2004 Europe

Kilkenny Castle



June 18 – Today we are headed to Dublin with a stop at the Irish National Stud. First stop Kilkenny. The town is fairly small but it does have a castle (above), cathedral, some medieval buildings and a sandwich shop called, ‘Blaa, Blaa, Blaa’. Could have been a shop on the Seinfeld show. The castle is quite large and well preserved. There were busses of school children visiting today. I walked down the main street past the Medieval Merchant’s house, the old town courthouse and jail and lots of interesting architecture to get to Saint Candice’s Cathedral. It started out as a priory and then became a monastery. It has the typical round tower (below) that the Irish monasteries used as defensive fortifications. If attacked, they all went inside and as they went up the stories they pulled the ladders up behind them. This particular tower was twice as tall at the cathedral building. Very impressive. Not many of my fellow travelers walked all the way to the Cathedral. I don’t think it was really that far but the topography of the city did not allow you to see it until you were only a few yards away and we were not staying in town that long. If you wanted to visit the Cathedral you pretty much had to pass up anything else to get there and back.



Next stop, the Irish Stud. This is a government funded farm for the procreation of horses. They don’t own the horses they just provide the grounds and facilitate the matchmaking. They have a worldwide reputation for their expertise in this area and have been very successful. They contract with the owners of the studs to keep the best available stallions on the premises. Then owners of mares who want them ‘covered’ (that’s the euphemism they use here for horse sex) contact them to arrange a meeting. The fees for this run form 1,500 Euro for an unproven stallion that was successful in his own right, to 65,000 Euro for a stallion that has a track record of siring champion horses. It takes three employees to consummate the agreement. One holds the mare, one holds the stallion and one videotapes the entire process. After all the owners have to have some assurance that they got the stud they paid for. If the process is not successful, the fee is not due. They don’t want to waste time, so to insure that the mare is in season they put her in with a miniature stallion. If she shows interest in him they know she’s ready and they take her to the real one. I can’t imagine what’s running through the mind of the poor miniature. All those women but no dates. Someone asked the guide about that and she told us that they keep a supply of miniature mares on hand for him. There was a miniature mare and 9-day old colt (below) in one of the paddocks. Very cute!! The stables for the stallions (below) look nicer than some of the hotels we’ve been in and we’ve been in very nice hotels. In fact, from a distance I thought they might be a motel unit that the INS (no not immigration, Irish National Stud) operated.



Gustatory Note: The best lunch I’ve had so far on the Irish tour was here at the Irish National Stud. I had chicken curry in the INS cafeteria and it was great. They served it over rice that had been made with peas. The perfect extra touch.



We arrived into Dublin in time to rest up a bit and then have dinner.

(c) 2004 Rod Longenberger