Musings

Last full day

Flaggy RR bridge

Kinda overcast when we set out. We did have spots of sun and showers, the perfect set-up for a mellow day.

Bike racers

We came across a bike race with dispersed riders soon after we hit the road. Some were wearing bright anoraks…thankfully, they were going the other way.

StPaddys Armagh

It’s Sunday, so here’s the Church of Ireland Cathedral in Armagh. The RC Cathedral also honors St Patrick. The Archbishops of both sects are here and both are Primates of All Ireland (if I have it right). Armagh is historically far more of a center than it is today.

We still don’t know how to say Armagh. (Is it guttural?)

Armagh windmill

We found this six/seven-story ruin up Windmill Avenue, and indeed it was a windmill perhaps two centuries ago. No access; it’s fenced off. No informative signage.

Bike rack for two

Due west of Armagh is the pre-Patrick religious center, Navan Fort, properly Emain Macha. Folks don’t use much Irish around here, but the instructional materials at this location prefer the Emain Macha name.

Good thing the bikers weren’t headed here. This bike rack has a limited capacity.

Iron Age house reconstruction

We began with a visit to an Iron Age house, reconstructed and populated with this warrior, Fergus, and a bard named Sanka. Great fun!

Navan Fort building lump

The most unexpected thing that archaeologists discovered about these ritual features atop the hill is that the bump in the distance was the location for a series of timber structures. The largest, indeed the largest Iron Age ritual structure known in Europe, was built in 94BC (based on tree-ring dating). Before this hill became a ritual/construction site, a different hill was favored. Of course, later, the geographic ritual focus of the people living in this area moved to Armagh.

Navan Fort topo

This topo map may be helpful. I am standing on the left, lower feature (#1), and looking toward the right, major feature (#2). The white signs outline the outside of the hill outside of the ditch that encircles where the enormous soil-covered timber structure used to stand.

Plain Jayne sandwich

Lunch time: would you like a Plain Jayne sandwich, ham and cole slaw? (Did not buy.)

Faughart cemetery Brigids well

We moved on to the remains of a medieval motte-and-bailey castle (eroding; not pictured) and to the adjacent ruined church and graveyard. This is on the Hill of Faughart, believed to be where St Brigid (~451–525) was born and brought up. If she didn’t live on this ridge-nose, I’m pretty sure she must have come here. If, indeed, she was from what is today called the Hill of Faughart. Anyway, this dipping well is associated with St. Brigid. Leaving the rags tied to the tree is part of ritual visits here.

Bruce grave

The church walls are beneath the ivy at the far left and left center of this photo, left of the dark green evergreen. Just to the right of that dark green juniper? is a “flat” grave. The marker records that Edward Bruce (~1280–1318), brother of the Scottish king Robert the Bruce (Roibert a Briuis) is buried there. He died from wounds received in a battle in the lowland below this ridge nose.

Sunset lastnight

This is last night’s sunset, a bit prettier than the one tonight, and appropriate as we bring this chapter of our lives (trite trite) to a close and get those stray belongings packed into checked baggage, rather than in separate containers that can be stashed in the car, ready to be dragged into the next B&B.

Tired of ruins?

Cottage fireplace surround n table

We spent most of the day at a 170-acre living history village-and-rural-area that is paired with an indoor museum of transportation. We began in the rural area. At least a half-dozen stone cottages in different styles and dates offer the opportunity to think about heating/cooking with coal or peat turves and living in close proximity to farm animals. One cottage (no photo) even had a byre at one end and family space at the other—with no wall in between; maybe it was only used seasonally, however.

Spade smiths water powered trip hammer

We enjoyed a long chat with a spade-smith; he makes spades, not shovels (shovels are for loose materials). This is his water-powered trip hammer. 3K pounds of pressure per smack. No water flowing to make it trip today….

Ireland kinograph

And this is a shot from a 1940 news-reel/documentary about spade and shovel making in the town of Monard, County Cork. With water power and coal-fired forges. Laborers worked six days a week. On the seventh they went to church, played gambling games, and played music and danced. Ireland had a great diversity of spade and shovel types. Over a hundred, and then many different sizes of each. Diversity.

