Day 3: Celtic Kingdoms

Yesterday was absolutely lovely.  The day started off with a bag pool at around 7:00, where they came around and took our bags and loaded them on the bus.  We loaded the bus and were off to the Rock of Cashel.  We stopped at the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel for tea and scones.  Our guide Paul convinced our other guide to treat us all.  It was spectacular.

We then arrived at the Rock of Cashel.  It was beautiful.  They were doing some conservation work on parts of the building, so my pictures have some scaffolding.  This "rock" was apparently the site of a King of Munster by St. Patrick.  The rock is actually more like a castle.  It was stunning in it's architecture.  The keep seems to be pretty well-intact, but the church has many of it's walls fallen.  There is also a round tower, which our guide claimed as an Irish building.

After the Rock of Cashel, we got on the bus to Killarney.  During the ride we watched Darby O'Gill and the Little People!  Such a great movie.  When we got to Killarney the Town Crier greeted us and posed for a picture.  We were left on our own for dinner, so we walked to a little pub and since we missed the first night we were told that we would have our dinner paid for.  I was a little conservative, but The-Person-I-Am-Travelling-With got himself a nice seafood spread.  Right now Killarney is pretty busy.  There is a Summer Festival going on and the Irish Open is happening now.

At 9:00 we went on a Ghost Tour.  The tour was really cool. We got on a big charter bus that was all decked out with spooky decorations.  There were two guides on this tour who are traditional story tellers and they told us several local stories of hauntings.  They were great story tellers.  We were taken to two different sites on which they told stories.  The first place we went was Ross Castle:

Ross Castle is apparently haunted by the daughter of an Officer Brown, Emily.  Her ghost is said to be seen on the top battlements on the castle and on the turrets.  Mostly people see orbs in their pictures.  I had no orbs.  That was perfectly fine with me.  The next site we went to was a monastery in Killarney National Park.  Of course we had to walk through a creepy graveyard.  Then we walked through the monastery, which was pitch black.  He had us stand in a room that had the most activity for about 2 minutes in pitch black.  I stood across from the opening that lead out into the hall, and I could make out a dark form.  When the lights came on my suspicions were confirmed... it was the other guide.  He kept jumping out of places trying to scare people.  I didn't really get a sense of fear in either place.  However, as we were walking back to the bus I was talking to The-Person-I-Am-Travelling-With about something when someone jumped out of the darkness and grabbed me.  My heart pounded for quite some time after that.  It was a great tour with some great stories.  If you find yourself around Killarney ever, it was a great trip.