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.