Rock of Cashel
After sadly leaving Dingle, we knew that we were headed to a place of some legendary Irish history, the Rock of Cashel. The Rock of Cashel is in the heart of the Irish countryside, far from any harbor. Known for being the place where St. Patrick went straight to the King of Angus, in the year 432, baptizing him and converting him, and thus his followers, to Christianity. Espoused to be of great significance to the church, many buildings, including the tower and church that stands where built throughout the ages. It sits on a hill, overlooking its surrounding communities for miles.
Here the group broke out our headsets and learned about the history while walking its grounds, inside and out. There is an a cemetery on the grounds and there is also an accompanying museum, which is small, but boasts and miniature model of the grounds and many pictures of Queen Elizabeth visiting the Rock.
Kilkenny
After our tour of the Rock of Cashel, we headed to the Medieval town of Kilkenny. The streets has a very dark and old world feel, with old city gates and black walled churches. But it was also generously adorned with beautiful baskets of brightly colored flowers everywhere. A local tour guide met us at St. Canice's church and walked us through the streets of Kilkenny, while telling us stories and folklore of the town.
We ended at our hotel, the Club House Hotel where we regrouped, and went back out for dinner at Petronella, a restaurant named after a character in one of the towns lore. The owner personally greeted us and was excited to share the story of his hideaway and show off the little original features of the architecture. And based on his recommendation, we then went out for the best craic and trad session we experienced on the trip at John Cleere's. Where one song we would be dancing for fun and the next we would be crying for the haunting sadness of a ballad.
The next morning we walked over to Kilkenny Castle. The former residence of the well-off Butler family. This estate was gifted to the town of Kilkenny in in 1967 for Fifty pounds by the Butler family. Sadly it was in quite amount of disrepair and was later brought back to life to be created into the tourist attraction it is today. It was quite the sight, and quite the disparity between this "castle" and the poor rural farmers in the bee hive huts we had seen just 2 days before. A highlight inside the castle was the hall of ancestors at the end, where each member of the household throughout the generations of the residing Butler family had portraits commissioned and hung on the walls.