Fates fountain for Sandy.The Famine Memorial at one of the entrances to the park. On the other side is the Wolfe Tone statue – it was crowded with skateboarders, so I didn’t get a picture. Next time.The central lawn of the park. Nice flower beds, a couple of fountains, and people everywhere. I am astonished that I got so few of them in the picture.
Last time, I got a picture of swans in the water here. This time, there were one or two ducks, and they were being crowded out by the dozens of gulls in the park.
Anyway, I grabbed some food, and came back to my room, up the 59 steps, and am going to bed soon. I’ve got to be up before 7:00 in the morning to make it to my tour on time.
According to the Triads, the three darkest places in Ireland are Knowth Tomb, Newgrange, and Dearc Fheanna – Dunmore Caves. Until relatively recently1, Dunmore Caves were the only known cave system in Ireland. Some 3500 years ago, a field in what is now Co. Kilkenny collapsed, opening up the system. According to archaeologists, it looks as if it may have been used by local people as a sort of refrigerator – there was evidence of animals being butchered near the entrance, and stored deeper in the caves, where the temperature holds at 9 C.
But in 928, the Dublin Vikings marched an army into the area as part of their ongoing feud with the Waterford Vikings, and attacked the three hill forts in the area. Once the men were slaughtered, it was found that the women and children had retreated into the nearby cave and hidden. The Vikings built huge fires at the opening of the cave mouth, intending to smoke out the villagers from their hiding spots. The fires filled the caves with smoke, used up all the oxygen, and suffocated the inhabitants.
According to the Annals, a thousand people were killed in the cave. That number seems kind of high, but there’s no way to be sure – over the centuries, many skeletons were removed, many by locals, who carried them to a nearby churchyard and reburied, but also by less altruistic folks. In the 1970s, when a more organized exploration and cataloguing of the cave began, a total of 44 bodies were found hidden in the narrowest, most secret parts of the caves. Most of the bodies were children and women, none of them showing any weapon damage.
Also discovered near the mouth of the cave were some silver coins, two of them struck in York, which city the Dublin Vikings had close ties with. In 1999, a guide in the cave picking up some litter, found a silver bracelet, which led to the discovery of a small treasure trove containing coins, jewelry, and a piece of purple-dyed silk. Dating on the coins show that the trove was hidden about fifty years after the massacre, so there’s a theory that it was a Viking’s sacrifice to the dead.
Anyway. Since the massacre – and the resulting skeleton-filled cave – the cave has had an evil reputation, being scene as a portal to the land of the dead. It was also said to be a gathering place for the fair folk, and the home of Luchtigern, king of the mice, who was slain by the giant Kilkenny cat, Banghaisgidheach2.
The gentleman driving the cab that took me out to the cave and back told me stories of when he and his friends would bike out to the cave after school to go crawling through it before all the safety measures and interpretive centre were put in place. Doolin Cave and Marble Arch Cave are bigger, but Dunmore Cave has a more interesting history.
So, yeah. Guess where I went this morning.
The top of the shakehole that leads to the entrance of Dunmore Cave.Starting to head down. There are, of course, many steps.
All the cave staff seem totally pumped to tell you how many steps you’ll have to climb – 152 to climb out of Marble Arch Cave, 125 to climb out of Doolin Cave, 706 steps in total (up and down) in Dunmore Cave. I’d think it was a friendly warning, but they always seem smug about it.
Without the little roof, there, you can see how this would look a little sinister. Especially with a large number of skeletons littering the caves.Quoting the guide, here. “Now, about a hundred years ago, this was a very nice stalactite. So nice that one gentleman decided he should put it in his garden. He was a clever man, so he was scientific about how he went about retrieving it: he used dynamite. And it dropped from the ceiling and shattered. So, he destroyed in less than five minutes something that took over a million years to build.” Yay for Victorian “scientists.”This is the Fairy Floor. Locals say that it is kept swept clean by the fair folk so they can dance here.This stalactite is called the Buffalo. It should reach the stalagmite below it in about 10,000 years, forming a column.There’s lots of great calcite formations in the cave. This flowstone wall is a nice mix of white (pure calcite), red (stained with iron), and black (stained with manganese).A big chunk of the ceiling collapsed here long ago, and more flowstone formations built up on the sheer wall of the rift. “I think,” says our guide, “that some of you maybe are getting a little concerned with how often I’m using the word ‘collapsed.'”They call this formation Casper the Friendly Ghost. It’s fairly young, only about a foot and a half tall, and very pure calcite, resulting in it’s pure white, almost glowing appearance.This is the Town Hall, the largest easily accessible chamber in the cave. Also, the highest. It’s big, with big formations.Central to the Town Hall is a 6m tall stalagmite they call the Market Cross. Some say it looks like a cross, but the guide said – and I agree – it looks more like a hand holding a pint of Guinness.
