Castles, Chickens, Schools, and Pig Stys

June 2, 2007
The tour offered a 'full Irish breakfast" each morning. At Bunratty, this consisted of a base of scrambled eggs and what they called bacon, but we would call Canadian bacon or ham. I tried to stay away from the salty meats because of the swelling in my ankles, but I ate the eggs. To earn the title of a "full breakfast" a number of other ingredients are expected. In this case, we had

• toast
• sausages
• grilled tomatoes
• fried mushrooms
• black pudding
• baked beans
• sautéed potatoes
• condiments such as brown sauce

There was also cheese, cereal (hot and cold), apples and bananas, sweet rolls, bread rolls, butter and jam, juice and milk accompanied by tea or coffee

Scrambled eggs and fried potatoes

Mushrooms and Tomatoes

My breakfast the first morning with black pudding

The weather was drizzly rain. Got up and edited pictures and wrote email until about 10 and then decided it wasn't going to stop raining, so we walked to the little shopping area around the corner from the hotel,

The pedestrian mall in the rain

Postcard racks

buying stamps

which includes the regular Irish post office in Bunratty where my grandson bought stamps for his postcards to send home to his family.

In the Victorian age, the Post Office services ranged from mail to banking (Post Office Savings Bank 1861) and telegraphs and telephones to the payment of old age pensions (1909). Following independence in 1922, the Department of Posts and Telegraphs gradually took on new agency work for the Departments of Social Welfare and Finance. Deliveries in rural areas were extended, motorized transport introduced and the telephone network expanded. The range of the Department's responsibilities led in the 1970's to plans for the break-up of the Department into two new State companies, one for telecommunications and the other for postal and agency services. In 1984, the Post Office was re-established as An Post.

Mailbox

Phone Outside in the rain

Stone seat/memorial near PO

In addition to the little post office where my grandson bought stamps for his postcards there was Blarney Woolen Mills.

The website says that it... has everything you could wish for with names like Waterford Crystal, Belleek and Royal Tara as well as Jewelry, Linens, Irish Tweeds and Knitwear. We deliver to anywhere in the world But the things that we got were not the glossy souvenir type things or the crystal or knitwear.

We got postcards, an aluminum bottle to replace the sports drink bottle that I left in the airport, Castles of Ireland Coasters US$ 11.41 gifts, and a Patrick Francis Classic Shamrock tie US$ 33.14. I also realized that I didn't have enough shirts or tops, so I bought myself a The Leprechauns Made Me Do it - Black T/Shirt $10.50

Coach park near the castle and hotel

Originally (if our plane had not been delayed for 6 hours), I was going to go to Durty Nellie's to have an early pub meal. But by the time we actually got to Bunratty, I was too tired to go out, so we missed dining here. Durty Nelly's has three bars and two restaurants

Durty Nellie's back of my grandson

We walked over to the Bunratty Folk Park. My feet were still too swollen to get lace up shoes on.

Bunratty Castle (grandson on right)

Sign on the castle wall

Back of the castle from outside

We got a wheelchair and did some of the village in the rain,

Grandson taking photos in the rain

The park has both a vertical and a horizontal mill.

Vertical mill

The Vertical Mill is a classic stone example of a rural undershot watermill.

Waterwheel

Gears inside the mill

inside the vertical mill

Steps to loft

Grandson's photo of the mill

The Horizontal Mill is a working corn mill based on findings of an excavation in Mashangla Co. Cork. This type of mill is described in detail in Irish Law texts of a 1000 years ago. Such mills were still in use up to the middle of this century. We didn't go in that mill.

Horizontal Mill

Millrace

Although it isn't very friendly for mobility impaired, due to having non-paved walking surfaces, the folk part is not only interesting for older folks, but also for teens and children. The children should particularly enjoy the animals

barn

Chicken

haystack

Sheep

goat

There were a couple of places to eat inside the park. I saw two places on the way in to look at the buildings. One was the Country Kitchen, and the other was the Tea Room. I thought hot tea would be good on a damp day, so we went to the Tea Room and I got tea and scones, and my grandson got hot chocolate (€2.20) and a homemade apple tart (€ 4.00). Also available was soup, sandwiches (€3.40 to €3.85) and wraps (€4.50). In addition to tea and hot chocolate, they had available Coffee, Cappuccino, Milk, Still Water, and Mineral water to drink.

