ireland - day 6

this is bunratty castle. notice how it's much more compact than yesterday's castle? i took this as a very good sign. and inside it was amazing! all stone ... all medieval. you actual enter by crossing the drawbridge. take that kilkenny!


the terlet.


the drawbridge mechanisms (locked so you can't actually take over the castle by shutting out other tourists).


and, kid you not, the MURDER HOLE! so i'm standing, looking at the drawbridge mechanisms, and a tour guide comes out & tells me that i'm looking at the drawbridge mechanisms. and then says something along the lines of, "and if you look at the floor between us, you'll see the murder hole. this is where you would pour boiling oil on your enemies when they attacked." and then he walked away.

he's right. i would pour boiling oil on my enemies if they tried attacking my castle.


two of the four towers are open for tourists. although the stairs were a little tight ... it was great fun to be one top of the castle.


from the tower.

after bunratty we headed towards killarney & did some souvenier shopping. had lunch at a pub that had a bottle of haig sitting on their shelf. i'm sure marlana will post that photo. :)

after killarney we headed to kenmare to see how far around the ring of kerry we could get. it was getting late in the afternoon, though, so we knew we wouldn't go far. on the way, we stopped at the torc waterfall.


the walk to the waterfall was amazing in & of itself. every tree was covered in moss. it was the greenest path i've ever seen.


and the waterfall wasn't too bad, either. ;)


the lakes of killarney.


the stone ring in kenmare. a little disappointing. the assumption is that it functioned as a seasonal clock, much like stone henge. but it's scale is much smaller. the tallest rock is maybe four feet high. and it's hedged in such a way that it's impossible to get a photo of the whole scene.

we headed back to adare after the stone circle. we were tired, and we have to pack tonight as the flight home is fairly early. i can't believe i'm coming home tomorrow! yikes!


we drove back through the lakes of killarney on the way to adare. with the sun setting i couldn't help but stop & shoot more photos. we never saw a pretty colors sunset in ireland. it always seems to get really hazy as the sun's going down & it just gets dark. maybe it's a seasonal thing? regardless, it's still amazingly beautiful here.

we went back to sean's for dinner again tonight. we wanted to thank him for the fabulous advice on going to bunratty. tonight i drank a harp, my third irish beer. add the shot of jameson, and i'm pretty pleased with my trials of the local drinks. :)

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'becca doesn't want to leave.