So, I dragged myself up out of the cave, called a taxi, and made my way back to Kilkenny city. I grabbed a hot dog3 and coke near the castle, and sat in the shade to eat my lunch and let the time get closer to 2:00.
That was the time St. Canice’s Cathedral opened to the public on Sundays.
My first view of St. Canice’s Cathedral, looking up the twisty lane and stairs at the end of High Street.Whoever made the stairs leading up this alley really, really hated skateboarders. Those spikes are about two inches long.Looking at the cathedral from outside the wall.The original main entry of the cathedral.The round tower beside the cathedral goes up about a hundred feet. From it, the highest tower on the highest hill in Kilkenny, you get an unequaled view of the city. But that was just way too many steps for me today, considering doing the cave and the heat of the day. Besides, it leans.The interior of St. Canice’s Cathedral.Baptismal font from the 13th century.This inscribed slab was found near Kyteler’s Inn, home of the famous witch Dame Alice Kyteler.The altar and rosary window of the cathedral.Bishop Richard de Lededre, who was infamously involved in Kyteler witch case, is buried here.There are several tombs for members of the Butler family, who held the Kilkenny Castle, in the cathedral.Most of the Butler monuments are in the western transept.The organ, unusually, is on the main floor, not in a loft, and right beside the pulpit.The little parish chapel off the eastern transept is the oldest part of the cathedral.St. Keiran’s Chair, still used as the coronation seat for anointing the Bishops of Ossory.
By that time, it was about 4:00, which meant it was a little too late for me to take a trip out to Kells Priory. I guess I’ll have to save that for my next trip. I went and had a shower, cleaned up, and went to dinner at Kyteler’s again.
Tomorrow, I leave Kilkenny for Dublin. I have to say that Kilkenny has been the best surprise of my trip. I hadn’t expected so much cool stuff to see and do here, and such a laid-back, friendly attitude. I need to come back.
But Dublin next. I love Dublin.
I’ve had a couple of changes to my plans in Dublin over the last few days – one good change, one less good change. The less good change is that my tour for Tara and Newgrange on Wednesday has been canceled. Apparently, I was the only one who signed up, and that makes me sad. I’m sure I can find something fun to do instead on Wednesday.
The good change is that my brother, my sister-in-law, my nephew, and my niece have decided to come to Ireland to see my sister-in-law’s grandmother. We’re going to meet up in Dublin and do some sightseeing together. And that’ll definitely be fun.
But tomorrow is all about the train.
Well, until 1895, when the Marble Arch Cave was officially discovered and explored. [↩]
I don’t know if it’s a universally Irish thing, or just the way this stand does thing, but the hot dog didn’t have a wiener in it. Instead, it had a pork sausage. Tasty, if unexpected. [↩]
Wow. It was hot today. Looking at a local weather site, it seems this was the hottest day of the year so far. I’ve been regretting I didn’t pack any shorts1. I spent the day walking all over the city until I was about ready to drop, then finding a place to sit for a cool drink. Then doing it again.
The hills don’t help, either.
But I have to say that Kilkenny is an amazing city. There’s a lot of very interesting history here, and most of it is crammed into a fairly small space, making it easily2 walkable. My plan was to see how the walking tour this morning went, and then if there wasn’t much more in the city I wanted to see, I would take a trip to Dunmore Cave or Kells Priory, but there was just too much stuff in the city I wanted a closer, longer look at.
So, what did I do today? I started things with breakfast. Breakfast at Butler house is a bit of a productions.
You come out the back of Butler house……through the gardens and past the pool…
… past the sculpture and through a little gate in the wall……through the courtyard……and into the rear door of the Kilkenny Design Centre. Upstairs is a very nice restaurant that makes an absolutely stellar breakfast.
See, Butler House is named after the Butler family, hereditary Earls of Ormond. They held Kilkenny Castle, and built the buildings that are now the Design Centre and Butler House. So there’s an arrangement between Butler House and the Design Centre for providing breakfast.
After breakfast, I wandered down to the Shee Alms House, which is the tourist information office, to join up with my walking tour.
