Saturday, July 2, 2016

Tralee And The National Folk Theatre of Ireland

Moving on into County Kerry, we headed to old friend Tralee, staying again at the Woodlands Park campground, just a ten minute walk to the city center, specifically to see a production of Siamsa Tire, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland. In 2009, we had seen their Fado, Fado--Life in Ireland in Times Past, with which we were impressed. This time we chose Turas, a two-hour medley of traditional music, song, instrumentals, and dance. We were more than impressed. There is a no fotos! policy with things of this sort, so I have only the stage before and the closing bows. It was fabulous, however, and something we'd recommend most highly.
















Friday, July 1, 2016

Lough Gur Stone Circle And Tomb

Carrying on through County Limerick, we came to Lough Gur, one of Ireland's hundreds of beautiful lakes. There are several megalithic sites around, and we wanted to see the so-called wedge tomb (to us, an allee couverte) and the great Grange Stone Circle, Ireland's largest, 150 feet in diameter, with 113 stones, ranging to almost 3 meters high, and oriented toward the summer solstice sunrise. Standard neolithic, c.3,000 BC, although considerable broken Beaker People pottery was found above the clay mound inside the circle.
A bit of beautiful Lough Gur

Two views of the wedge tomb


All the rock conglomerate

Modern day entrance to the circle

Panning around


Largest of the orthostats, 45 tons; the 360 degrees are divided
by 12 such rocks, each directly facing its counterpart across
the circle

Tree vs. stone; trees always win



Entry way; the sun shines right down the path
on summer solstice sunrise

Whirling dervish pano view of the circle

Kilduff Castle; And So Much More

So we are driving along in County Limerick, and Vicki shouts "pull over!" She is ever on the look-out for real estate bargains and the prospect of flipping something really interesting, and I knew at once she was on to something.
Indeed it was a castle, Kilduff Castle
















Thus
















Actually just a tower house (or tower of power,
as we called them in Scotland); but still quite
interesting






















Alas, it failed our basic criteria of having at
least three walls and a roof





















My examination of the premises certainly attracted the
interest of a flinklet of bovines passing by

















But, no, this was not a prospective flipper
















Looking around, I noticed I was standing in the midst of
someone's private exhibit...

















19th century hand pump; we were to see many of
these in the western counties





















Bog wood: and a big piece, too; shorter version: 8,000-10,0000
years ago much of Ireland was covered by dense conifer forests;
conifers retain much of the moisture that falls in their upper
limbs, etc; there were few bogs; then there was a warmer/dryer
climate, humans arrived and deforested the place, and, with
more climate change, the bogs began growing; occasionally,
a solitary tree would succomb and fall into the bog to be thus
preserved; dendrochronology with bog wood can be carried out
to the extent of 10,000 years...























So the cows kept lumbering by and at length I noticed they
were using a cow under-pass to get past the highway

















We have seen cow over-passes before, but never an under-pass
















Emerging on the other side
















To join the much larger herd on the other side
















All this going on at St. Anthony's Nursing Home and adjacent
lands


















Thursday, June 30, 2016

Rock Of Cashel

We'd visited the Rock in 2009, but it was on the way in 2016 and turned out to be another place we stayed over-night more or less free. It was here too that we bought our OPW Irish Heritage cards. Another great deal. Important places have stood on the Rock--seats of ancient Irish kings, church stuff, etc.--but the oldest still around is the round tower, from about 1100 AD. The churchly buildings and bishop's residence date from slightly later times.
Someone else's photo, but there it is














Helpful illustration
















Inside Cormac McCarthy's Chapel (I read All
the Pretty Horses years ago and hated, hated it;
but I digress); the chapel is Romanesque,
consecrated 1134, and thus I was set off looking
for funny faces (I mean Herefordshire School
corbel and capital art) while the young guide
droned on

























































































Bishops' residence
















Occasionally, over the centuries, chunks fall
down





















Ruins of Cistercian abbey in valley
















More faces, exterior of cathedral
















The round tower




















Inside the cathedral; note the little doorways that allowed
circumnavigation of the building in the gallery

















Images from the bestiary?
















Looking back to the whole complex from the cemetery
















A prominent local family erected this monument...apparently
too much for the gods, who destroyed it with lightning

















Thus
















And thus
















Original very old cross, now in the museum;
very old





















Still processing this one...