Wednesday August 7 – A long way to Tipperary
We checked out of the Absolute Hotel in Limerick and our next destination was Kilkenny.
Our route today was to go further West out to Shanagolden and Glin and then loop back East to Kilkenny, via Tipperary. Shanagolden and Glin are two towns that Ros’s family are from.
In Shanagolden we found a parish graveyard with a very old and rundown tower. There were a number of headstones, with some familiar surnames. We are unsure if they are related, but it doesn’t hurt to take a photo in case. There was another church in town, but it seemed a lot newer (not like 1875 headstones we were looking for). I did put the drone up as well to take an aerial shot over the area.
Our next step was Glin. Glin is on the water. We visited the two churches there, directly opposite one another. Again, the gravestones are quite old but none match the names we were looking for. It would appear that a number of headstones cannot be read anymore due to weathering over time.
Following our departure from Glin, I had read about going to a few scenic places near Killarney in County Kerry. These were a little bit out of the way (further South), but we had all day to get to Kilkenny.
On the way we stopped at a town called Tralee. This was a town I saw on the map between Glin and Killarney. It would later be that it was also the name of the town of one of Ros’s ancestors as well. That must have been why it looked so familiar! We found a pub in the town to have scones and jam and cream for lunch.
We continued to our next step – Gap of Dunloe – near Killarney and one of the sights on the Ring of Kerry. Lots and lots and lots of narrow roads to get there. In the middle of nowhere we found the spot – amongst about another 50 cars parked there. We were going to walk, but Ros asked the guys using the horses how long it took on the cart. They said an hour … hell, there was a road so we might as well drive instead!
This bit of the drive was so interesting. Some people are crazy – the roads are narrow but rather than walk single file, when they saw a car they would split and a few walk on each side of the road – making it even narrower for us and more difficult to not tap anybody with the mirrors. We were also following a horse and cart for a while until there was a section wide enough so we could overtake. There was another car in front which made it a bit easier. We got to the first bridge, took some photos and decided that we would turn around and head back as it was going to take quite a while to get any further.
On the way to Kilkenny, our next stop was going to be Tipperary. There were quite a number of areas of roadworks. One particular section was really bad as it took about 30 minutes waiting to get through. We simply sat in the car and watched all the other three sections of the intersection go first. The old fella in front of us got out of his car and was walking like he was drunk explained why he was all over the road…he went around to the passenger side and started having a chat, so we knew we would be awhile.
We needed some food so we stopped at a random town on the way to Tipperary. After this, I may have scared Ros (and myself!) a bit. We had a few roads (lanes) that we were using and needing to cross larger roads. One particular spot was quite bad and I had trouble seeing what was coming. I snuffed the engine, having not been used to a manual car, while trying to keep my eyes on oncoming traffic. I conked it and the car moved halfway across the road as I was trying to restart the car to go – luckily I stuffed that up too and it took me a second or two to restart the engine because this older lady sure as hell wasn’t going to stop, and zoomed past the front of the car, and luckily nothing was coming the other way. I restarted and got the hell out of there!
We made it to Tipperary and it certainly was a long way to there, considering we really did go the long way. We passed a cemetery on the way and it was huge – biggest cemetery I have seen around those parts.
We arrived into Kilkenny – after missing the entrance to the hotel, we had to come back and go again. The hotel was nice and directly next to Kilkenny Castle – just separated by the river.
Dinner tonight was in the hotel. Lamb for myself for dinner and trout for Ros followed by desserts.
After dinner, and given it was 8:30pm and still light (sunset was 9:15pm), and there was a large section out the back of the hotel (and next door Tax Office lol) with no people around, I could launch the drone (Ros has nicknamed it the Mozzie). I put up the drone and took a few photos of the castle and surrounding areas. By this time it was 9pm and definitely bed time!
