Day Two July 13, 2017

Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, County Clare

Ireland has a lot of castles.  This castle is a National Heritage Site and an attraction to many tourists and tour groups.  It sits on the Bunratty Estate.  A portion of the estate has been set up as a representation of country life in the 19th Century.  

The Castle

deer skull chandelier

 is 15th Century and has been nicely restored.  We met in the Great Hall is its eclectic collection of decor.  The chandelier came from a hunting lodge in Germany and the armor was from all over the place.  The Great Hall is the site of Medieval dinners and entertainment with actors in period costume.

The dungeon is below and the baron's chamber is above.   It is said that when Cromwell was here and defeated the castle he invited the vanquished to walk down to the dungeon.  The stairs were unlit and the bottom "step" was a 5 meter drop onto stone.  What an awesome place to die from a broken leg!

The Battlements are still in place and repaired.  The moat is dry.

The Folk Park features cottages and a small village such as might have been in the 19th Century (if you ignore the Great Famine!).  There were docents to teach about thatching, about roofs and peat fires.  Each and every road and crossroad would have a cross or Madonna and Child to mark the way.  The Celtic Cross is attributed to St.Patrick.  He combined the Christina cruciform with a circle to represent the sun, the principal deity for the non-Catholic Irish to whom he preached.

Glendalough.  Celtic Cross.

Crossroads Statue in niche, Folk Park

Peat Turf Fire

rope holding down thatch and amazing blue sky

spiders like thatch too

I enjoyed the waterwheel that ran the grindstone and listening to a young woman singing traditional songs.

Then it was time to pile back into the buses and head for a rehearsal for our first concert 

Bedroom of a farmer cottage

at Redemptorist Church.