This was the house of Robert Shee, who decided he needed to rack up some good karma as he got older. He donated his house and a fund to keep 12 penniless people of the city fed, sheltered, and given medical care. Sexes were segregated, mass was obligatory, and everyone had to be on their best behaviour. In his will, he four times mentioned a curse that would fall on the family if this house was not kept as a charitable institution. It was sold once, but returned to the family within four years, and then sold again. No one knows what became of the last of the family.This is the back of the Shee Alms House. You’ll notice that it’s only one story tall, here, while it’s two stories at the front. That should give you some idea of the hills in Kilkenny.St. Mary’s Church is down a twisty, narrow alley from the Alms House.The churchyard is very overgrown – the church is essentially abandoned. It’s too expensive for the office of public works to take on right now.A lot of the tour was down twisting, narrow medieval streets like this one.Or down little alleys like this one. This is the Butter Slip. Because of the shade here, farmers would store their milk and butter and cheese here during market days.Down one of these little alleys is The Hole in the Wall. It was originally an Elizabethan tavern accessed by going through an actual hole in the city wall. It may have been the first place to use that name, but no one can really say.When it was purchased and restored, great care was taken to change as little as possible from the Elizabethan original construction.The upstairs is now a wine hall. In earlier times, it was frequented by many luminaries, including Arthur Wellsley, the Duke of Wellington. Though he may have come for the prostitutes rather than the drink, given his reputation.
I came back here after wandering around all afternoon and asked for something cool and refreshing. They served me this amazingly delicious and cooling lemongrass ginger fizzy lemonade. It was great, and the folks there were very friendly and welcoming. Also, very cool to be having a drink in an Elizabethan tavern.
The Rothe family, along with the Butlers and the Shees, was one of the wealthy, powerful noble families in Kilkenny. The Rothe House is actually three houses, leading back from the street, and is used now by the local archaeological society.Down one of the side alleys is the original Smithwick’s Brewery. The modern brewery working in Kilkenny no longer brews Smithwick’s – that’s done up in Drogheda. Here, they brew Budweiser. And didn’t our guide look chagrined to admit that.In the middle of the High Street is a statue of Cainneach – St. Canice. The name of the city in Gaelic is Cill Cainneach, which means Canice’s Church. I didn’t make it out to St. Canice’s Cathedral today. I have to try that tomorrow.This is Kyteler’s Inn, where I had dinner both last night and tonight. It’s the home of the last witch burned in Ireland.
So, here’s the story. It’s not very nice. Alice Kyteler was the sheltered daughter of a wealthy moneylender. She inherited this building, and lived in it her whole life. She married four times, poisoning at least her first three husbands with arsenic, and maneuvering the rest of her family to make sure that all her money and possessions would go to her eldest son, William Outlaw. When her fourth husband became ill, he sent for a bishop and accused her of witchcraft.
Alice had money and connections, which allowed her to arrest the bishop when he arrived. She was able to hold him for seventeen days, before the bishop’s own friends managed to win his freedom. Alice, her son William, and her maid Petronella were all accused of witchcraft and other crimes and brought to trial.
Alice managed to escape to England, completely evading her sentence. William paid to have the cathedral re-roofed, a costly endeavour, and was deemed to have repented. Petronella, with no money and no powerful friends, was whipped up the High Street and burned alive.
As I said, it’s not a very nice story. But interesting.
Grace Castle was home of the wealthy and powerful Grace family. “They fell on hard times,” said the guide, “and decided to turn their home into a prison, as you do. Great place to raise kids.” It’s the city courthouse now, and the cells in the basement are filled with non-functional electronic voting machines that the city bought but never managed to get working.This is the last little bit of the original city wall and the last gate. It’s called Blackfriar’s Gate, because of the Dominican monks that used to use it passing in and out from the Black Abbey.This is the Black Abbey. It was seized from the Church by Henry VIII, sacked and used to stable horses by Oliver Cromwell, and generally abused and neglected for years. When it was rebuilt, only about half the stone could be recovered, so it is built in an L shape rather than the usual cross.The Rosary Window of the Black Abbey is famous for its beauty. When Henry VIII was claiming the land, the bishop wanted to take the window back to Rome, but the town refused his (very, very large) offer of money. So, he had an Italian artist draw up plans that would let the window be recreated in Rome, but the artist somehow left the plans behind when he and the bishop fled. This allowed the city of Kilkenny to recreate the window when they restored the Black Abbey.