Johns angry geese

John tried a bullfighter move with these geese. No horns involved, thankfully, just hissing.

Horse moment

Me, I had a chat with this horse (we think in a field next to the museum property).

Begging burro nose

And we both had a moment with this donkey. One lady looked around for grass-not-nettles and fed her a small handful. Happy day for the donkey.

Cruck truss detail

This wall is cut-away and labeled to highlight the crucks—those curving beams that go up from the ground and support the roof beams. I think folks used ropes to bend trees to make the needed shapes. Crucks were also used in ship-building.

Simple rowhouse fireplace

Here’s the fireplace in one apartment in a row of village/urban row-homes with this small room downstairs, two teensy bedrooms upstairs, and a tiny yard out back with a water closet and coal bin, and a bit more room for washing laundry, etc. I thought this is the kind of place where TB would have spread quickly.

Carpenters shop

Look at the rows of tools etc. in this carpenter’s shop.

Co Donegal railways logo detail

Next we went across the highway to the Transport Museum. Of course, we started with trains. This is the shamrock detail on the County Donegal Railways seal.

Third class carriage

Here’s the third-class area on a train carriage. They had to pass a law in Ireland to make the railways put roofs and sidewalls on third-class spaces. They used to be like riding in a cart—just relatively low side walls, with riders fully exposed to the weather.

GCPBVR n T Co

Loved this stylized image of Giant’s Causeway and the cliffs that frame it even today. I think I read that this began to be a travelers’ destination in the 1700s. !!

1975MGBRoadster

Cars, too! An MGB Roadster, 1975 model.

RR bridge arch shadows drone

Droney made two short runs, and the Guru captured the lovely shadow from this long railroad bridge during the first one.

Winding things up

Ardboe high cross

I thought this was our “last” high cross of the trip, and then we saw a replica in a museum. Does that count?

Ardboe lilac

Also at Ardboe (no ruins of the monastery that was here), we found grave monument setters at work, and this lilac. Can you see the white spots in the first photo? And a couple of flies in this picture? Many bugs…a hatch. They weren’t house flies. Still annoying, however.

L shaped stoplight

Haven’t noticed L-shaped stoplights before….

Tailed sheep

Strange that all these sheep turned their tails toward us—and they have tails. Lots of that here, but plenty are docked.

Beaghmore stone circles etc

Last stone circles of the trip. These are the Beaghmore group.

Beaghmore partial drone

JCB and the drone captured some fine shots. This is just part of the area of circles, alignments, cairns, etc. Further, this valley is peppered with stone features. And without a doubt more are undiscovered beneath the peat. The peat is covered by brown and grey vegetation in the drone photo.

Tulach Óg defended entrance

On to the last ring fort occupied into the 1600s. This is a famous spot, as one of the last Gaelic kings (sub-king I’d say) was inaugurated here in 1593; his name was Aodh Mór Ó Néill. Aodh is Hugh in English. Mór means great. Aodh would have called this place Tulach Óc; today it’s Tullyhogue. Someone lived here in a wooden building into the 1600s. This is the entrance and the original entrance probably required a Z-shaped path between wooden palisades.

Hawthorn hedgerow

We’ve been seeing these blooming hawthorns everywhere—down hedgerows and here at Tulach Óc. The scent is strong.

Queens U Belfast

In Belfast! Here’s the formal façade of Queens University Belfast.

Garden signpost

Next to the core buildings of the Univ is the Ulster Botanic Gardens.

Palm house Belfast

This is the door to the Palm House. The plants were ho-hum. There was a HOT room, that made my chest feel compressed.

LordKelvin

A metal Lord Kelvin stands inside the main entrance to the BotGarden.

Ulster Museum outdoor sculpture

This is a sculpture outside the Ulster Museum.

Just periodic overcast, no sprinkles. Is this really Ireland?

