ireland - day 4

day 4 began with a lovely breakfast at carriglea from our hostess, josephine. both my husband and i had some bacon and eggs with our fruit and breads. at this point, it bears mentioning that irish bacon is different from american bacon. in ireland, bacon is really just a fried slice of ham. and it's delicious! i really miss my irish bacon.

while in kilkenny for the morning, we visited kilkenny castle and st. canice's cathedral. the castle is a huge and fun building, but i was slightly disappointed at the period depicted in the restored interiors. of course, since it was an occupied castle for so long, i understand, but still - i love the older history. now, st. canice's cathedral was one of the favorite places we visited on our travels. the staff were very sweet and helpful. and for the better part of our visit, my husband and i were the only two people on the church grounds. we climbed the round tower, an idea i had initially balked at as someone who suffers from slights fears of tightly enclosed spaces and heights. but the views were great and the climb wasn't too bad.



after climbing the round tower, we spent some time touring the interior of the cathedral. there are many great carving and tombs that i loved exploring. i was also amused by the push for a presidential visit from barack obama given that apparently one of his ancestors is buried in the church. all in all, st. canice's is definitely worth some of your time if you are in kilkenny. after visiting the cathedral, we did a little early christmas shopping before hopping back into our trusty fiat and heading out to cashel.

we visited the rock of cashel which has some truly spectacular ruins of a medieval cathedral and surrounding buildings.
there's just something about the stone, mossy ruins with missing windows and roofs that is both eerie and beautiful. we wandered around on our own for about 30 mintues before catching the tour of the property, which i highly recommend to put the ruins in perspective.

after visiting the rock, we headed for cahir castle. this was another of my favorite sites that we visited. cahir castle is very large and has lots of buildings and towers to climb and explore. we opted not to do the guided tour here and instead explored on our own. there are some great examples of defensive castle features here as well.


after such a busy sightseeing day, we headed to our b&b in lismore, the glencairn inn. our host (and chef) stephane, greeted us warmly and showed us to our lovely room. our reservation included dinner in the home's restaurant, pastis, and i can highly recommend this, if you're in the area. we dined by a crackling fire, with our hostess fiona, serving up stephane's great french fare. my husband had a steak frite and a chocolate dessert and enjoyed some potato soup along with the coq au vin before indulging in an apple tart. it was a filling and enjoyable meal and soon we were full and heading to bed.