This was about the end of the tour. Our guide3 did tell us a story about the Cats of Kilkenny. See, folks in Kilkenny are called Cats. This may or may not date back to the time when the city was besieged by Oliver Cromwell. One of the things the locals did to keep themselves amused during the long, boring stretches between the terrifying assaults, was bet on cat fights4 : they’d tie two cats together by their tales and let them go at it.
Now, this was against regulations, so one night an officer wandered by where one of these matches was taking place. To hide things, one of the soldiers drew his sword and slashed the cats’ tails off. When the officer saw the tails, he allegedly thought the cats had eaten each other down to their tails. Hence the little nursery rhyme.
There once were two cats of Kilkenny
Each thought there was one cat too many
So they fought and they fit
And they scratched and they bit
‘Til (excepting their nails
And the tips of their tails)
Instead of two cats there weren’t any!
After the tour, I sat and had a cold drink, then went to check out Kilkenny Castle.
The main gates of Kilkenny Castle. Entry onto the grounds is free, and there were scores of people wandering around looking at stuff or just sitting on the grass when I went in.The courtyard lies between the three remaining wings of the castle.
The Rose Garden adjoining the castle.The central wing overlooking the rose garden. I have a big photograph of that statue hanging over my bed in Butler House.
Photography is not allowed inside the castle. This is understandable, but regrettable, because the restored and reconstructed interior is absolutely amazing. I wish I could have taken a few pictures.
St. Mary’s Cathedral was built in the 1840s. Also going on in Ireland in the 1840s? The famine. Perhaps a little hypocrisy in the Church at the time, spending money on this instead of feeding people.Can’t deny that it’s a beautiful place, even though there’s apparently a lot more restoration work to be done on it.
That was about the end of my endurance today. I went back to my rooms to have a shower and cool off before going back to Kyteler’s Inn for dinner and more music. It was excellent again.
Now, that’s enough blather. I’ve got a busy day tomorrow if I want to see the rest of the things I want to see in Kilkenny.
But seriously, folks. Come visit this city. It’s amazing.
I could buy some here, of course, but I have the unshakeable conviction that would bring on torrential rain. [↩]
I think his name was Colm? Maybe? He was awesome, though. Knew the history cold, and was able to present it well, along with context and opinion. Great tour. [↩]
“There’s two things Kilkenny has been known for through history,” he told us. “Gambling and prostitutes. Thankfully, at least one of those is no longer true.” I love the Irish sense of humour. [↩]
Today was another travel day, so again, not many pictures. I got a nice send-off from Toni and Danny at Larkinley Lodge – seriously, guys, that is THE place to stay in Killarney. Wonderful rooms, great food, and the warmest, friendliest, most helpful hosts you could wish for. Danny even drove me to the train station this morning.
The train ride was suitably boring; the only thing of interest was, after scrambling to get my ticket and onto the connecting train in Dublin, there was a problem with that train’s signals1 and we all had to troop off that train and over to another train, which meant we were delayed about twenty or thirty minutes.
But I made it to Kilkenny and, after one2 wrong turn, I managed to find Butler House, where I’m staying.
The room is huge. Seriously. You could probably fit my living room, dining room, kitchen, and one bedroom in it.Here’s the other angle on that picture of the room. What you can’t see on the right hand side is the big wardrobe and the second bed. Seriously. Huge. And very nice.
After dropping my stuff off, I took the advice of Helen, the lady who checked me in, and wandered up to Kyteler’s Inn for dinner, where they had a music session going.
I am indeed spending more time in pubs this trip, and also hearing more traditional music. These are connected, and that’s a good thing.
There’s a whole story behind Kyteler’s Inn, but I don’t want to ruin it for folks. I’m sure I’ll get a more detailed3 version of the tale on my walking tour tomorrow, and I’ll be sure to share it with you.
Tonight, I’m going to be taking the rest of the evening easy.
Or something. I don’t know. It coulda been signals. [↩]
Well, the sunburn on the arms is not fun, but still not enough to ruin my mood. I got up early today, gave some laundry to Toni here at the B&B1, and went for a nice walk before my tour.
This is the church at the centre of town – the town being Killarney.There are some nice statues in the Killarney town parks, including one of Johnny O’Leary, a renowned accordion player……and of Jesus.
Then I made my way down to the Deros offices to get on my tour of the Dingle Peninsula.
Boo Boo guards the door at the Deros offices. She’s a very nice old dog.
