Day 30...Och the luck of the Irish be with you! - 26th July

Woke up early-ish and had a lovely home baked breakfast with hot fresh scones she was baking that morning, juice, cerial, fruit and bacon & eggs. Oh my!
The B&B's here with Irish hospitality feel unbelievably nice. They feel cosy and safe and homely and just feels right.

After that we headed to Loch Gur which is actually various sites around the place. The stone circle there was wide, but with small stones and pretty uninspiring. We saw a wedge tomb which was thousands of years old. An old lady lived in it for a while in the 1800's. It was almost all collapsed now, but it was pretty cool to see anyway. It faced west, as it is assumed that the ceremonies were done facing the sunset.
The main part of Loch Gur was pretty disappointing as there were landmark excavation sites there but we couldn't see them as they were on private land. There were a few bits of rock in the grass that was supposed to outline huts and stuff but I didn't have the imagination for it. It was set by a huge lake that supported Irish communities for thousands of years. We left pretty quickly though.

On the way to Cashel we stopped at the Athassel priory. It was built in the 1100's and 1200's and was where the monks learned to read and write and stuff - related to the book of Kells in Kells priory. In the 12 and 13th centuries there was a big shake up of the Catholic religion and the monarchy so many ruined priories are from this time. Many monks were re-established elsewhere. Then again in the 16th century the King of Irland got pissed at the Catholics because of his ex-wife the princess of Aragon in Spain so the church got a big shake up again. The ruins were accessed by an off-road then we had to squeeze through an old gate then trudge across a field. I can't believe these amazing ancient sites are just plonked around the country side and no one goes to see them. It was good that way though, coz apart from a weird hippie couple, we were the only ones there. that was you can really take in the silence and the time of the place. The ruins were huge- its the largest in Ireland apparently. There were still some carvings and a statue of a lady and child and it was all so beautiful! At one p oint Nathan heard either rats or bats squeaking in the rocks. Eeew! Or maybe it was daemons as I had them following me after my naked stone circle run! haha. But I couldn't believe i was looking at something so old, and that men used to wander the stone stairs with their candles and hushed prayers.

We then headed into the town of Cashel. The Rock of Cashel is the site of 3 abbeys, starting from the 1100's and ruined as well. This place was crawling with busloads of tourists, so I appreciated the Athassel priory even more! The rock was high on a rocky outcrop overlooking the fields and towns. It was very impressive. It was hard to get a good shot with all the busloads of tourists. I lined up a few but then some guy would enter stage left and scratch his balls and stand there for a while. There were old gravesites around the priory and the priory itself had unreadable tombstones from the 1200's. I couldn't get over how high the roof was at some points!

We also went down the hill to Hoare Abbey which we could see from the Rock of Cashel. It was also from the 1100 and 1200's as well. There were so many so close together. But when you think of the time back then, there was no law and order really and religion was a close to law and politics as you could get. It ruled the world. The ruins were in a paddock full of cows and there were good shots from this abbey up to the Rock of Cashel. Unfortunately the best angle had the side where the Rock had some scaffoldign for renovations on it! We heard some more rats/bats/daemons in the rock and I took forever to get a shot of a pigeon flying in and out. I had Nate throw rocks at it.

We were running out of time so we dashed off to the Mitchelstown caves which weren't actually at Mitchelstown at all but on the way there. We ended up being in time for the last tour at 5pm. Lucky lucky! It was taken by a young Irish girl (whose grandma was prolly the one who took our tickets and the family owned the site or something) and she took us hundreds of metres underground but it felt like only a few flights of stairs. The stairs were very steep mind you, with rocky ceiling that you could bump your head on. She had a wicked Irish accent that it was hard to pick up her weird phrasing and things (they kind of say things backwards like Yoda and ask a negative double question). She said things like 'towsand' for thousand and stuff. THe caves themselves were beautiful. She showed us marks where the ancient river had pushed and whirpooled against the rock. It was kinda easy to imagine a massive underground river swirling and pushing and whirlpooling. But the "millions of years ago" part of it was hard to grasp!

I was feeling pretty rough at the end of the day with a hormonal migraine threatening to brew, so Nathan drove us to Kilkenny while I slept. Kilkenny was a beautiful little town! The best one we've seen in Ireland. It was a largish town by Irish standards with a massive castle and cathedral in the centre. It still kept its old world charm however, with old coloured buildings hugging each other along a little river. It had a nice clean feel to it too. We found a cute little B&B on the river un by a few old Irish ladies. I self-medicated and felt alot better after my sleep so we wandered through the town to the local Internet cafe and then to a few pubs for dinner and drinks. Nathan drank some Kilkenny, although its not called Kilkenny in Kilkenny. It starts with an S and I can't remember it at the moment. At one pub there was some live music so we drank there then walked home to bed.