Greetings from Blarney

Again I could only manage to upload one photo, but we have had a glorious day among rocks and ruins, starting with the Rock of Dunamase a.k.a. Dunamase Castle, a town dating to the 800s which has been crumbling since 1650 yet remains an imposing, impressive ruin. From there we went to Holycross, a restored Cistercian abbey from the 1100s with a relic of the True Cross. Then we went to the famous Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary with its 12th-century tower, 13th-century Gothic cathedral ruins, and sheep. We stopped at the Cashel Woollen Store to buy Aran sweaters -- I have wanted one for years and was never sure of my size, so I finally got to try them on. 

After grabbing lunch at a nearby travel plaza, we drove to St. Patrick's Well, which has the remains of a ancient church and stone cross as well as the spring-fed water. We spent a lot of time after that in the rain at Cahir Castle, built in the 1100s, besieged by Essex for Elizabeth I, restored in the 1840s, and largely intact now, even the prison cells -- you've probably seen it in a movie or TV show, it's appeared in everything from The Tudors to Excalibur (and has a sword in the stone). A large flock of geese, ducks, and swans tried to persuade us to feed them, though the crows and rooks were not impressed. Now we're in Blarney, where we just ate dinner at the Muskerry Arms.