There were apparently more people signed up for the tour than expected, so I wound up on the second bus, leaving about a half-hour later. It was a small bus, with only about a dozen of us, so we got a lot of personal attention, and a more flexible, looser structure to the tour.
Inch Beach is a peninsular beach made by ocean drift, stretching almost all the way across Dingle Bay from the Dingle Peninsula to the Iveragh Peninsula.It’s a pretty impressive stretch of beach, especially with the low tide the way it was today.There’s a neat little cafe at the beach, with the mountains of the Dingle Peninsual rising behind it.On up the coastal road is a little spot called Fahan. It’s got great views of the Dingle Bay cliffs.The cliffs are pretty dramatic.Up the hill a ways from Fahan is a little neolithic farmstead, with stone fences and a surviving beehive hut.The beehive hut is still standing. Some of the other structures are undergoing some restoration.The rough coastline here is near the Blasket Islands.The Blasket Islands are, by some measures, the westernmost part of Europe. They had folks living on them up until 1953 when the last of them left.They are beautiful, rocky, remote islands.The land on the Dingle coast opposite the Blaskets is still pretty rugged.Then it was back down to Dingle town, a very pretty little coastal town.Dingle is a working harbour, mainly with fishing boats.One of the things Dingle is famous for is Fungie the Dolphin, who has lived near the harbour mouth since 1983, and is known to come in and play with swimmers and follow the boats around.There’s actually a store called The Dolphin Shop on the high street, dedicated to Fungie memorabilia.
And then it was back to Killarney, and not being on time to pick up my laundry.
This is my last night in Killarney, and my last night at Larkinley Lodge. Larkinley is a great B&B – Toni and Danny are great hosts, the room is beautiful and comfortable and quiet, and the bed is very comfortable.
But I’m looking forward to moving on to Kilkenny.
Laundry service here is Toni taking the laundry to the laundrette, and me picking it up at the end of the day. Unfortunately, my tour got back late, and the laundrette was closed. I’ll have to pick it up tomorrow morning before I get on the train. [↩]
It was beautiful weather today – sunny, just a few puffy clouds, a bit of a breeze. Seeing as I was spending most of the day outside, this was wonderful. Except, of course, that I forgot to put on any sunscreen. Yep, I got some pretty good sunburn on my arms and a bit on my face.
I was up fairly early because I needed to go down to the Deros Tours to find out which tour I was on today – I had booked both the Gap of Dunloe tour and the Dingle Peninsula tour, but I had lost the e-mail that told me which day was which. So, I had to go down early and find out which tour I was taking.
And then I walked around the High Street for a while, waiting for the tour to start.
The town centre of Killarney is very pretty. Killarney is pretty focused on tourism, and everyone is very friendly.
The time came, and we got on the bus, and went up to Aghadoe to take a look at where we’re going today.
These are the lakes we’re going to be boating on later.The lakes are very beautiful from above.There’s no wonder that Killarney area is a popular tourist destination.
Then we were on to Kate Kearney’s Cottage.
This is the start of the trail up through the Gap of Dunloe. There are a number of men with horses and traps there to drive you through the gap if you don’t want to walk the seven miles through the mountains.So we started up the gap, me and two charming Irish ladies, and the driver.The steep walls lining the gap are studded with limestone outcroppings, looking both forbidding and picturesque.The first and deepest of the lakes in the gap, this is Black Lake.The road crosses and recrosses the chain of tiny lakes and rivers on similar rustic bridges as it switchbacks up the gap.Looking back down the Gap of Dunloe towards Kate Kearney’s Cottage.The last lake in the gap is Serpent Lake, said to the be the place where St. Patrick eliminated the last snake in Ireland.At the top of the gap, looking down the other side into Black Valley. One of the most remote places in Ireland, with about thirty families living there. They just got electricity there in 1976.The road down is a little less steep and far greener than the road up.And the horses get a well-deserved rest at the end of the trail.The bridge to Brandon’s Cottage, where we got to have lunch and board the boats.This tower is the original Lord Brandon’s Cottage. It’s not open to the public, because it’s not safe. But it is cool.This is just an awesome tree.
I don’t have an interesting picture of the current Lord Brandon’s Cottage, simply because it’s not that interesting a building. It’s a little cafeteria, with a lot of picnic tables.
Down at the boats, pulling away from the docks at Lord Brandon’s Cottage.The boats pass through three different lakes and a river as you circle Purple Mountain.
