An Unplanned Year

Today we left Dublin and headed south to Waterford.

We opted for the scenic route and it truly was scenic. Ever-changing landscapes from heather covered moors as far as the eyes could see,

bright yellow-flowered gorse on hills at the sides of the road, to pastures with many lambs springing around.
We stopped at Glendalough to see the ruins of St Kevin’s Monastery and the Glendalough Roundtower.

The tower is almost 1000yrs old and 33m high. The entrance is 12ft up to prevent against marauders.

As we were driving towards our next stop, a ewe and her lamb were trotting down the road. No doubt they shouldn’t have been! Mum jumped the fence into the paddock, temporarily catching her legs on the barbed wire. The lamb tried, but couldn’t jump the fence, so it tried to push through the grid of fence wire- that was never going to work. Kevin got out of the car and the lamb ran a short way down the road. Kevin stood on the fence to bring it to ground level so the lamb could get over it, it turned and came back in response to it’s mother’s bleating, jumped the wires and was safely back with it’s mum. Just hopefully in the right field or the farmer will be confused!

We then visited Castleruddery Stone Circle; we had to climb a stile to access it.

The circle dates from approximately 2500BC and is thought to be ceremonial and once had a small castle near it.

We then drove through Baltinglass and spotted an interesting looking ruin. We headed towards it and stopped at the Baltinglass Abbey ruins that were originally built in the 12th century and then had a Presbyterian church built within the original ruins – only the tower remains of that church.

We realised we were driving near Kilkenny. What better place to drink a pint of Kilkenny! So we stopped at a pub that opened in 1703!

As we had driven in to Kilkenny we noticed a road sign pointing to Kells (as in The Book of Kells), so we took a right turn and headed there.

Kells has a lovely bridge.

The Kells Priory is quite large and the walls of the military structure are mostly intact.

There were some interesting sculptures adjacent to the car park,

and another ruined church, St.Kieran’s.

We then headed to Waterford, stopping one more time at another Roundtower located with a ruined church and graveyard.

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We started today wandering around the Viking Triangle in Waterford.

Vikings settled at Waterford in 914AD, making it the oldest city in the Republic of Ireland. They built a walled settlement-there are several towers and only a few wall segments remaining. One section is in a pub, and one section is under the Bishops Palace. The Reginald Tower still has a cannonball embedded in it’s walls!

While we waited for a museum to open we wandered, read the historical plaques, looked at the sites and took in some street art.

We had a game of chess also. No need to discuss the result.

We then visited the Wake museum. The museum guide talked about death and funeral rituals in Ireland from the Vikings to more recently, and also things like the Black Death, the Four Humours and Blood-letting! It was a bit different and interesting. It’s located in an old Alms House in the centre of town.

We stopped at an arts collective to look at some glass and silverwork -the artisans used to work at Waterford Glass until it closed in 2009. We did visit Waterford House on our back to the car, but were almost speechless at the prices given most of it is now no longer even made in Ireland! The highest price we saw for one item was about €25k, the lowest about €100.

Leaving Waterford, heading west we first stopped at Kilmacthomas Mahon Viaduct. It is no longer an active railway line, instead it is now part of a 50km bike/walking path called the Waterford Greenway.

We stopped to buy some Wexford strawberries from a roadside stall-they were so juicy and delicious! And best of all, none of them were mouldy, unlike the punnets you buy from Woollies!

Next was Templemichael Castle that was very ruined.

The church and graveyard next door didn’t fare much better.

We searched, for the headstone of Mary Murphy who lived to the very ripe old age of 113.

After a stop at Tesco for provisions we started our last 60km. Expecting it to be a straightforward drive with no stops. However, we came across a memorial to Michael Collins at the place he was killed in 1922.

Our final “thing” was a bit puzzling. We passed a sign on the road that read

We were confused. “Road Bowling? Is that like road works? A ditch?”

Then we came across a small crowd of people walking up the road. A quick google revealed that the game is pretty much only played in Cork and the one we came across had just finished. We could explain it but you really should just look it up on YouTube.

We’re now at our accommodation, a hop & a skip (literally) from the pub in a small village, ready to start exploring the Atlantic Way tomorrow.