Those Oldies But Goodies--Part I

I selected 14 photos to represent the vast history and the interesting architecture of the island of Ireland.  If you have no desire to see someone else's "slide show," I will understand.

Ireland has a rich and ancient history and  we were able to see all kinds of buildings and ruins in our quick week.  I will post just a few here.  Lets start with the oldest.  A neolithic stone circle dating to the bronze age and also known as Druids Circle.  This one is the Stone of Kenmare which is a five minute walk from the center of the town of Kenmare.  There was an honesty box for a small fee to enter, and we were the only ones there on that afternoon which made it most spiritual and enjoyable!  There was a thorn tree hung with prayer ribbons and whatnot, but not so much stuff as to clutter the tree or the peace of the place.

Keeping on the history time-line we visited the burial tombs from the 12th Century.  This one in the photo below found in the area called the Burrens, named after a clan that lived and ruled in the Cork County Area, was haunting.  The Burrens is 260 kilometers of limestone pavements criss-crossing the hillsides.  In the 1640's Cromwells surveyor described it as a "savage land, yielding neither water enough to drown a man, nor tree to hang him,nor soil enough to bury."  The limestone surface we saw dated from 10,000 years ago.  Winters rarely go below 43F in winter and above 59F in summer and thus it has a long and mild growing season with lovely alpine flowers in the cracks in the stone in the spring.  The last photo below is the Poulnabrone portal tomb where human bones had been found.

We also saw the Cliffs of Moher on this region, but I will spare you at least some photos!

More modern in time are the ruins of castles and we saw three in one day.  I wish we could have stayed in one, but it was too rich for my traveling companions and it is always good to leave some reason to return. There are ruins of castles all over Ireland! 

The most famous is, perhaps, Blarney Castle.  The Blarney Stone is believed to be half of The Stone of Scone upon which the Kings of Scotland were crowned and was believed to have come from Jerusalem.  Half the stone is now in Edinburgh, Scotland and the other half in Blarney according to legend.   The owner makes money on these legends, but it seems that no one really knows the real history of the stone.  To kiss the Blarney Stone you have to lean backwards out of the parapet.  While some of my party kissed the stone, I am full of way too much blarney and passed.

The Rock of Cashell has a stunning view of the countryside as well as the ruins of a distant Abbey in the second photo below.   The buildings included in the complex: 12th century round tower, High Cross and Romanesque Chapel, 13th century Gothic cathedral, 15th century Castle and the restored Hall of the Vicars Choral.  You must take the tour as the history is worth it.  You can see in the photo below that they are working to maintain the walls of the chapel which are beginning to erode from moisture.

And then on our trip we saw the more modern buildings such as Christ's Church Cathedral in Dublin where we actually got to ring the bells!!  I had watched an old British mystery on TV which revolved around the bell ringers of a small village church.  I never realized how much strength and balance goes into ringing bells as well as how dangerous it can actually be!  I was totally out of breath by the end of the few minutes I pulled that rope. Three of us rang at one time and we had to remain in sync.  The first one to ring had to get the rhythm and ended up ringing for the longest,  I was the last to join in with the assistance of the "Towerkeeper" and I was certainly out of breath by the end.

And finally Trinity College also in Dublin where the young man, our guide, was both funny and knowledgeable.  It was his last tour as he had graduated and was on to bigger and better things...journalism.  We, of course, saw the Book of Kells and passed by the shelves of the many rare books in that same library.  (Note his "Harry Potter" jacket which all tour guides are required to wear.  It is so old that the black has faded to green.)

It amazes me that these leather bound books are in bright sunlight and even some areas had windows open!  We were told that books were shelved according to size rather than subject!

Well that is a brief review of the structures made of stones.  There is a lot of stone on the island!!