2004 Europe

Bunratty Castle



June 15 – Today we are up early to travel to Killarney. On the way we will stop a Bunratty Castle, The Irish Folk Park, Adare and finally Killarney where we stay two nights.



Bunratty Castle (above) is a well preserved medieval castle that until recently was still used partly as a residence. The Irish Folk Park next door recently acquired it and tours are given as part of the entry to the park. The guide gave us a presentation in the entry hall and the great hall, where the local lord used to conduct business. Then we were free to climb any of the 4 corner towers and go through the rest of the castle on our own. They did provide a floor plan to help you find your way. I climbed 3 of the towers and that was enough for me. The stairwells are very narrow and have a steep, tight, clockwise spiral. Made them easier to defend as the person in the higher position can use his right hand easily whereas the person coming up the stairs is blocked on the right side by the center of the stairs. Just going up them unarmed and unopposed is a messy proposition. Coming down, on the other hand, was much more natural to the body. I would hate to fight my way up one of those with a sword, even if I was left-handed. The guy on the top has too much advantage.



The castle was built in the early 1400's by the McNamara family and is the 5th structure to be built on this site. The first was a Viking fortified settlement founded in 970, followed in 1270 by a Norman Castle, the first stone structure on the site. Admiral Penn, father of William Penn (my hero the founder of Pennsylvania), resided here for a short time in the 1700s.



The folk park is an interesting place. It’s a little like Williamsburg, VA. They have assembled a group of old Irish structures and made a little community of them. Those next to the castle are the oldest. Traditional farmers house (below), weavers, blacksmiths’ buildings, all very much livable today. Each had a peat fire burning on the hearth. Peat has a distinctive smell that, while not unpleasant, could get on your nerves after a while because everything smells like peat. It doesn’t really burn, it sort of smolders like charcoal, but much more smoke.



At the opposite end of the park from the castle they have assembled a seventeenth century village. Homes, stores (below), a school, a church and two mills are grouped around a main street. The church and mills are a little way from the village, perhaps a few hundred yards. It was very well maintained and gave you a feel for a small town of the time. Just outside town was a small farm where crops were actually planted in the fields. A woman was in the field working. It reminded me of my grandmother’s farm in PA, only this one was much smaller. One confusing thing I saw looked like a beehive shaped house set up on 7 2 foot high, mushroom shaped stone pillars, six in a circle and one in the middle (below). I couldn’t find an entrance of any kind. Apparently the Irish in the seventeenth century made very elaborate haystacks, with a sort of thatched roof to keep them dry. An employee of the park confirmed my guess. I’ll include a picture. It looks like a home to me, there’s just no way inside because it’s not hollow.



Next it was on to Limerick where we saw King John’s Castle and a church with many very ornately carved burial crypts. One of the headstones in the graveyard was a very nicely executed Celtic cross (below). Many of the headstones are in this form, but this one was the best I’ve seen.



Then it was on to the seaside town of Adare for lunch. Adare has many thatched roof homes (below) that are still in use. They are becoming rare because of insurance costs and the fact that so few people can thatch a room that it’s getting very expensive. The Dutch windmill owner outside Amsterdam told us that it cost him 50,000 Euro to have his windmill thatched last year. That’s about $60,000. Apparently it’s the same in Ireland.



After lunch we headed to Killarney and checked into our hotel. Yea!! It has air conditioning!!!



Meteorological Note: The locals tell me this is the best spring and early summer anyone can remember. Enough rain to keep things green but no big storms and warm temps. Everyone is telling us how lucky we are and I believe them.

(c) 2004 Rod Longenberger