This is Purple Mountain. On our trip, we brought along someone who lives in the valley, who wanted a lift to check on some sheep. Apparently, his family owns a couple thousand scattered over this mountainside.The scenery is just gorgeous.The only channel out of the lake is through Coleman’s Eye, a gap in the rocks about twelve feet wide.The river winds around the mountain.We saw a couple of swans, a couple of eagles, and a few herons along the way. According to the boatman, there would usually be more birds and other wildlife, but several years ago, someone in Waterville imported a bunch of minks to farm. When they inevitably escaped, they started breeding in the Kerry Mountains, and are a real problem for wildlife and sheep.Looking back as we enter the next lake.This bridge can apparently sometimes be underwater if the lakes rise too high, as they can if the rain is high.This bridge, leading into the big lake, doesn’t get covered by water.Inisfallen is an island in the big lake that has the remains of an abbey/university from the sixth century on it. It was, apparently, one of the great centres for learning in Ireland.We dock at Ross Castle, about a mile from the town of Killarney.Ross Castle is a 14th century castle. Ross is the Irish word for promontory, so this is the castle on the promontory.
Then it was back on the bus and back to Killarney. I wandered around for a bit, had a nice dinner at Quinlan’s – a fish place that catches its own fish. I had the special, which was John Dory with chips and salad – I’d never had John Dory, or even heard it, but it was tasty.
Walking back to the B&B, I grabbed a homemade honeycomb caramel ice cream cone. I had a lot of pictures to process at the B&B, many of which were not very good, as taking pictures in the back of a bouncing horse trap is not conducive to getting unblurred pictures.
Now, bedtime. Tomorrow, the tour of the Dingle Peninsula.
Today was a travel day. I was up early to catch the bus to Galway, and then the train to Dublin, another train to Mallow, a third train to Killarney, then a cab to Larkinley Lodge. Now, I found out that Larkinley Lodge was within easy walking distance, but my iPhone had drained its battery while I was reading on the bus and trains, and couldn’t use the GPS to find the place. Now I know how to walk from the Lodge to the station, so that’s fine.
But really what that means is that I don’t have a lot of pictures today. Here are a few little things.
I just realized that I haven’t shown you the inside of McGann’s Pub, except for the musicians. Here’s the actual pub part.This is Larkinley Lodge. Very nice folks here, and a very nice room. Good recommendations for dinner.The room is lovely. The B&B is new-built, and a nice mix of modern and traditional feel to it.
I went for a nice walk around Killarney, found the pub – The Laurels – that they recommended at the B&B, and also found the place to meet for my tour tomorrow.
Today is my last day in Doolin. I took Tony’s advice from yesterday, and didn’t take the Cliff Walk tour. Instead, I slept in a bit, had a leisurely breakfast, and walked by the tourism information office and picked up a walking map of the area. Thus armed, I went for a walk around the area.
The fields around Doolin.The narrow roads leading up in the Doolin hills. Gotta keep an eye out for cars, because there’s really only one lane.Hills and rock fences.Tough walking in the hills, but great views.Looking down on Doolin village.The Aille River runs along Fisher Street in Doolin.Doonagore Castle overlooks the whole valley.You can see it from pretty much anywhere in the region.it’s on private land, so I couldn’t go right up to it. But still. Pretty cool.Looking down on the piers at Doolin. With the watchtower island, and Inisheer in the background.Looking down at Doolin and across Galway Bay at the Connemara coastline.An old stone house, with stone fences, and the Atlantic beyond.Wildflowers everywhere along the roads.Really everywhere.There were neat little streams running through the fields down towards the cliffs.I got a fair way along the cliff walk, but turned back at the sign that said not to use the rest of the trail.A ferry coming in.The cliffs were amazing.Very cool cliffs.
So, after walking about six miles or so through the hills, I realized I probably could have managed the cliff walk tour. But I saw a whole bunch of cool stuff, and had a good time.
It was an overcast day, but warm, with no breeze. Given the high humidity, I was very hot and sweaty after the walk, so I stopped to have lunch and a drink at O’Connor’s pub, then walked back to McGann’s to shower and rest for a bit. Eventually, I went down for supper at McGann’s, and to wait for the music to start. It was going to be an early session, and thus it was sort of empty for the first little bit.
I thought I had good seats at the pub last night. Tonight, I was right beside Geraldine. It was awesome.
I’m working on uploading a short video of one of the tunes. Look for a post about that in the next hour or so.
