Rock of Cashel and King John's Castle

I think this was one of my favourite stops. The Rock of Cashel is a castle-turned abbey located near the town of Cashel in Co. Tipperary. It is really cool. Local fable says that while the devil was chasing St. Patrick around the island, he spotted him near the town of Cashel (4th Century or so, keep in mind). He took a huge bit out of a distant mountain range, flew over, and spat the rock at St. Patrick. Of course, being one of God's divine messangers, the rock missed. St. Patty was quick to bless it and baptize the local king. Good story. A castle was built on the site, and it was eventually given to the church, and the archbishop lived there. The buildings are incredible. Most don't have roofs, and some of the walls are falling over, but you can see secret passage ways, that would have helped the archbishop escape during a siege and get an idea of how magnificent it would have been back in the day. One of the coolest buildings was a small cathedral near the back of the complex, built by a king or priest... I don't remember. The roof is still intact, and on the ceiling (not the one with all the mould Shannon), beautiful paintings depicting Bible stories were recently discovered, and are being uncovered and restored. The other neat feature was an empty tomb near the door, with Viking carvings covering it.

Ok, one other neat feature. In the front court yard is a replica of St. Patrick's cross. Fable has it, that if you can reach your arms around the cross, and hug it, you will have good health in the coming year. If you hop around it on one foot, counter-clockwise, you will have bad luck in the coming year. If you hop around it on one foot clockwise, you will be married within the year. Steph decided she couldn't pass up the opportunity to look silly (kidding ;) and started to hop around the cross. She was about 3/4 the way around when a passerby remarked that she was hopping the wrong way if she wanted to get married. oops...

Upon our return to Limerick, we dropped off the car, and headed back into town. I wanted to tour King John's Castle, and Steph had errands to do. For those who don't know, King John is the King of England who, according to Disney, stole his brother's crown while Richard was off crusading. There has only been one King John, and they say he was so mean, no one ever wants to be associated with him again. The castle was kitchy, but the archeological excavations below the castle are really cool, and my favourite part. I learned the origin of undermine. During conflicts and invasions. The aggressor would dig (or undermine) a tunnel under the castle wall. They would then light fires in it, weakening the wall, and allow the above ground crew to break through.

And now for the saddest part. I don't have pictures. Nope, I erased all my pictures from that day. I downloaded them Thursday evening, and burned a disc for Steph (because her camera stopped working on our first day of touring). I checked to make sure they were all there before burning the disc... but I guess something went wrong during the download, and they weren't. When I got to NYC, I blew all the pictures off my one memory card to make room for NY pictures, thinking I had them on the computer already. I made the discovery Monday night when I got home. Steph has already promised to visit there again... so you'll have to wait until December.