Antrim coast, then inland

Road to Dunluce castle

This is the inland side of a promontory fort location, very defensible. The construction here dates to the same period as Donegal Castle that we visited yesterday. Visually, it looks quite different because the stuccoing (perhaps not the technical term) is gone here and not in Donegal. Anyway, the foreground is the original cobble street, discovered below the modern sod. Around me, the photog, are archaeological remains of the village that was outside the castle. This castle, far right and distant, was built/occupied by MacQuillans and then MacDonnells, Scottish landholders and traders. The village had a substantial Scottish merchant population, numbering nearly 300. There was an earlier castle here dating to the ~1200s. I suspect there may have been an earlier occupation, too….

Dunluce tourons

We arrived just after two big busloads of tourons. As we made our way to the ticket booth, we realized they were not entering the castle, only standing at the fence. Yay for the logic of bus-tour scheduling (?).

Dunluce chimney base detail

We took many detail shots of the castle and its setting. This is the remaining bottom portion of a fireplace surround, and the view through the hole in the wall of the next peninsula, covered with pasture and gorse. Strangely, it was not windy.

Dunluce galley etching

I’ve messed with the photo settings in an attempt to bring out an etching of a late medieval Scottish galley. Perhaps easiest to spot is an upright triangle, representing the sail, I think. At the bottom are a pair of horizontal lines indicating the ship, with a line of dots along the upper line. Perhaps you can see the upturned ends to the left and right.

Giants causeway upper

We went on east to a geological feature called Giant’s Causeway. It’s a basalt formation of hexagonal columns, broken and weathered on the tops. There are several folk tales about the formation; track them down if you like fanciful stories.

Giants causeway midway

This view is back at the bus turnaround. Many people take the bus down, or more likely back (uphill). We walked both ways. My fitbit has been giving me in excess of 100 flights per day over the last 10 days; not today, unexpectedly.

Giants causeway lower wave crashing

We spent some time watching the waves crash near the end of the formation, soaking in the sunshine. Just lovely.

Giants causeway tidepool

I found this tide pool with its brilliant green-yellow whatever-it-is. There are conical shells, too—barnacles? I don’t know much about sea-critters.

Giants causeway hexagons

Here’s a top-down view of the columns. Love the slight distortion of the geometrics.

Giants causeway

Here is a stand of the columns. So dramatic.

Dandelion with fly occupants

We spotted several dandelions along the return route to the parking lot, and even a few buttercups (I think), with flies camped out on them. In contrast, white flowers were bereft of flies. What’s the deal?

Bushmills industrial

We made a quick stop at the Old Bushmills Distillery. We thought about taking the tour, but it was priced at £8/person, and we decided to pass. Even if it included a wee tasting at the end.

WildDuckPub Portglenone

Here’s your daily pub shot. This is the Wild Duck in Portglenone. The town is on the River Bann, which connects the large freshwater lake called Lough Neagh to the sea. Vikings sailed up the Bann, and spent the winter of 840/841 at the monasteries at Antrim and Ardboe. Subsequently, they made camps other places around the lake from which they raided elsewhere in the interior of this part of the island.

Watch the weather change

Cloud on mountain

Even before we left the B&B, we’d had sun, sprinkles, overcast, repeat. That was the pattern throughout the day. As we rolled down the road early on, we spotted a cloud sitting atop this ridge. By the time we got to the end of it, the cloud had lifted. Sunshine!

Donegal Castle river

First stop: Donegal Castle. One part is 15th C; another is 17th C; the whole was refurbished in the early 1990s. For several generations this was the seat of the O’Donnell leaders. The town has encroached upon all but a small area immediately adjacent to the castle. In the foreground here is the River Eske.

Donegal great hall

The Great Hall has been partly furnished. The fireplace surround is 16th-C, installed when the Brooke family owned the castle; they did many modifications/upgrades.

Donegal great hall roof

The room above the Great Hall has these fantastic beams supporting the roof. The engineering seems similar to that of covered bridges, etc.

