What we saw:
– O’Dea Castle
– Dysert O’Dea Monastery
– St. Tola’s Cross
– Dromore Woods
– O’Brien Castle, ruin
– Dunguaire Castle
– Drumharsna Castle, ruin
– Lots of random ruined churches
– Quin Abbey/Friary
What we experienced:
– Driving on a one lane road and coming head first towards another vehicle with no where to pull off
– Dinner in a pub
Today was all about castles. Starting with the grounds of O’Dea Castle, we ran into a group of people about our age from Washington State and Boston. We didn’t exactly hang out with them there, but we kept running into each other at all the sites at O’Dea. The coolest thing at this site was the St. Tola’s Cross which was dated back to the 1200s. You had to go through a field full of cows to look at it, but that’s more the fun, except the girl from Boston, who was not interested in being close to the cows at all. She just wanted to be on the pavement as she said.
The day continued with a trip through Dromore Woods to find the O’Brien castle which was neat. A trend we’ve noticed is the castles are not quite as big and extravagant as we expected. At least not the ones we’ve gone to so far. They are obviously very tall, but the actual layout of them seems very small. Each floor has a task. First floor may be the gathering hall, may be the dining hall. Next floor may be the kitchen. Next floor may be the bedroom. Etc, etc.
Headed to Quin Abbey/Friary (debate as to whether it was an abbey or friary) next. This was one of my favorite parts of the day today. Unfortunately the Abbey/Friary is closed on Mondays, but we are so close that we are going to go back tomorrow to tour it. We have to, it’s AH-MAZING!
Oh, and on the way to Quin Abbey we ran into a castle along the side of the road. It’s not well traveled, and the locals decided to make us royalty =)
Drumharsna Castle, aka our new home – the peasants are currently renovating.
Sire Kevin and Madam Jessica, King and Queen of Drumharsna Castle
Gorgeous view from the top of O’Dea Castle
Dunguaire Castle right on the water. Looks big, but the tower is actually the only part that is living area. The low wall is just a grassy area.