We sat at tables and benches, and the place was fairly crowded. I grabbed a seat where a man was sitting, and he said it was OK to sit there although his wife was coming along and they were with friends. I later found out that my grandson hates tea, and would rather have had a soft drink, and that he doesn't care much for scones. He did like the apple tart.

We did not stop at MacNamara's. My daughter cautioned me that Irish pubs weren't as child friendly as the ones in England, and it just didn't come into view at a time for eating.

The website says MacNamara and Sons at the top of the village street is a fully licensed working pub in the style of an old fashioned hotel bar and provides modern catering facilities. The pub is furnished to reflect the lifestyle of the time and the fact that the publican not only sold drink in former times but also traded in groceries and hardware.

Tea Room

Menu

The Creamery

Creamery in the background

The Folk Park has over 30 buildings in a ‘living’ village and rural setting. We did not get to visit all of them. Walking into these small homes was very interesting but unfortunately without the brochure that we got (it is still packed), I don't know which one is which, but they had some common elements. All of them had some kind of fireplace,
[

Fire

a bed or beds

small bed by the fire

Bed and trunk

and hutch or a similar piece of furniture to hold crockery and other such items.

Washstand

top of a hutch

My grandson's photo of me - wheelchair behind me

Among the buildings are the Shannon Farmhouse which was the first farmhouse to be reconstructed on the site. It was was removed from where it originally stood on the site of a runway at Shannon Airport. Other farmouses include the Loop Head Farmhouse of small fisher –farming folk, the Cashen Fisherman’s House with a floor of rammed clay

Fisherman's cottage

the Mountain Farmhouse with a loft for extra sleeping space, Bothan Scóir, a one roomed dwelling of a poor landless labourer. and the Byre Dwelling from County Mayo with a pigsty nearby.

Pig Stye

Pigs

Byre

window with smoke from a peat fire

The village street is a recreation of what would have been seen in 19th century Ireland - you can visit the School, Doctor’s house, Pawnbrokers, Pub, Drapery, Printworks, Grocery, Hardware shop, Pottery and a Post Office. Fairs and markets at the Village gave the farmers and the rural craftsmen an opportunity of selling their products for cash, while shops provided for the rural dwellers needs. In the early 18th century the country people provided for most of their own needs in food, clothing and supplies and bought only luxuries such as sugar, salt, tea ….The village houses and shops have been chosen from many different areas, to form a collection of typical of 19th century urban Irish buildings.

Bridies - Handicraft shop

Street - O'Briens and J.J. Curry

Shop doorway

Tuck Shop

P. Cahill - drinks, ice cream, sweets

Unfortunately, we did not have time to visit anything except the school.

Schoolhouse

This school was originally built at Belvoir in East Clare in the early 19th Century.

Schoolroom

It is typical of the type of school that would have been in existence around the year 1900.

Schoolmistress

The schoolmistress role played and smacked her pointer down on the desk for emphasis. She also fed the fire in the fireplace with peat

Peat for the fire

There was something written on the blackboard about hedgerow schools and a model of a hedgerow school .

Model of a hedgerow school

I couldn't read all of it because part of it was erased. Apparently education (whether this was in religion or in Gaelic or was any kind of education at all) was illegal for Irish Catholic. The Hedgerow schools were out in the fields in lean-tos under the Hedgerows where they could hide from the English.

The path to Hazelbrook House

Hazelbrook House was originally built in 1898 and was the home of the Hughes Brothers who produced HB ice cream - a household name in Ireland. They started a dairy industry in the 1800’s. We ran out of time and only got to see this from the outside, but I understand that:

Hazelbrook House

Hazelbrook House offers the visitor the unique opportunity to learn about the evolution of Ice cream making from the domestic dairy to the modern day production plant. The House features the history of the industrious Hughes Brothers family.

Electrical warning sign next to path

Ardcroney Church

This little church is an original Church of Ireland building, which was moved stone by stone from where it had been originally built in 1824 in Ardcroney, Co. Tipperary, and rebuilt in the Folk Park. It was opened to the public in 1998. I sent my grandson in to take photos

Inside the church

Baptismal font

Then we went to tour the castle - we accidentally came in the exit.

Entrance to the castle

Cannons along by the entrance

Winding stairs

Stairs

Stained glass

Fireplace

carved table

barrel

Carved bed

Slit window

Armor

On the wall of the great hall

Great Hall

Roasting area in Great Hall

The Castle, last of a series on the same site, was built around 1425. During the 16th and 17th centuries it was an important stronghold of the O’Briens - Kings and later Earls of Thomond (North Munster). The Castle was restored in the early 1960's and is considered the best example of its type.