Rhodo CU

Several days back we started seeing rhododendrons in the roadside vegetation. The Guru discovered that they’re an invasive species here. Beautiful flowers, however.

Killybegs working boats

We passed by Killybegs harbor, a hive of activity on the docks, and moored boats and ships, plus sailboats. I think these two are fishing vessels, but that’s a landlubber’s hypothesis.

First Irish only place sign

This is the first big highway sign that we noticed that did not have the English place-names paired with the Irish. Still haven’t overheard people speaking Gaelic very often.

Fiber optics coming to rural Donegal

We think this is fiber-optic installation. We spotted over a dozen yellow trucks that were part of the installation crew, we thought. It will be a big change to this rural area of County Donegal. Note mountain in the background.

Slieve League cliffs

From Carrick (An Charraig on the sign above), we took a side road out to this viewpoint for the seaside cliffs of Slieve League (Irish: Sliabh Liag). These are twice as high as the famous Cliffs of Moher, at just a fuzz under 2K feet.

John the Miners bar Carrick

We returned to Carrick to turn north toward (eventually) Derry and Northern Ireland. This place is called John the Miner’s Central Bar. FYI.

Sheep roadside

Rolling along, only a few times we’ve driven in open range. Usually, if sheep are on the road, they have escaped through the fence. I think that was the case with this one and her several buddies (not pictured).

View N Glengesh Pass

What a view as we passed down the northeast side from Glengesh Pass (translation: Glen of the Swans). Don’t those rounded flanks reek of glaciation?

Log truck

We’ve seen a few log trucks. The logs seem short compared to what we’ve seen in the USA. They come exclusively (or nearly so) from tree plantations.

Speed trap van

It behooves you to notice these buggies. That camera sign may look like a quaintly historic model; however, it signals a speed check/trap. They used to have installations along the roads, but now there are just vans randomly deployed. There aren’t many, as this is the second one we’ve spotted.

Grianán of Aileach drone

Droney took to the air at Grianán of Aileach, a reconstructed stone fort just west of Derry (officially Londonderry), but on a high spot in the Republic. This view is toward the southwest, so it’s all the Republic of Ireland.

International border

Another rainstorm hit as we crossed the international border. Can you see the change in the pavement in the foreground? That’s the border. How will it change with Brexit?

Soon, the rain had stopped and soon after that the sun was out. We have been very lucky with good weather on this trip.

Irish lessons, subtly

Cong cloister

Another day, another religious complex in ruins. Here’s one corner of the cloister interior at Cong Abbey. The Irish is Cúnga Fheichín, meaning St Féchín’s narrows. The narrows refer to the river, I’m guessing. The waterways around the abbey go underground and appear braided. Complex, anyway.

Cong fish house

This “fish house” is an unusual surviving monastery feature. My understanding is that the underneath had a net hung inside it, and the fish were retrieved through a trap door in the floor. The area around Cong is where “The Quiet Man” (1952) was filmed–John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara.

Ballinrobe street

This banner over the street in Ballinrobe says: Welcome to (you got that part, I’m sure) Music Festival Mayo. Mayo is two words in Irish—Mhaigh Eo—which means yew trees, and yew trees are loaded with sacred qualities, very special. Oak trees, too.

Lots of place-names begin Bally– or Balli– like this. The Irish is Baile and it means town, although GooTranslate indicates it means home, also. Interesting cultural implications of that.

Also, place-names that end in –more in English may be from the Irish mór, which means big. Toponyms are such fun!

Pontoon sign

It seems the English mimics the Irish Pont Abhann in some abstract way, as Abhann means river/fluvial and has a different sound than “oon”. Another linguistic abuse by the English….

DeVanneys Bar Lahardane

Just liked the way this looked. I couldn’t tell for sure if it is still open.

Seacliffs n DunBriste

That haystack at the end of this peninsula is Dun Briste, meaning broken fort (fort in the sense that this point is naturally fortified by being almost surrounded by the sea; broken is obvious). The English name highlights something totally different; it is Downpatrick Head.

