Sunday morning, we headed south for Tullamore from the Giants Causeway, leaving around 8:00 A.M. which is 2:00 A.M. central time. Christy did a fantastic job of driving on the wrong side of the road, in the wrong side of the car, and shifting with the left hand. Every turn it was “left turn near, right turn far”. Ireland also likes its round-abouts, it took 3 times around one before google maps figured out which exit we needed. Morgan was a great navigator with google maps. Most of the roads were 2 way traffic but some we took were L roads which mean local and only wide enough for one car. When you met another car, you stopped at a wide place in the road, or one backed up to one. With stone walls and hedges close to the road, and by close, I mean reach out and touch them close, there was not much leeway. Morgan kept saying “Mom, hug your side of the road”.
Tullamore D.E.W.
We toured the distillery at Tullamore. I really really liked the 12 year old special reserve blend.
Althone Castle
The stone castle which survives today dates from 1210 and was built for King John. It was built to defend the crossing point of the river at Athlone and to provide a bridgehead to facilitate the Norman advance into Connaught.
The castle of 1210 was a free standing polygonal tower built on a newly buil ‘motte’ or man-made hill. This tower, though greatly altered, can still be seen as the central keep or ‘donjon’ of the castle today.
The castle was greatly fortified in the late 13th century (c1276) when the original ‘motte’ was surrounded with a curtain wall with three-quarter round towers (or drum towers) at the corner. These features, again greatly rebuilt, still survive today. The external walls and towers came under heavy fire during the Sieges of Athlone in 1690-91 and were later destroyed when lightning struck the castle in 1697. The castle as we view it today shows signs of extensive remodelling during the Napoleonic era when it was modernised and adapted for artillery.
Cliffs of Moher
We were very disappointed to receive an email that our boat tour of the Cliffs was cancelled due to high seas expected. It rained on us while there and the wind blew hard. We didn’t get to explore as much as we had planned.
Chaos, Mischief, and Kerfluffle 