Narrowly Escaped
Day 11 - Narrowly Escaped
We arrived at the laundry at 9:30 to drop off our clothes and then drove through some very narrow streets to get out of Cork and onto the highway to check out a castle ruins that Annie had recommended.
We arrived at Rock of Cashel at 11:00. The Gothic Cathedral ruins were beautiful. During the 4th and 5th centuries it was the seat of the Kings of Munster that ruled in Southern Ireland. The castle was handed over to the Catholic Church in 1101 and became the site of religious leadership until 1647 when the Cromwell armies with their superior protection and weapons slaughtered 3,000 residents.
The museum is located in the former Hall of the Vicars’ Choral - the most privileged choristers. They had an interesting video that shared some of the history of Rock of the Cashel. Between the museum and the cathedral is St Patrick’s Cross which is supposed to date back to 450 when St Patrick visited.
Walking around the cathedral was cool. Lots of ravens flying around to give the tour that ancient eerie ambience. One wall was protected because it had some of the original paintings. We could have seen more in the new chapel but you have to take the tour and the next one wasn’t for several hours.
The graveyard outside was bigger than I expected and had a mix of modern and ancient gravestones. It is always interesting to see what has stood the test of time. The views of the town, farms, and former monestary were great.
We left our vehicle in the car park and walked a short distance into town for lunch at John Feehan’s. Sheila liked her tuna salad sandwich with corn and the guys liked their roast beef and pulled pork sandwiches.
On the way to Midleton Distillery we stopped to see the farm where Annie had worked for a few months. Along the way we also stopped at a small village and checked out the ruined church and graveyard. The roads were getting narrower and narrower, in some places they have cut back the trees as tall as a bus, then leave the tops to grow over so it looks and feels like we are driving through a tunnel.
The scenery is improving and it is really neat to see lots of ancient towers, churches, and the occasional castle.
At one point enroute to the distillery the unpaved and rutted road became so narrow with walls and shrubs on either side that the sensors on my car were going off all around us. We narrowly escaped!
After accidentally going to the working distillery, we drove into a pretty little town and visited the beautiful grounds of the visitor centre for Midleton Distillery. Part of it was being restored, so we did not get to enjoy all of the grounds. The shop and outdoor seating with an airstream food truck was really nice with barrels, old stone buildings with red trimmed windows.
After the guys sampled a couple whiskys we headed back to Cork and picked up our laundry at 4:30. We had to do a panty exchange at the hotel. There were winners and losers but I will spare you the details.
On the way to dinner we walked past the English Market that looked great, too bad we don’t have time this evening and it was closed tomorrow am.
We arrived at Market Lane at 5:45 for dinner. Sheila enjoyed her first flight of beers on the trip and thought the pairing with olives was a good idea. Tricia started us off with drinks and made some great local pub recommendations before she was done work for the evening. Bill and I really liked the Skeaghanore duck pate with rhubarb chutney, sourdough toast, and gluten-free toast. I was also impressed with the Rosscarbery bacon that was like a ham / pulled pork / smoked roast with braised hispi cabbage and sweet potato fries. YUM! Doug and Bill raved about the lamb rump.
Bar Hopping:
Crane Lane Theatre
Arthur Mayne’s Pharmacy (cocktail bar)
Atlas Pub (live music)
The Castle Inn
Court Tavern
The River Club (in the Hotel Lee)
The highlights of the crawl were seeing some live traditional Irish music, Bill’s cocktail at Arthur Mayne’s, and briefly crashing the wedding at our hotel.
I was very sleepy and as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out cold.