We went to Bunratty Castle on our way to Galway.
It is a whole large property that one can wander and see how people lived back in the day, all the farm houses, stables, Barns, Sheds, Churches everything was on that large property. We came to early in the year to REALLY enjoy it all but we still wandered aroun quite a bit and by wandered I mean it- we ALL got separated from one another during that outing.
Here is a Thatched roof farm hands house.
Matt is showing us all how to deal with a giant Cannon...make sure to put your head right next to the big hole.
Sitting in the masters chair! Fancy stuff.
Those Antlers are from the extinct Irish Elk. 9 feet across they were huge! They are believed to be extinct due to the last Ice Age in Ireland and they found these antlers in Irelands Bogs, which are perfect for preserving bones. Farmers find things when plowing their fields where a dried up bog used to be.
The Bunratty Castle was finished to the 15th century and showed how rooms may have been furnished.
This was the master bedroom. If you notice, the bed is short and not very wide... why you ask? I'll tell you! First of all people back in the day were not very tall or big due to lack of nutrition, smoke inhalation AND the fact that the big guys always went first into battle to intimidate their opponent, but of course they died in Battle so not many Tall genes were floating around. Also they associated lying flat with death, or to be lying with the devil so they propped pillows up and slept sitting up. Also the smoke from the fire (they used Peat which burns really smoky, only super rich could afford coal or even better wood which forestry is not commonly seen) so sitting up helped them breath better than lying down. A lot of them had a ton of respiratory problems due to such terrible living conditions.
I liked the ceiling in this room. The people who owned the Castle before turning it over to Ireland decorated this room in the 1960's notice the modern painting on the left and straight ahead.
Resting our weary legs
Bunratty!
Before St. Patrick introduced Christianity to the Irish people, they believed in the fertility God. They believed the Chieftain of the Clan was married to the Land, if the crops weren't good or the weather was especially bad they viewed it as a bad marriage so they would kill that chieftain and get a new one. This is the symbol for fertility of the land.
Bunratty Castle from the back side.
Matt was always looking for Knights Armor or swords or a helmet or something. We did come home with a teeny version but every time he saw a suit of armor he was excited. (Referring to my previous remarks, Matt would never fit into any armor from back in the day he's about a foot taller than the average knight back in the day)
The Tapestries inside the Castle were AMAZING. I wish I could see them back in the day when the colors were still vibrant!
The wood carvings were so intricate and beautiful too. I wonder how long something like this took to make!
The little church part of the Castle.
We walked around the grounds for a bit... here is Mr. Piggy! There was a ton of livestock around the country, sheep, cows, pigs, goats...
Look a real life HAYSTACK! I cant remember ever seeing on before so I had to photograph it.
Check it out! An ELK in Ireland! They had 2 dear and this big guy caged up... he was just munching away staring at me, it was a little creepy.
We went over to the Blarney Mills Shop and bought a few things. My Dad kept trying on random things, this was a favorite.
Doesn't he look like a Newsie? I thought he was so adorable in that get up... Halloween next year we'll get him the whole ensemble.
So the food there was good! It was a LOT of deep fried stuff, a lot of panini's fish and chips or Chicken Strips and Chips (french fries) Matt and my Dad really enjoyed all the different sandwiches.
The next day we went on a Galway Bus Tour. It was great! We stopped off at this old Church/Cemetary.
Crazy thing is, people are still buried there to this day... some tombstones say 1754 then right next to it you'd see one that said 2004. Crazy!
This is the Burren. It's insane amounts of rock, all limestone.
This is the Poulnabrone Dolmen Tomb, it's a SUPER SUPER old (were talking 1700BC) tomb where in 1985 they excavated around it while the fixed one of the stones that was cracked. They found 22 adults and 6 children buried under and around it. The stone on the top was 1.6 tons or something like that. Pretty cool to see something so ancient!
What? The top of Bunratty Castle? I have all my pictures mixed up! (Again, I don't really care to put them back in order)
Tomb again-super cold.
While driving our bus driver said, "Oh no it's an Irish Traffic Jam!" (Cows in the road, funny)
We stopped off at a Church, right after a funeral just got over to see the oldest Celtic crosses from the 12th century.
We stopped for lunch at a pub called O'Connors (what else would it be called, O something of course.) Right next to it was a Chocolate shop. We went right over after we finished eating. Matt is holding our haul of treats.
The best choice we made was the Carmel Crunch, it was a shortbread-ish crust with a layer of Carmel and a layer of Chocolate.. MmmMmmMMMM i'll take another right now!
We went out to the Cliff of Moher on the tour, it was unbelievably windy... so windy I could lean back into the wind and stay up. I was laughing the entire time I couldn't believe it.
So windy so rainy!
We went to the other side of the cliffs and wala, the rain stopped and so did the wind... it was GORGEOUS!
We also stopped off and saw this Ring Fort, it was basically 2 rings smaller on the outside bigger on the inside. These date bake to BC times and are now commonly called Fairy Forts. Irish folk used to believe strongly in Fairies and Leprechauns and still tell stories and believe in luck being associated with them. We heard a lot of folklore about them.
More Tomb pictures...
Look a big rock!
This Castles story was pretty cool. It was originally built and owned by the O'Brien clan, in the 15th century it was taken over by the English and Mrs. O'Brien went to the English and begged to keep her family intact and her home since they killed her husband. They said she could continue to live there only if she married an Englishman. She did marry an English man. Then when the English rule subsided she brought her husband up to the roof and pushed him off, the same way they killed her first husband. BUT a women still couldn't own property, she had to take a husband. There was also a law that you had to be married at least a year then after that you could divorce. So in order to keep her Castle she married 24 times, each time getting a divorce on day 1 year and 1 day. Men kept marrying her with the chance of staying with her and thus owning a castle and all her lands.
Cliffs of Moher (also known as the Cliff's of Insanity from The Princess Bride AND as seen in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince)
On the way back we stopped off at some mini cliffs.
Matt tried to get as close to the edge as possible of course...
Irish landscape near the Atlantic. How they grew grass is they had to plow ALL the rocks (thus building all those rock walls) then go down to the shore and get algae and sand to mix in with what little dirt was left, (the land was mostly rock to begin with) and wait for grass to grow in the more fertile ground. I can't even imagine doing that with out a huge dump truck and an industrial plow. I must have taken years to get the land to grazing quality.
Snoozing on the bus.
The view of a lovely tower Castle. There are somewhere between 2500 to 3500 towers in Ireland so we would be driving along and see them EVERYWHERE. It was amazing.
That's the end of my Ireland posts. The visit was awesome, the scenery was fantastic and Matt and I had a wonderful time! My only suggestion to others visiting would be to wait until July or so to visit when the weather is better. That being said we were totally prepared and it didn't really bother us much at all. My Mom and Dad spoiled us and wen enjoyed accompanying them on this trip. My Dad liked it so much I am going to go out on a limb and guess that (in about 15 years) they'll be called on a mission there! HA!
