Exploring around Ennis

Hi Everyone,

Well here we are in Ennis and still no sign of a leprechaun. We have taken lots of photos of the places we have visited. Maybe you can help us look for the leprechaun in the photo's just in case I over looked him. We all stayed together in a Hostel called Rown Tree. It has won the best hostel in Ireland Award two years running. The weather here continues to have passing showers and a wind off the North Atlantic Ocean which makes it very cold and we have to wrap up warm. I fluff my feathers to keep me warm but the others need their jackets. On Tuesday morning we set off to explore the country side. 

As we headed toward the Atlantic Ocean we were waved to the side of the road by Garda who weere escorting a large bicycle race in the area.

There was a New Zealand Team in the race and they have achieved some good results. Maybe they have been on the News? We gave them all a big wave and clapped to cheer them on.

The first sight of the Atlantic Ocean we saw was at Kilkee and we stopped there for lunch. This was a small bay strewn with seaweed.

The powerful waves of the ocean were easily seen crashing into the cliffs outside the bay.. Martin, Dallas and Chance ran across the beach for a while until we set off again.

We drove to an area called Loop Head and started heading up narrower and narrower roads that climbed up along the cliffs. When we got to the top we stopped and walked along the cliff tops in the strong wind.

The grass was very bouncy underfoot and if you looked carefully it was threaded with very small flowers.

There was no fence at the cliff edge and the edge dropped suddenly to the rocks and surf far below. The next land west of this is America many kilometers away.

We continued on and after a while we found an old broken Church that we stopped and explored. The church yard contained many old graves that we had to be respectful of as we looked at the crumbled walls.

On the other side of the pennisular we found another deserted castle. Carrigaholt was built around the 15^th Century and was the scene of a battle in 1599 ending when all occupants were slain by a besieging army despite being promised mercy. The wall were really thick stone and the doors and windows have now had iron gates placed on them to stop visitor damage occurring.

We left the castle and returned to Kilkee where we tried to find a place for a cup of coffee. The only place we could find available was a Pub so we went in and ordered soft drinks to quench our thirst.

Back at Ennis the kids found a playground to explore before heading to the Hostel for Tea.

On Wednesday we went back into town looking at the shops

There was a large sculpture of Hands that symbolise welcome, hope, healing, co-operation and faith. They were huge and very detailed, so big that people could sit in them.

Has anyone seen a leprechaun yet?

Next we drove out to Clare Abbey. This was once a monastry but the buildings fell into disrepair and it has since been used as a burial ground and is still in use today.

Travelling out into an area called The Burren (meaning The stoney place) we searched for more castles. This area has a huge amount of stones in the ground.

There is so much stone that the farmers had to make fences out of it for their farms so they could uncover the fields for the grass to grow. We drove along narrow lanes that had stone fences on either side. Some had been there so long that the overgrowth completely covered them to make the lanes seem even narrower. If a vehicle came the other way we had to pull over so we could each squeeze past each other and sometimes the other vehicle was a huge tourist bus. 

The next castle we saw had been restored and was available to explore. This was the Dysert O'Dea Castle whach had been derelict before being purchased by an American descendant of the original owners.

I saw a cannon outside so I pretended to be the gunner firing at all the attacking enemy. Ha Ha I bet that would scare a leprechaun out of hiding!

I climbed the staircase and went thru the rooms at each level. The kids looked down the Murder Hole that was used to pour boiling liquid on unwanted visitors at the doorway.

 

The walls were really thick and the stairs to the top went a long way. I was able to look out the castle window and see the view the castle owners had of the country side.

When I got to the top it really was a very long way down.

We saw another castle on the way back to Ennis. It was also quite broken. This once belonged to a lady whose husband had died and she was forced to marry another man who allowed her to keep her land. Some years later she had her new husband killed and she was taken away for trial. King Carles II intervened in her case and she was let off the charges and her son became the new owner of the property.