CASTLE MANIA (Day 6) ending in Cork (the suicide city)

The first castle we saw was Dungohaire castle.  Yes, it sounds like Dung Air.  Haha.  Anyhow, it was a neat castle.  They used to close up all their sheep and cattle into the castle courtyard every night to protect them from wolves and marauders.  Crazy!  

Brian liked these little thatched cottages.  I told him he should live in one.  And deal with the mice.  Haha.

We had to stop along the road when a farmer used the little roadway to move his cattle from one field to the other.  There were also lots of annoying buses like this one.

We saw the Cliffs on Insanity from Princess Bride!!  (Maybe not, but they looked like them anyway!)  It is actually called the Cliffs of Mohir.  They are really beautiful but it was raining so while we should have really relished it, we kind of went, paid, went in and walked up and left.  That was probably my fault.  I was tired of being cold and wet!  Haha.  Anyhow, here's the guys with the cliffs behind them.

 Me and my honey.  I was wearing his sweatshirt because I was cold.

 The little tower castle at the Cliffs.

 They were really gorgeous...

The next castle we saw was bumratty!

Bunratty had a really neat little medieval town inside it that would have been a lot of fun for kids.   

They also had this tiny little door in the gate.  What was it for?? Pets?  Midgets!?? Hobbits!?

After Bumratty castle, we saw this sign.  I found it kind of funny!  It says no "dumping" which I presume means throwing trash from your car, or dumping it out but you know it means something else here.  I am guessing they'd frown on people doing what it means in the states, too.  

 

The next thing we saw was King John's Castle.  It was REALLY neat.  It may have been my favorite tour castle.

There was a lot of information--and a ton of interactive stuff.  We really learned a lot about Ireland's history, like starting in 900 AD.  Pretty neat.  I had no idea so many different people had gone in and invaded.  I also didn't know Queen Elizabeth was so vicious!  She was kind of a terrible ruler when it comes to her policies on Ireland.  Too bad for her it cost her way more than she ever made.

This blacksmith was REALLY nice.  Stinky, but nice.  Haha.

Here are the warriors, ready for war.  Whit almost couldn't get that helmet on his head!!!

This was one of the views from the top.

It was raining here.  I did the editing to make it cross grain.  Not sure why.  Just fooling around.  It was a cool courtyard and they showed us all the levels under the ground on the castle.  During lots of sieges there was a lot of tunneling, plus they had basements and storage under there and two living levels under this ground level!  Really neat.

The last place we went for the day was Blarney Castle.  To kiss the Blarney stone!!  It was also a gorgeous castle.

 Whitney has done this somewhere on every single trip we've taken without kids.  I insisted he do it on this one too.  He says it's getting harder as he gets older.  He's so COOL!

 WEIRD Decorations in the gardens!  Haha. EYEBALLS!

 Whit posing with the eyeballs!!

In this one you can see the heather.  That purple flower was growing ALL OVER Scotland but it's in Ireland kind of a lot, too.

Look how tiny the stairwells (and doorways) are.  They were like this in all the castles, but I never thought to get a photo of it until now.  If you're claustrophobic, a castle is not meant for you!

 In this one, they hung a rope as a handrail.  It was better than nothing.  That rock is uneven and slippery!! I feel sorry for people carrying things up into castles.  I have no idea how they got furniture upstairs!!!

This one was restored a bit, but they left the floors off all the main levels so you could see how the place was built.  It was kinda neat to see so many levels from the top by the Blarney stone.

This is straight across from the stone.

Here's Whit kissing the stone.  It was a little scary and it happens fast!  There was a guy there, but I swear he didn't help at all.  I'm not sure why he's even there.  I got a photo of Brian and Whit, but guess who photographed me?? NO ONE!! Sheesh.  Boys.  

 Brian "braving" sitting by one of the arrow slits.  You can get shot right there!

 The word Craic means a rollicking good time.  You pronounce it "crack".  So in Ireland, if "you had crack," it means you had a good time.  I guess it means that in the USA too...

 Here's Whit standing under the "murder hole."  What's that, you wonder?  Oh.  I'll tell you.

 Here's the explanation.  :-)

Here's a cool bench that was outside.  It had been raining so it was wet, but Whit "perched on it" for a photo.

This is a view of the stone from underneath.  You have to lean out over it.  This placard kind of describes it.

Here's the view from the top of the castle (one tower, anyway).

This is outside the poison garden...

After the poison garden we checked out the dungeon.  There was a creepy spider in there too, in case dank, dark, crappy rock holes aren't scary enough.

Past the dungeon, they had caves where the people from the castle had escaped several times.  Kinda neat.  We didn't go too far, but they were scary!  And dark.  :-)

Oh, it was raining outside.  I wanted a shot of the boys standing in the rain.  So Brian handed me his camera so I could get it... they were good sports.  That's when I fumbled and dropped his camera.  Brian didn't even cry.  Phew.  

Cool shot, though, right??

 Here's the castle from the cave area.  ROCKY!  Kinda neat how tall it was.  Whit climbed all the way to the top.  (Not!)

We ended our day in Cork.  I'd booked a hotel there online that turned out to be hard to find AND really on a steep hill that was HARD to drive and park on.  Hence the suicide city reference.  He did finally make it, without getting into any accidents, which was kind of a miracle.  Thanks to Brian, Whit and I didn't yell at each other a single time!  He's a pretty calm navigator.  

Here's a shot of our room.