East Co. Clare

Today was the trip to East Co. Clare with API. I think everyone from the program showed up (hey, it's a fun tour and free food), so it was a pretty noisy and American trip overall. The places we went to were beautiful and mystical, especially since today was so misty. I got up early to run some errands, and the early-morning fog that I saw then never cleared up.

My camera batteries were on the fritz, so I may have more pictures to add later (after grabbing them from other people), but for now, here's what I saw today:

This is Bunratty Castle, which was built in the 1400s and used by various families until 1810, when the family then occupying it realized that hey, it was awfully cold in there and they didn't have running water. They built a manor across the park to live in instead, and the castle fell into disrepair. The Gort family renovated it from 1954-1960, and now it's open to the public (although still being worked on--the Great Hall had scaffolding and work materials all over it).

This is the back entrance (the main road is on the other side), although it might have been the front in medieval times. There is a "folk park" in the other direction, where the Earl's subjects lived and worked, and where the 1800s manor is found too. We didn't have enough time to explore all of that, and I didn't get any pictures of the places we visited, but basically the museum people have also renovated a lot of fishermen's houses and such so that we can go in and see what life would have been like. In general, it seemed dark and damp. And short (even I hit my head on a couple doors). One woman was baking bread the old-fashioned way in front of the fire. But that's later...
Another view from the same angle.
In the middle great hall (each of the four towers had six floors, but the main part of the castle had three main halls), where the soldiers lived and now where the museum people hosts banquets, the entrance to the dungeon is somewhat hidden. See that little door to the left? That's what most of the castle's doors look like (and don't even get me started on the stairs). See the one with the gate to the right? Yeah, that's the dungeon. There are a series of stairs leading to it, like in other staircases, except with lots of nooks and crannies for guards to sit. And then, right after turning a blind corner, there's a fifteen foot drop instead of another stair--right down into the dungeon. If you fell to the right, you would land on a stone bench. If you fell straight down, you'd land on a small pile of rushes on the stone floor. Either way, I feel like the prisoners (who were never let back out, by the way) must have each had a broken leg. When I was looking at the dungeon, I noticed that the protective gate in front of the drop was loose...let's just say I booked it out of there.

We were joking that the people in the hall would have been freaked out by the screams from the dungeon...but then we realized that since it's the guards' hall, they would probably have been happy, since they put them there.
Our German tour guide can tell you more, at least until my camera died:



In that same hall, a restorer was busy working on a tapestry. No flash photography was allowed in the castle because there are so many 500-year-old pieces that may get damaged from it. The wardrobe on the left is 400 years old and the one on the right is 500. The gun to the left of the window is from the 1600s and weighed 56 pounds; it took two men to lift it on to a stand to shoot.

A lot more interesting pieces were all over the castle, but the slightly sad thing is that none of them are original to this castle. The Gorts, when they restored the castle, brought in their own collection of medieval pieces, but those from the Dunratty Castle were presumably still in the hands of the last family to live there. Still, seeing all of these really old (and sometimes very opulent pieces) was amazing.
This is a diagram of the inside of the castle. I can put in a better one later that describes some of the rooms.
A sample of some of the items that would have been found here.
Outside the castle. These are clearly not from the 1400s, and I don't know if they would have been positioned here when they were used...seems not so helpful.
Remember how I said let's not talk about the stairs? Yeah, this is why. They were designed so that sword fighters attacking the castle could not defend themselves: since most people were right-handed, they would have no room to swing their swords since most of the stairs (not this set) were built clockwise. As our guide mentioned, left-handies would have been the secret weapon. As I clung to the railings and took my sweet time going up and down, I couldn't imagine going up and down these stairs daily in a huge skirt, or with something in my arms, or running around defending the castle. I would have had a broken neck in two minutes. Oy vey.
Out on top of one of the towers, there are more stairs set into the wall to go to the top tower. If you lost your balance, you'd be over the top. Again, I would never have made it in these times.
The tower, as I mentioned. The people are (from left to right): Miriam, Alice, some girl whose name I forgot, and Jackie.
After leaving the castle and eating lunch across the road at The Creamery, we drove back through Gort (a village a bit aways) to see the Round Tower of Kilmacduagh. Monks in the 4th and 5th centuries began to be attacked, like the rest of the country, by Viking invaders. To protect their wealth, manuscripts, and themselves, they built tall round towers which had only one door, 30 feet above the ground. They could barricade themselves in here and hide their rope ladder while being attacked. Of course, after a while the Vikings figured out how to set fire to the base and began barbequing monks, so a lot of early knowledge was lost. But still, it was a good idea and this surviving tower was pretty inspiring.

This is part of the remains of the churchyard, with the tower in the background (see what I mean about the mist?). Our guide pointed out that the crosses in Ireland are the Christian cross with the Celtic circle around it--one example among many of how the Irish combined their two religions.
More ruins from the church settlement.
We made a line of our cameras to have a group photo (which I'll have to get later); Finn, our guide/API director, made us stand still in the cold for 5 minutes while she went down the line, taking pictures.
Inside of one of the buildings.
A window from that building. It's beautiful stonework, but if you look closely you can see how the pieces are falling apart.
The tower's lone door. And some Celtic Christian crosses.
The tower. Okay, I just noticed that these are all dated 2004. It's 2010. Sorry for any confusion.

Finally, we went to Coole Park, which was planned and planted by the British in the 1800s. Only 4% of Ireland is covered in forest, and most of those trees are coniferous. This, because the British imported so many types of trees, is one of the few parks that has rare types of deciduous trees. Later, Lady Gregory used this park to promote poetry and the arts in Ireland, keeping alive many poets. One of these, W.B. Yeats, was her lover, and his signature can be found on the autograph tree (picture later). This is one of the buildings on the way in.
On the wall from the previous picture.

Part of the park.The autograph tree. At least fifteen famous Irish poets carved their names into this poor tree; there is a sign at the exhibit, but my camera died. Just trust me that this is a big deal.
The forest, where we walked to find a fairy ring (a natural circle of trees, where we each had to leave a wish for health or happiness). Our impressions of the misty trees ranged from Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter to Fern Gully, which I think was the concensus.
More trees.
By those buildings at the beginning were two female red deer (the only native deer species of the four in Ireland) and one stag.
See the stag? He's standing on the wall. This is part of a breeding program.
So that was today! And tomorrow the three of us go around Connemara with Lally's Tours again. We asked for PJ, the bus driver/guide from last time, but he's not working then. :(

The picture above shows the route: highlights include Kylemore Abbey, which we're dying to see, and the bridge from the John Wayne movie The Silent Man (among many other stops, of course). I'll share more tomorrow.

So yeah! Today was fun. I bought rechargeable batteries and a charger so my camera will work from now on, and then I made macaroni and cheese for tomorrow's potluck supper. I also made some chocolate-dipped cookies, since I had these tea cookies that were gross on their own and some leftover cooking chocolate from making tiger butter. Voila, delicious dessert! My roommates were impressed and decided to add Cheerios to the leftover melted chocolate. It was surprisingly good, although I must admit that milk is nice because it doesn't harden into a lump as you eat it with your cereal...

I got some more work done on internships too--I printed several copies of my resume and got envelopes ready to send. At this point, I need to reread my applications essays for the three or four that are ready and then just do it--send 'em in! Cross your fingers please!!

I'm going to get some sleeps before tomorrow's trip, and supper, and double does of webcam, so for now, it's good night!