Medieval Frivolity

 After speaking with family back home we then walked into the village to visit the Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. As we walked down the hill we got that feeling that one gets sometimes- we might be overdoing this as after we have walked around the approx. 30 acres park we have to walk back up this bloody hill.

The park is a living reconstruction of the homes and environment of Ireland over a century ago. Rural farmhouses, a village street complete with shops and Bunratty House with its gardens recreated as they would have appeared at the time.

The significant building however is the Bunratty Castle built circa 1425 and which was the stronghold of the Earls of Thomond. It consists of a central block of three floors with four towers, one on each corner, each tower having 6 stories.

After the 600 years of its existence it remains in very good condition 

We have seen and clambered through numerous castles however this one would be one of the nicest that we have visited 

The castle with a pub as a neighbour

Bunratty village which is across the road from the castle 

Looking down on the village from one of the towers 

After completing a tour of the park we started back to the apartment and surprised ourselves that what we dreaded didn’t actually kill us as we did the hill walk only about 7 minutes slower than the time it took to go down.

Relaxed in the sunny and hot lounge watching some of the hurling final before early evening driving back to the Castle to enjoy a “medieval banquet” in the Great Hall it being a generous Christmas gift (thanks Jodi) 

There were around 130 folk at the banquet which began with gathering in the Grand Hall where we were all greeted by the MC offered a glass of mead and a couple were called out to be the Royal hosts for the evening.

We all then moved down the 35 stairs to the banquet hall where the meal was served - first course parsnip and vegetable soup, second course spare ribs, third course chicken and vegetables and finally a desert dish - all eaten with a dagger and your fingers.

During and after the meal the serving staff performed various musical items accompanied by clapping and table slapping by the guests

A different but enjoyable night out shared at our table amongst others with an Irish couple on an anniversary celebration and also an Australian couple on a lengthy holiday.

Congratulations also to Ryan Fox on the most significant win of his career

Home away from home

 The registration plate in Ireland gives some information regarding the vehicle.

The pattern is XXX-XX-XXXXX where the first 3 are numbers that signify when the car was registered with the 3rd of those numbers being either a 1 or 2.

The next 2 are letters, may only be 1 letter, which signify which county or main area the car was registered in and the last 5 are numbers telling you where in the sequence of car registrations the car was registered.

Our vehicle bears plate 261-D-28607 so it can be interpreted as the 28607th vehicle registered in Dublin in the first half of 2026. If it was 262 it would be in the 2nd half of 2026.

Since arriving in Ireland we have:

• Not drawn any cash from an ATM everything being paid off the card
• Not paid any surcharge for using a card
• Not had any service fee added to a restaurant purchase unlike in London

Today we drove the short distance from Bunratty to Limerick, it being the 2nd largest city we have visited, Dublin being the largest.

In reality it was not much more than a bustling commercial environment with a Cathedral and a Castle on the banks of the Shannon river - a slight undersell perhaps as there was also a few museums, a thriving market area and some engaging folk especially the waiter at the restaurant we chose for lunch

Mid afternoon we returned to Bunratty and spent some time in the village which attracts large numbers because of the proximity of Bunratty Castle. In the area of the Castle there are 3 restaurants, 3 or 4 food carts and 2 retail shops selling quite high quality souvenirs, clothing and products from the Bunratty Woollen mills.

The temperature has been down a few degrees today which has made it slightly more bearable or some would say less than warm if in the wind on the shaded side of the streets.

Our accommodation is about 1.6kms from the village on an elevated area (not called Hill Rd for nothing), is framed as “Home away from home” and provides all that we want or need.

The view from the rear of the property 

Frustration

 Packed up in Killarney this morning so we could move to Bunratty but a few frustrations were placed in front of us.

First the reception at our Killarney apartment wasn’t staffed until 9am, then about 5kms out of Killarney we were caught in a traffic jam and travelled about 800m in around 30 minutes, the jam being caused by one lane of the 2 lane highway being closed due to an event which required 3 fire engines to be in attendance and en route there were a couple more minor traffic delays.

We stopped at Castleisland mid morning and as we walked up the street noticed a few plaques memorialising a local sportswriter, Con Houlihan, who had a way of describing things

another I saw read, “if a man who will misuse an apostrophe he is capable of anything”

We then moved onto Adare, a very busy village as traffic crawls through it en route to Limerick and places beyond. One can only imagine the chaos that will ensure in September next year when the Ryder Cup will be held at the Adare Manor Golf Course which is no more than 400m out of the village

The village also is home to the only Trinitarian monastery known in Ireland, it being constructed in the 12th century.

There are also a row of 1820 thatched cottages along the main road, originally built to house workers on the Dunraven estate

After a reasonably good look through the village we moved onto our accommodation for the next two days in another large rural residence which provides plenty of room and a nice view out over the River Shannon

In our driving around Kerry yesterday and to Bunratty today we have been in Counties Kerry and Limerick and there are flags flying from a lot of houses in both Counties supporting the players who are in the hurling final (Limerick) on Sunday and Gaelic football final (Kerry) next Sunday

Wild it wasn’t: Spectacular it was!

