Where we visit Castles and Cahers and Cathedrals (Oh My)
Last time we visited Connemara Park.
The next few days were a bit rainy, so we stayed close to home. Have a listen to morning at the farmhouse. If you turn your sound up loud enough you’ll hear birds, cows, and the neighborhood rooster.
Despite the rain, we decided to take a walk around our local forest. We’re from Seattle; a little rain will refresh the webs between our toes.
That was that for that day, except for the blazing fire and the bit of Jameson whiskey to warm our bones after the walk.
The next day was still cloudy and (a bit) rainy. We decided to stay close to home again, so… Another day, another walk in the neighborhood.
We ran into this lost cow.
She was trapped! We were coming from one direction, some bicyclists were coming from the opposite direction, and she couldn’t move sideways off the road because there was a cow grate there. She kept trying all three and frantically running back and forth. Her cow friend was also trapped (sorry, no pic of her) and both of them were crying like crazy. (From Kevin: Picture a crying cow.) Fortunately, I was able to find her owners, a farmer and his son, not too far away. Also fortunately, we managed to communicate despite the fact that I understood maybe one in 10 words they said. I’m pretty sure they couldn’t understand me either. (Kevin: They were all speaking English. Supposedly.) In any case, the farmer and his son came and got the two lost cows back home. (“You! G’wan!” “Moo!”) When we walked back later that day, we saw them happily grazing away in their home pasture.
After the bovine-based adventure concluded, we resumed our walk. Some nice scenery ensued…
Next day!
When the rain let up the following day, we went for a “visit historical sites” day.
First stop of the day: Dunguaire Castle, built in 1520. We weren’t able to go in, but we did walk around.
That morning, we had eaten breakfast out in the nearby town of Craughwell, and we fell into conversation with a couple at the next table (outdoors).1 The woman suggested we visit Ballyvaughn in County Clare. Luckily, Ballyvaughn was on our way, so we stopped for a visit.
It turns out, Ballyvaughn has a regular Saturday market. We stopped for some fresh eggs, some bread, and a little traditional Irish music. (OK, we were not expecting that. Irish Music! Live!!) The members playing are all from a single (very musical) family and they were celebrating their patriarch who had died a year ago.
Our next stop was the Caherconnell Stone Fort in The Burren. Caher (in Irish cathair) means “stone ringfort”). The Burren is a very large, very rocky area in County Clare.2 The name “Burren” means “a rocky place” from the Irish word Boíreann.
In 1651 a Cromwellian Army Officer named Ludlow described the Burren as “…a country where there is not water enough to drown a man, wood enough to hang one, nor earth enough to bury them….3
Even so, people have lived in The Burren for 5,000 years. The Caherconnell Stone fort includes an archeological site (now also a visitor center) where they have discovered remnants of ancient civilisations.4 The stone fort itself dates to medieval times.
Last stop of the day was the Ennis Friary, dating from the 13th Century.
And… home at last.
Next up.. Inishmore Island! The Cliffs of Insanity!
Consistently, since we’ve been here, as soon as we start talking, people immediately engage us in conversation. Americans aren’t all that common around here and folks want to know where we’re from, where we’ve been, and where we’re going. They’re also eager to give us suggestions of things to do. We’ve met some great people and had lots of awesome conversations.
Don’t worry, we go back for more of the Burren later.
We’re in Ireland. That’s how they spell it here.
The cow story was fun, but I love the toe-tapping musical family. They were all having so much fun it looked like :-)