Ceide Fields ocean view

This row of stones exposed from where the peat buried it was a fence-wall thousands of years ago, built by people who cut the forest to begin farming here six millennia ago. Why did peat form here? Scientists aren’t certain, but the current hypothesis is that by cutting the trees, it changed the soil chemistry and created an iron-rich layer that kept the water table high and meant that any plants had to be tolerant of the iron-rich condition to grow, which favored heather and sphagnum and the like. They grew and died and new offspring grew in the same spots, and the moisture and repeated generations meant peat could form.

The large size of the fields and the pollen that has been identified as contemporaneous with the field walls indicate that the fields were pastures, used for cattle and not crops. Very interesting.

Can you guess that it was windy windy windy when we visited Ceíde Fields? Can you guess that is Ceíde pronounced kay-ja? Yup, no “d” at all.

Factory Ballina

I’m pretty sure this is an abandoned factory. Not all ruins we note are darned old.

Cnoc na Riabh view

Another high view of the velveteen green, this time with more trees and houses. This is near Sligo, from the flank of the mountain called Cnoc na Riabh, meaning hill of…well, knowledgable people argue about of what. Cnoc is hill, no doubt about it. I keep trying to come up with a Cnoc-Cnoc joke….

Sligo tides out

And here the tide is out in Sligo. The Irish name of the river (originally) and the town is Sligeach, meaning abundant shells, meaning the river was rich in shellfish, and maybe fish in general. Don’t know about now.

Rainy day adventures

Velveteen cape

This is a crappy shot to illustrate what I’ve been calling the velveteen cape—the apparent piecework of fields and the green hedges that separate them. When it’s a big expanse of the landscape, and you’re a bit above it, the rolling contours and the fields really look like a textured quilt to me.

Stone field walls

In contrast, when the fields are demarcated by stone walls, I no longer see a giant cape. Still eye-catching, but different.

Cliffs of moher view south

One of our big points-of-interest for the day was the Cliffs of Moher. Only it was rainy and windy, too rainy to make it worth €6 apiece to join the crowds released from buses to fight our way against a headwind to the overlook to hang over the fence to take a picture before turning tail and scooting back across the road to the parking area. Are we wimps?

Doolin ireland

Instead, we explored one-and-a-half lane roads and small towns we would have skipped to “do” the Cliffs, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. This town is named Doolin.

Cahermacnaghten cashel

Eventually we cut inland and visited a stone cashel/fort. This cashel was among the domiciles of a minor sept, the O’Davoren family, Brehon lawyers for their overlords, the O’Loughlins, lords of Burren, and both the popular and academic literature places their law school at this cashel. However, recent research indicates the law school buildings were not in the cashel, but less than a kilometer away occupying a complex of buildings that seems more suitably sized for such an institution. O’Davorens did live here in the 16th and 17th Cs; as negotiators for their superiors, they were well-connected to the greater world far beyond this area, which had a far greater population than it does today.

The name of this place in English is Cahermacnaghten; the Irish name is Cathair Mhic Neachtain. This fortified homestead was first built long before the period of the Brehon law school.

Burren stone

The Burren is an area of rolling limestone hills and stone surfaces exposed by glaciation in this part of western Ireland. This particular area is next to the sea. I saw one place where blocks had been removed, no doubt for building stone—very blocky. The blocks are called clints and the fissures are called grykes/grikes/scailps. There’s poetry in these words!

Burren uplands

From what we saw of the uplands, the “pavement” quality is not as extensive—it looks like grey rubble here. Note that the lower areas are green, and we hypothesized that considerable labor had been invested to remove the rocks. Apologies for the crappy snap; it was the best of the crop.

Athenry corner

Here’s a left-or-right choice in Athenry, a town east of Galway that we visited because it has notable surviving medieval city wall.

Athenry medieval city wall

Here is the wall behind the cud-chewing cattle. There’s a ditch outside the wall (green bushy vegetation), and I think traces of piled soil outside of that. Anyway, for a tourist calling card, the wall receives no emphasis whatsoever, and no good access. I think all that light grey outlining the stones indicates recent reconstruction…which is fine. But.