 Outside our apartment is a large mural on the side of the building depicting Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty a local who was responsible for saving the lives in Rome of over 6500 allied POWs and civilians in the 2nd World War

We left around 8am to drive the Ring of Kerry arriving first at the Torc waterfall which is located in the Killarney National Park - as buses are mandated to go in the counter clockwise direction so that two buses don’t meet each other on one of the very narrow roads, private vehicles tend to go clockwise (as we did) so that your view is not the rear of a bus slowly wending its way

If you intend to get around the Ring in a day you can’t spend too much time at each sight or for that matter stop at each recommended sight so we moved on promptly to the Ladies View which was slightly uninspiring given we had just driven on a winding road alongside a lake which was stunning but there was nowhere to stop to take a photo 

Further on after climbing up several hundred metres there was the Moll’s Gap -again slightly uninspiring and that opinion was held by one of the sheep high on the hill overlooking the Gap who had turned his/her back on it!

From there it was downhill to a delightful village, Kenmare, where we stopped both for morning tea in a quaint roadside cafe and a walk to stretch our legs

On we went to our next stop in Sneem, a village which sits on the estuary of the River Sneem. Standing on the bridge entering the town the rocky floor of the river below is interesting 

As we moved further southwest we travelled along the coast road with “grand” (a term heard frequently here) views of the mouth of the Kenmare River as it joined the North Atlantic Ocean and stopped at a viewpoint near Castlecove

and again at Farraniaragh

Then it was on to Waterville for a lunch stop and again good views of the coast and Charlie Chaplin 

The Ring of Kerry then cuts inland though you can continue on the coast road on what is called the Wild Atlantic Way which loops around the Skellig area - as we only had one chance at doing so we took the loop to more spectacular views particularly the Kerry Cliffs where the viewpoint is accessed through private land

Now driving northeast we rejoined the Ring of Kerry just before Cahersiveen - from here to Killorglin the Wild Atlantic Way and The Ring of Kerry are one and the same.

We stopped at Cahersiveen for afternoon tea and witnessed an interesting encounter between a woman and a religious gent whose attire indicated he was a Greek or Russian Orthodox priest. It was obvious she didn’t know him but she insisted she treated him to a drink in the cafe; he reluctantly chose a bottled of water. As by now they were inside the cafe she further insisted that he blessed both herself and the lady running the cafe; he did so without hesitation. She then got her phone out, rang her sister, handed him the phone and asked that he speaks to and blesses her sister; he had no hesitation in taking the phone and did so. Then her friend came into the cafe and sat at a table near where he and her were standing talking and she told her friend to stand and get blessed; no problem there either. The religious gent then took his leave.

What was obvious throughout the interaction was that each person’s faith was immaterial, it was the fact that a “man of God” was in her presence and she was going get as many brownies points for herself and others as she could, all done with great respect.

We had one more stop before heading back to Killarney, Rossbeigh Beach, a 2km detour off the route. The parking area was very full so it is obviously a beach well frequented but while we would swim there on a very hot day to cool off if necessary the rocks and pebble shore is not what we are used to.

We then returned to Killarney arriving back almost 9 hours and 212 kms after we left this morning.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day with some quite stunning Irish inland and coastal views - well worth making the effort!

Upstairs Downstairs

A staggering statistic on the news yesterday was that over 2700 folk have died in June and July and their deaths have been attributed to the recent heatwaves across Europe and the UK.

We continue to enjoy very warm conditions and have concluded that a lot of the clothes we have brought from home will sit unworn in the suitcases as all we need is light clothing but the preponderance of what we brought over is anything but e.g. a winter scarf for God’s sake!

Last evening we tried a boxty for dinner, which is said to be a traditional Irish meal - nice but not spectacular

 Washing of clothes was a priority this morning so after getting the washing machine fired up we went down town to a supermarket, in fact 2 supermarkets Tesco & Dunnes to stock up and then to a cafe for a coffee before returning to the apartment, which sits at the top of High Street (the Main Street in town), and  getting the now washed clothes onto a drying rack.

It was then down to the basement and we got the Sportage out of its kennel and drove about 6kms out of the city to the Killarney National Park at Muckross.

The park is over 25,000 acres and the area we were in was very well populated as there were cars etc. filling most available spaces and the cafe/restaurant was doing a great trade as it was just on lunchtime.

After lunch we visited Muckross House, a grand residence completed in 1843 for the Herbert family who hosted Queen Victoria at the property in 1861, however by the end of the 19th century the Herbert family was bankrupt and the estate was purchased by a member of the Guinness brewing family. In 1911 it was sold to a wealthy American family who gave it as a wedding present to their daughter but after the daughter died in 1929 the desire to own the property waned and her husband presented it to the Irish Nation.

If you can visualise Downton Abbey or Bridgeton House you will also be seeing Muckross House

The tour through the house gave us a view of approximately 25 rooms

We then walked the 1.5kms through the estate to the ruins of the Abbey, a Franciscan friary founded in 1448. While it is roofless the majority of the walls are still intact.

We then walked back to the House area and visited the “Traditional Farm” but soon realised that we had paid good money to walk 2kms on a country road so when the complimentary mini bus came passed we jumped on board and got taken back to the entrance and we then took our leave of Muckross.

Tomorrow we are driving one of the iconic road trips of Europe - the Ring of Kerry, a 179km circuit from Killarney.