This morning we left Kinsale and headed up north towards Dublin. Rather than drive all the way to Dublin, which is almost a five hour drive, we chose a halfway point to stop overnight. The town of Cashel is home to the famous Rock of Cashel and not much else. It wasn’t any bigger than say the town of Avon or Bailey in Colorado. We weren’t expecting much other than a place to spend the night.
We got into town early around noon and walked the town in the first ten minutes. We decided to eat lunch at a place called Feehan’s, which turned out to be a happening bar at lunch time. We both had the Club sandwich, which was a delicious three tiered sandwich with chicken salad, egg salad, bacon – everything bad for you! It, of course, came with chips and a small side of coleslaw (their version of a side salad). I had a Baileys & coffee and Jeff had an Irish coffee and more Guinness.
Then we decided to tour the Rock of Cashel. I wasn’t too enthused because it wasn’t a castle per se, but more of an abandoned, somewhat decrepit fort that the town was revitalizing. So I was thinking there wasn’t going to be much to see. Boy was I wrong. We took a self-guided tour that began with a short movie about the history of the town. And what a history! The fort was home to the Kings of Cashel and families warred over the title of King. Until one family gave the fort to the Church. The fort was then lost during the turbulent times when Ireland fought and lost to England.
The walk around the inside of the fort was amazing. Stepping into each old building and imagining it during its heyday literally amazed me. Walking around the cemetery and reading headstones that dated back to late 1700’s up to last year (apparently people are still buried there but only if their families bought the plots by the 1930’s) was also very cool. And the view from the Rock of Cashel into town presented awesome picture taking opportunities for J. Plus we spotted an old Abbey that we also visited – just the ruins but still amazing. It was called the Hore Abbey, which inspired giggles out of J.
Afterward we spent the evening in town eating dinner and drinking at a different pub with the locals, who were so nice and wonderful. We even got to hear a local sing Johnny Cash for us. J found a redhead to chat with and was quite content for most of the night. We also sat with a bunch of regulars, one of who was the town drunk – and he was quite amusing. There was also a couple of women from California and a group of school lads still wet behind the ears and guzzling beers and shots like there was no tomorrow. Cashel turned out to be more than we expected and a great ending to a wonderful trip.
