Martin picked us up a little before 9:30 to start our last day of our Little Gems Tour. The skies were a little cloudy with the sun peaking through.
I forgot to mention this in yesterday’s blog. We finally got to try the local lobster last night at dinner. It was small by home standards, but sweet and juicy, delicious. I am disappointed it took so long to try it. It was a very tasty meal, we shared 4 entrees – mussels, prawns & squid, crab and lobster, with a simple salad of mixed leaves.
Our first stop today was Swiss House, designed by John Nash, the same person who designed Buckingham Palace. The Cottage was built around 1810. A “Cottage Orne” – an ornamental rustic cottage. Popular with the wealthy gentry in the late 1700’s to spend time living the simple life. Designed to blend into there surroundings preferably with a view to mountains and near running water. The cottage was filled with custom made furniture, wall paper, windows (carved/etched and painted glass), walnut floor boards. It was fashionable for the rich to have a “Peasant” cottage, the rich playing being poor, with garden parties and servants.
Next was a visit to the iconic Rock of Cashel, aka Cashel of Kings & St Patrick’s Rock, according to legend the Rock of Cashel was formed when St Patrick banished satan from a cave in the Devil’s Bit mountain and in the process rocks landed in Cashel. For the pre-Norman invasion Kings of Munster, this was their traditional seat of power.
The Rock of Cashel is a group of Medieval buildings set on an outcrop of limestone including the 12th century round tower, High Cross and the Romanesque Cormack Chapel, 13th century Gothic cathedral, 15th century Castle and the restored Hall of the Vicars Choral
In the Cromwellian times his armies killed 1/3 of the population of Cashel, the Cromwellian army used the chapel as a base, and when done they burned the roof, as they did. That resulted in the building descending into ruin, and a storm in the 1830’s tore massive chunks off the weakened walls.
We took a tour through the Cormack Chapel at Rock of Cashel, Arguably the most Important building at Rock of Cashel. It is around 900 years since the chapel was built by Cormack Cashel. It is of hiberno Romanesque design only found in Ireland. Hiberno is related to the stone roof and the Romanesque features are the rounded arches and decorative features. It has and is currently being restored, the interior has been restored sympathetically to reveal the building features, no furnishings or artefacts have been installed. It is humidity controlled to preserve the stonework inside. The chapel is a sandstone building rather than limestone, the outside has been cleaned and conserved.
Next we went to one of the first Norman castles in Ireland, the Rock of Dunomase. When the Normans arrived in the 12th century, there was a 9th century fort on the rock. They enlarged it and refortified it to a two walled defence. There were more rebuilds over the years. The Castle fell into a slow decline up to the middle of the 17th century when it is believed to have been finally finished as a stronghold by Cromwellian forces. The state of preservation of the castle is very poor, but we found the Rock of Dunamase really interesting and worth the visit. The ruins are interesting and the views from up top exceptional. We just wish people flying drones would go away, they are so noisy and invasive.
Our last stop was at The Irish National Stud and Japanese Gardens. Like all horse breeding areas this area had manicured lawns, well kept fences, although here the fences along the roads were brown rather than white. We took a walk in the stallion area of the stud, and the first animals we saw were black (Deb says brown) cows with a white stripe around their mid sections and curly fur. Interesting looking cows.
In the paddock opposite tne cows was a paddock with a stallion in it, possibly Elusive Pimpernel. It tended to hang around the fence line making it hard to get a clear photo of it, but we eventually got a clear shot. There was only one horse in the stables we saw, and then we could only see the muddy back end of it!
To finish up took a walk through the Japanese Gardens, there were some great bonsai trees and interesting water features. Being a Sunday afternoon there were lots of people in it and unfortunately was anything but peaceful. We will both appreciate Himeji Gardens at home a lot more in the future.
We went to The Grayson for dinner and finally had our Sunday Roast. We have been trying to have a Su day Roast since we arrived over in this part of the world in May! We finally did it with a couple of days to spare. After dinner we went for a walk through and around Merrion Square. It is a beautiful city park with lots of trees garden and grassed areas, and locals make full use of it, so many obviously local people taking it easy in the beautiful park.
We explore this wonderful city a bit more tomorrow.
