Last Ireland post!

Now we come to the end of our journey. Let’s get some good contemporary Irish music on this final gallery – my favorite Irish boys from a teensy little band called U2. Click here, click slideshows, and enter "ireland5"

On day 9, we visited County Kilkenny and took in some amazing sights. We wandered off the beaten path to explore Kells Priory, an ancient monastic site. You can see from the map in the gallery just how extensive this site was. It took some walking and exploring to reach the site, and again, we were the only ones there (aside from some workers restoring part of the site). We actually started out in the wrong place, started to walk across a field filled with sheep and scattered with sheep byproduct. Afraid of stepping in ick, and also afraid of being attacked by sheep (do sheep attack?), we retreated and drove to the proper entrance of the priory.

Then we headed to nearby Jerpoint Abbey, a very famous landmark near Thomastown. Jerpoint Abbey was constructed in 1180AD, and is still mostly intact, with some beautiful carvings. Luckily, as with much of our trip, we didn’t have to compete with masses of tourists!

Driving through the country was just lovely – hilly, green, curvy and lots of sheep!

We drove into Kilkenny and walked around a bit, but the town was packed and traffic was utterly horrible. We stopped for a smoothie and watched people going about their lives. There was a decent fiddle player performing in a busy alley. In our 20 minutes of sitting, we must have heard “Memories” three times. Must have been a popular tipping song.

Finally, leaving the throngs behind, we headed to our bed and breakfast. Oh. My. Goodness. Ballaghtobin Country House has been in the owner’s family for about 400 years. It was partially destroyed by a fire and rebuilt, but much of the original structure and style remains. And oh, was it lovely. Truly a graceful old house, full of character. The sitting room was full of books! Oh joy! Kevin and I took a stroll around the extensive grounds, taking in the ruined Norman church, huge old trees, lovely gardens and overrun wild growth. Ballaghtobin is still a working farm, and is slowly being restored. We met two lovely old English chaps, friends since childhood and continuing a tradition of vacationing together every year. What else do you discuss with the English but politics and economics? In the library? Over glasses of wine? Oh my, it was fun.

The next day, day 10, was our last day in Ireland. We made our way east to Glendalough (pronounced glen-da-lock). This is the area where St. Kevin wandered in the 6^th century seeking serenity and a place for meditation. But his popularity grew and people sought him out, building churches, living quarters and a school. We saw the upper lake, a ruined church, a waterfall, and we also did some hiking. We could tell that tourist season was in full swing in early May – the parking lot for the lower lake and substantial monastic settlement was overflowing!

Leaving St. Kevin behind (but not MY saint Kevin), we drove to Powerscourt Estate, a 13^th century castle restored in the 18^th and 20^th centuries. Now the estate contains 47 acres of landscaped gardens including Japanese gardens, Triton lake, walled gardens and lovely gates. We spent some wonderful time wandering in the sunshine before we had to drive back to Dublin.

We stayed our final, bittersweet night at the Azalea Lounge B&B, a lovely restored Georgian house from 1917. We again enjoyed lovely Dublin food (Dublin has AMAZING food) and prepared to depart. The next morning we returned to the airport and departed.

Ireland was absolutely fantastic, and we WILL be going back someday! What a dream trip!