(I apologize for not posting anything for the past month. A lot has been going on since and I’m now just getting caught up on posts. I thank you for your patience. The pause started with dental work, a visitor, and a ski trip. But we are back!)

January 7, 2017

I’ve been wanting to take a trip out to Glendalough which is located just south of Dublin in the Wicklow mountains. This mountain range is well known for its lush green mountains and beautiful valleys. Glendalough has a medieval monastic ruin that dates back to the 6th Century. Glendalough means valley of the 2 lakes. I first heard about this area when on a honeymoon cruise that stopped in Dublin for a day. Given a choice between visiting this historic site, or seeing the city for the first time, we chose to explore Dublin. But this tour has been on my mind and I was happy to have the opportunity to make a trip out to this glacial valley.

On this cloudy and rainy Saturday, we met up with our tour bus next to St. Stephen’s Green near Grafton Street. We had picked up coffee-to-go from a delicious chocolate shop called Butler’s (they have amazing-tasting mochas by the way) and were about to step onto the tour bus when we were told that drinks are discouraged on the bus. So we stood outside and drank our coffee while talking with the bus driver. Thankfully, we were early so we were able to watch the rest of the tour group arrive.

At 10:45, we were on our way. The tour guide gave us a delightful explanation of the buildings as we passed the south side of the city out to the countryside.

First stop was Glendalough. This is signified by a tower, common at many medieval monasteries, that acted as a watch tower for impending hoarding thieves looking for riches (many of the monasteries had money and gold), as well as providing protection for those living and working at the monasteries. The door was located yards up the tower that was accessible by a ladder. Once people and treasures were safe inside, the ladder was pulled up and it became hard for thieves to access the inside of the towers.

This monastery was founded by St. Kevin. What I found most impressive about this monastery is its imposing watch tower and the idyllic Irish-country scenery next to a majestic lake. Grant says, as a true archictect would, his favorite thing about this place was seeing the ruined stone buildings and observing how these old structures were put together.

 

 

 

 

Our tour guide said that if you walked around the tower clockwise, you would find marital bliss but if you walked around it counterclockwise 3 times, you could undo your marriage. Grant and I didn’t want to chance getting the direction wrong, so we stayed away.

We walked down to the lower lake and got a beautiful reflection of the mountains in the placid water.

 

 

 

We continued to explore the monastic grounds:

 

 

Next stop is a lookout of the Wicklow mountain range. And right up in sync with Murphy’s law, a cloud of fog rolled in just as we stopped to take pictures. So we waited a little while. Several movies were filmed here including scenes of Ireland in “Far and Away”, probably the very foggy scene with the pistol duel between Tom Cruise and the other guy. I loved this movie so I was super excited to take my photos here.

Finally, some of the fog rolled away:

 

Next, we drove southward to the medieval town of Kilkenny. I didn’t know much about this town but I was pleasantly surprised. They had a stunning intact castle but we didn’t have time to tour it. As soon as we got to town, we went to a pub called The Field (an Irish sports-themed bar complete with a metal turnstile at the entrance) and ordered lunch. I ordered a steak sandwich with fries, and a side order of hurling paraphernalia.

 

 

After lunch, we met up with our tour guide for a walking tour of the city. We started at the Kilkenny Castle:

 

 

 

Here is the picture of a house of a wealthy merchant who had four kids. Then later he had four more so he built a duplicate house right behind the first one. Another four kids later, and he built yet another duplicate house behind the first copy. So if you look through this doorway, you can see the house and its two dopplegangers:

 

 

We walked down a little alley to one of the little pockets in the city that is built in a completely Georgian style and is well-preserved. This is an Alms house where they would give out bread and food to the poor:

 

 

Row of colored houses that our guide likes:

 

 

This is the Black Abbey, a church built by the Dominican Order in 1225. The tower was built in 1507 and became used as a courthouse in 1543. Sometime after that, the abbey fell into ruin and it was regained by the Dominican Order during the 19th Century. They had it repaired. Today, services are held and it is still an abbey. Grant says the windows are of a Gothic style:

 

 

 

 

Kilkenny is an adorable Irish town with its medieval roots laid out for all the world to see, if you know how to find it. From a preserved old jail, to the old town market, to the alleys (such as butter alley, where the dairy farmers would sell their butter with pride), to old bars where it was rumored that the wealthy of the town would lead “Eyes Wide Shut” type ceremonies that lead to one of the their servents, Petronella, getting executed for witchcraft; Kilkenny is rich with history and intrigue.

We were fortunate to find a tour company that did both Glendalough and Kilkenny, Collins Day Tours.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017