One of my cousins came over from New Zealand for just under 3 weeks and, with another cousin, the 3 of us went to Ireland.
We arrived in Dublin and stopped off in Kildar on the way to Portumna where we picked up our boat for the week and we “cruised” Lough Derg.
St Brigid’s Cathedral, Kildare
The Cathedral has a number of Sheelagh-na-gigs (erotic carvings)
The Gordon Bennett Cup (first international motor race) ran through Kildare in 1903
Celia and Pam
Sign in Mount Shannon
Poster in Mount Shannon
Big blob in dead tree = eagle
We cruised down to Killaloe where the last High King of Ireland, Brian, was born.
We had a day off the boat, picked up the car and drove to Galway
Where a Lynch hanged his son out of the window overnight (see boots in upper window) – it’s a complicated story….
and came back via the Aillwee Bear Cave (only a few bones and stalactites) and The Burren Birds of Prey Centre
Captive white tailed eagle
Not a white tailed eagle
Stopping on the way to see the Poulnabrone Tomb
Portumna had a workhouse which was being restored. We were given a tour and heard the painful history.
And there were claims that there were corncrakes in the area so we went in search of them, completely in vain, not even a squeak, let alone a crake. However we did find Meelick Abbey
And finally we went to Glendalough, a monastery founded by St Kevin who died in 618.
One of the best preserved of Irish Round Towers – believed to be for defence, built between C9th & C12th
and,lastly, a sunset
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