Skip to main content

Rock of Cashel

As I wind down my sojourn here in Ireland, I had been thinking of the places I hadn't yet visited. One place that is fairly close to us is the Rock of Cashel. 

It is this massive, castle-like ruin on top of, well, a huge rock in Tipperary. The traditional seat of the Kings of Munster, there is also a legend about St. Patrick and the Devil--one of the many! It is about an hour and a half's drive from here and a hugely popular tourist attraction. Which is why I avoided it until the end of August. But Sheila's visit from England was a great opportunity to go and on this mostly sunny day I drove over, stopping briefly at a favorite breakfast stop, Dove Hill just outside of Carraig-on-Suir.

The Rock certainly didn't disappoint. Much like Edinburgh Castle it looms over the small town of Cashel. You see it as soon as you turn down the road into the town. And then it disappears from view, you park your car and trudge up a winding road and, voila, there it is again.





Despite the day being relatively fine (for Ireland), there really weren't that many tourists around. Which made exploring the site very pleasant. We opted to join a guided tour so that we could get the full story about the Rock. That was great because the guide did indeed tell us loads of interesting things about it. The oldest building, the round tower, was built around 1100 and donated by the High King of Munster, Murtough O'Brien, great grandson of the famous Brian Boru, to the Church at the time. The guide said it was because, really, the place was way too damp and drafty even for a king of Ireland.

The beautiful Cormac's Chapel was built between 1127 and 1134. It has vaulted ceilings and amazing arches and the remains of some beautiful frescoes. Sadly the frescoes are degrading despite efforts to preserve them. It is just too. . .damp.









I am so glad that I saw this in "real life." Photos really can't capture the feeling and beauty of the Chapel.

And then there was the graveyard. I confess that I lost interest in what the guide was saying and started focusing on the inscriptions. I took about 30 photos to add to our website. The graveyard is soon be closed to further burials--they took a kind of census of people who had the right (because of previous generations being buried there) to be interred in I think 1930 (or was it 1950?). And there are only 3 people still living who are on that list. So it's full and it is too difficult to bury in the "rock" anyway. 

The top of this Scully monument was broken off by lightning in 1977











We visited the Vicars Choral building before we left. Magnificent tapestry inside.









When we were on the Rock, we could see the ruins of Hore Abbey below. After a sandwich at a pub in Cashel, we went to Hore. It is a "typical" (i.e., what I have seen several of in Ireland) ruined Abbey but the view from Hore to the Rock was beautiful. Amazing to think of monks in the Abbey looking up at the Rock. And processing between the two perhaps.










Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Life on board the Queen Mary

Passenger's log on the Queen Mary 2: Dec 9th - First Day at Sea Didn't sleep well--think it was the soused mackerel at dinner. Anyway, R and I woke up at about 6:00 am and discussed the order of the day. Quite the swell outside and I can feel the roll of the ship. (No seasickness thank goodness!) Despite the mackerel, I was hungry so we went to King's Court at 6:30 a.m. Buffet with loads of choice of course. We sat in an alcove looking out at the ocean. Our server was from Croatia, Slavan. I asked him my burning question of the day--why did we get a free bottle of wine but a regular bottle of Diet Coke cost $3.75? Diet Pepsi is $1.00 less. Fruit juices are free on tap. Coffee, tea, milk, ditto. But you have to pay for soft drinks. Very odd. Slavan says it is because Cunard can't get a good contract with Coke. Hmmm.... our local School District back in Sierra Vista can negotiate .50 a can for the soda machines in the teachers' lounges but Cunard has to cha...

Sunday in Richmond Park & Memories

  One of the reasons I came back to London after Ireland was to keep a date with my cousin Elizabeth: a Sunday morning walk in Richmond Park. When I moved to England in May of 1978, I rented a room in a house near Richmond Park. I'd heard of the room through a colleague at McGill University's Human Resources Department, where I was working as a Senior Clerk. Montreal had become a bit difficult for me to be in owing to a twice-broken heart and a feeling I wasn't going anywhere at McGill. It seemed like an omen, then, on the plane returning from South Africa in January of 1978--I keep promising to write about that--that I came across an article in a magazine about young Canadians living in London. I'd always loved the idea of being in London what with growing up on a diet of British movies and then all of the articles about Swinging London in the 1960s/early 1970s.  By the time I arrived at Mirabel Airport, I had the perfect antidote to my wounded pride over South...

Duckett's Grove/Castle, Co. Carlow

Golly I am tired tonight! We had a really busy day. We went into Carlow town to return a pair of sweatpants that R. bought and didn't like. I also went to the Bank of Ireland and started up my bank account. They do things very differently here than in Sierra Vista. There are no tellers for simple deposits or withdrawals; the bank branch in Carlow consists of four ATM machines and one international exchange cashier. And three personal bankers who are extremely helpful. I discovered that you don't make a deposit, you make a lodgment. Weird, eh? We went to Tesco's after the bank to get our every-other-day food shopping done. Small refrigerators--have to be careful in buying. We also bought some new "orthopedic" pillows that will hopefully help our neck issues. Bought a couple of pre-made sandwiches and ate them in the car when we parked at Duckett's Grove. Duckett's Grove is a ruined 19th century great house whose owners kept redesigning the original house ...