Galway harbor

We are rolling through Galway by the harbor, excuse me harbour. I don’t remember an in-town light-up sign before, and it caught my eye. Coming into cities, we have seen light-up signs that list the names of the parking areas and the number of open spaces. Very handy!

Ballroom floor dust

And now for something completely different. Three somethings. This is a powder or dust that apparently was applied to ballroom floors to make it the right amount of slippery for dancers. Dundalk is on the east shore of the island and we are on the west. This bag was in a display in an “antiques” shop window.

Sams lemon drizzle handbag

Here’s what’s called a Sams Lemon Drizzle Handbag, a cleverly folded package for a cake, handcrafted in Ireland.

Rent an Irish Cottage

This cracked me up when I found it while navigating. Someone has slipped a little joke past GooMaps.

Seaviews, churches, more

Castlemaine strand

We missed the pre-breakfast rainbow; B&B lady said it was a complete arc. Ah well, the strand and the sea were still eye-catching.

Biker running dog

Lots of non-car/truck activity on the road today…celebrating the lord’s day? Here’s a biker running his dog.

Sheep lamb

And a sheep “airing” her lamb.

Waves crashing on rocks

From an Iron Age promontory fort (on a small point high above the sea), we watched the waves crashing on the rocks.

Gallarus oratory

Gallarus Oratory is an early christian church, the official sign says, dating to the 7th/8th C AD. People say it’s “boat-shaped”—meaning an upside-down boat. It’s mortarless, and the craftsmanship to shape the stones and fit them with a slight slope to keep the water out is stunning.

Dingle sportsbar

I found the dramatic sun-brightened color of this sports-bar in Dingle marvelous.

Conor Pass view N

From Dingle we angled north to cross the spine of the Dingle Peninsula. From the pass the views, both north and south, were breath-taking. This is the view north; there’s a good chunk of ocean before you hit land at another bit of Ireland.

Abbeyfeale fundraiser

In Abbeyfeale the traffic situation got bottlenecked with cyclists. Over 400 participated in a fundraiser for the town, and these fellows collected more €€€€/cash.

In Limerick, we toured King John’s Castle. It dates to ~1200, when the Magna Carta King John ordered it built to cement holdings gained by Anglo-Normans through violence beginning in this area in 1172. It’s on the River Shannon, which demarcated the Irish petty kingdoms to the west and Anglo-types to the east. This is the original great hall of the fort. Sometime after it was built it was knocked down and a new one was built on its rubble. Note how high the current “floor” of the castle is now. This rebuilding process effectively preserved the older architecture.

This is the view toward the River Shannon from the fortification in the top of the above photo. The wind was stiff and two fishermen and a swam were working the near shoreline.

This is a bonus-abbey…meaning we ate dinner then strolled around it a bit. Most of the massive architecture dates to the 14th and 15th Cs. The footprint of this church is larger than many we have seen. If you check out satellite photos, you can see the outlines of more structures that were part of the Quin Abbey complex (it’s here: 52.819196, -8.862977).

It didn’t rain ALL day

DerrycunihyChurch

We awoke to soft rain. High on a hill/mountain, this church was still below the clouds.

Torc waterfall

On the other side of the mountain, we checked out a waterfall. There are several along the “edge” of this landform. We walked in rain to check it out.

Clouds n mountains

And, farther down the peninsula, we could see out over the ocean was clearer than where we were driving.

Cattle n cowherdess

Down a narrow lane, we waited for the cowherd-ess to move her charges along. Moo.

Staigue fort exterior

And, at the end of the road…a stone fort. These date to the early Christian through late medieval periods, in general.

Staigue fort interior

The stones are stacked carefully, with sloping walls interior and exterior, and the space between filled with chips and smaller stones. In the interior, the stones are set to allow easy ascent. No building remains survive inside Staigue Fort.