Table in Great Hall

When we got to the Great Hall, my feet were so swollen that I couldn't climb the steps to go up into the towers, so i sent my grandson up to take photos for me. He was using an old Canon film camera with a 100x300 zoom lens. He took lots of photos from there.

We didn't see the dungeons. I thought we would see them when we came back for the banquet but we went to Knappogue instead. There were tapestries and artifacts from various eras in the castle's history (none or few are belonging to the castle).

Cows in a field from the castle

In the Shadow of the Castle

Owenagarney river

Across the river

View from the top of the Castle

Telephoto shot of a boat in the river

Telephoto shot of the Creamery Bar

One of the men on the tour whose goal was to drink in as many bars as possible had a drink here.

History according to the website: In 1823 Charles Bianconi opened a coach service linking Limerick, Ennis & Bunratty. Evidence indicates that the building was used as a scheduled stop for the Bianconi coaches with the ground floor being used for the stabling of the horses. In 1927 the building became the local creamery, it was used as a creamery until the early nineties, and in 1999 it was converted to an authentic Irish pub & restaurant. The Creamery Bar [has].. the original steam generator and pipes ... bar stools are original milk churns.

Towers on the top

Irish Flag

I went down the entrance stairs and walked across to the hotel while he was up taking photos

Across the parking lot

From the traffic circle

I had a cane with a seat, and I sat down to rest at the end of the driveway. The cane slipped out from under me and dumped me on the ground. I took a photo from where I was sitting on the sidewalk before I got up.

Hotel from down in the driveway

The toilet in our room stopped up the afternoon of the first day, and they moved us next door. They were whisking us out so quickly that they took my shoes which I had taken off, so I walked to the new room in my bare feet (which were still swollen which was why I didn't have socks on). I also left my nightgown on the back of the bathroom door, but they recovered it for me. The rest of the tour group got in this afternoon. We are meeting for dinner which was billed as a medieval banquet.

Because Bunratty was booked (or maybe it was too expensive), the banquet was at Knappogue castle in Quinn (they took us by bus).

Duck hotel from the bus in the rain

sign on the way to the castle

Looking up at the castle wall

We were only at Knappogue for the banquet, so we didn't get a chance to go through the castle itself, but apparently it is open in the same way that Bunratty is. In addition to the banquets and touring the castle itself, it is also possible to rent an apartment in the castle.

The website says: The original tower house of Knappogue Castle was built by Sean Mac-Con MacNamara in 1467. During the 1641 rebellion the castle was occupied by Cromwellian forces. In the 18th and 19th centuries further additions were made to the original structure. The castle was abandoned in the 1920's and was restored by the Hon. Mark Edwin Andrews and his wife Lavonne in 1966.

Courtyard

Doorway

Banner in the banquet hall

Tapestry in the castle

Candle sconce

Fireplace with flash and without flash

The specifics, copied from their website are spot-on as to what the banquet is like. If it had not been included in the tour, I would have had several thoughts about whether it was worth it, but, as I said, it was a lot of fun.

• On arrival guests are welcomed at the Castle door by the ladies and the butler of the castle and the Banquet begins with a goblet or two of Mead in the Dalcassian Hall.

Serving wench

• The Earl’s Butler relates the history of the Castle explaining the ‘Rules of Chivalry’ practiced at the Castle and the dire consequences of breaching them!!!!!!!

Host and hostess giving presentation

• Guests enter the Banquet Hall. The evening is presided over by 4 “Kings of Ireland” who are chosen from the audience – the Kings of Munster, Leinster, Ulster and Connaught.

Crowned for the night

• The 5 course meal is a pleasant balance of Irish Fish and Meat dishes as served during the period and is accompanied with music and song.
• Then follows a 35 minute entertainment programme in music, song and dance that takes you on a magical musical journey from the medieval times through to the 20th century. The entertainment was Irish dancing and playing of the violin and harp

Music at Knappogue

group at the table

table setting

bread from the dinner

It was very interesting although not authentic - as my grandson pointed out they had tomatoes which would they would not have eaten in those days

Mead service

• Aperitif – Mead

Grandson pretending to drink mead

• Smoked Irish Salmon, dill salad and TOMATO, Fork supplied

• Tomato & Basil Soup (another tomato use)

• Supreme of Chicken in a Verinque Sauce served with Fresh Seasonal Vegetables & Baby Roast Potatoes

• Rastin (Lemon Cheesecake)
• Tea / Coffee

Adult: €52.00

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