It Wasn't Really Such a Long Way to Tipperary

After touring the museum dedicated to the Easter uprising (it had nothing to do with stale peeps) we hopped into our overpriced, over insured rental cars and headed over the rainbow out of town.

Glendalough is tucked into the hills, a former monastery with a double stone arch still standing as a gate. The monks cut themselves off from the world never going beyond the inner gate.

The Rapunzel tower wasn't actually built for hairy maidens, but to house a bell and for a lookout. 

We watched a film about Glendalough and the only things we learned came through osmosis as we all nodded off in our cozy warm chairs.

The climb out of Glendalough gave a beautiful view of the skinny lakes below.

Our hotel, Bailey's, in Cashel, County Tipperary wins my prize for favorite. It is old, elegant, luxurious and had a bath tub long enough to stretch out. Even my mega long toe didn't graze  the porcelain. The bed was soft, the towels were thick and there was a restaurant with everything you could want, including brown bread that mutated my DNA to one quarter Irish.

Cashel is intimidating and also romantic, set on a hill that surveys the world all around. 

There was a cute school group in uniforms amidst the mostly older crowd of tourists. I've discovered that when you travel off season you get to hang out with the early bird social crowd. Oh wait, that's us! 

Through this slot you can see a nunnery below. More on that later.

One building has been restored. It was used to house the nine lucky members of the Cashel choir, a most favored group. They got free housing, clothing  and food and a seal that they could use to buy local goods, sending the bill to the Bishop.  (There would be a lot more people in the ward choir if we added these perks.)

Carving on a sarcophagus

There are actually several different buildings at Cashel, covering three different styles, Gothic, Roman and Norman. Some beautiful carvings in the stone survive.

This is the remains of Hore Abbey, founded by Benedictines who were then kicked out by the Cistercians. ( I would really like to watch that miniseries!)

This is the view of Cashel from the Abbey

We were alone exploring this lovely ruined place. It was surrounded by cow pasture, complete with cowpies. The wind was blowing, the clouds were low and ominous, the crows were flying overhead. I was living my own episode of masterpiece theatre.