Brackaharagh beach

Downhill, we found striking blue waters in this harbor in the Brackaharagh townlands.

Skellig Bay

Off on another narrow side road, heading for Loher stone fort…. Go mall is Irish for slow(ly).

Loher stone fort

Inside this fort, partial walls of several buildings survive.

Loher fort door

The interior of the fort slopes so that water drains out the single doorway. This seems true of all of these stone forts.

Leacanabuaile n sheep

A bit more of a drive and a bit of a walk, and we stroll through sheep to Leacanabuaile stone fort. This one has wide walls with turf atop.

Leacanabuaile interior

Same for the interior building ruins…. This two-room building had a square-ish first room and a round interior room.

Ballycarbery drone

Droney and the Guru took this photo of Ballycarbery Castle. It’s huge. Note that the sun is out! The ivy covering the walls is old, with a substantial “trunk.”

Ballycarbery ivy stems

This is the “trunk” structure of the ivy on the right end of the building in the drone shot. Maybe “substantial” is too tame to describe this proliferation.

Killorglin traffic circle

Apache pizza? Cross-cultural food? Find this culinary treat on the traffic circle in Killorglin.

Castlemaine Harbour double rainbow

Modest B&B tonight. Spritely owner looks to be in her early 70s. She has lived here all her life. In this building. Brought up here. Modified to be a B&B by her carpenter/builder husband. And this is our view. An hour later we got fierce rain for about four minutes.

Now darkness is descending.

No theme, “just” visuals

Kinsale marina parking

I figure these are the parking spaces for drunk-testing. Notice how unused they are. This is Castlepark Marina, across from Kindle.

Kinsale Jamess Fort

This old fort opposite Kindle is heavily visited by people letting their dogs run…many happy dogs. Across the River Bandon is a much larger, later fort that most tourists visit. This one is on a lovely spit of land that had a medieval fort before construction began on this fort in 1602. This is the inner architecture and its wall. The outer perimeter is grassy and lumpy these days.

Timoleague abbey

On down the way, this is the central area of the Timoleague abbey church ruin.

Timoleague abbey new grave

People are still being planted here, within the former buildings, except right where the altar was. I could hardly drag my eyes away from the plastic bag carefully protecting the cross on this recent grave.

Timoleague wart well

By the sacristy/in the sacristy was this stone labeled “wart well.” In case you were wondering. The internet records various methods of using water from the wart well to cure…warts.

Clonakilty street

The old medieval main street of Clonakilty.

Rosscarbery market square

Nolan’s on the market square of Rosscarbery. The hanging sign reads “Guinness for strength.”

Drombeg architecture

Far left distance: Drombeg stone circle, dated to the later Bronze Age. Far left foreground: bluebells. Central: two stone foundations; one is circular with a central rectangular “box” and circular “well”; the other is two conjoined circles, probably a two-room domestic structure. These features may not have been contemporaneous. They are on a flat landform that is high on the slope of a hill that seems a strange choice to me. It does have a good view of the sea (right, out of shot).

Drombeg Holsteins

Ladies checking out tourists walking to and from Drombeg. The Irish is An Drom Beag, meaning small ridge. Perhaps someone else thought this the location a bit odd.

Skibbereen market square

Market square, Skibbereeen. There’s a somewhat famous folk song about how those who left the island because of the famine pined for Ireland that uses the name Skibbereeen.

Baltimore beacon

Beacon just past Baltimore harbor. That’s the open ocean in the center of the photo, and a lighthouse on the opposite landform. Yes, it was windy. And the wildflowers were slightly different than inland locales we have visited.

Waterfall pool

It’s been so dry that the waterfall above this pool was a big trickle. Loved the pool and its reflection.

Double tunnel

We found this double-tunnel while crossing the Béarra/Beara peninsula near the boundary of Kerry and Cork counties.

Kenmare butcher dog

This dog in Kenmore is making a great choice—to keep watch/nap outside the butcher shop. Far wiser than outside the woolen goods store or the pharmacy, I’d say.