Ruins from the 12th Century

 

After we had returned to Ireland from Turkey, we picked up our rental car at Dublin airport and went to Portlaoise where we had booked a B&B for one night. It was already late when we arrived, so we started out early the following morning.

County Laois (pronounced Leesh) is off the beaten path, "undiscovered" by Rick Steves and therefore probably not worth it in his opinion - and blissfully lacking crowds of tourists. We had almost all of the places we visited that day to ourselves.

Many of the roads we took in Ireland were narrow country roads - and I mean narrow! At least you didn't have to think of driving on the left side (except when there was oncoming traffic which thankfully didn't happen too often).

Our first stop was the Rock of Dunamase (Irish Dún Másc) which rises 46 meters (151 ft) above a plain. The castle ruins on top of the rock date back to the 12th century. You have to "climb" a short way to get to the gate.

We had fun exploring the ruins and taking silly photos.

You can probably guess that these faces are for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

This is a favorite photo that I took of Kaefer.

The bigger picture looked like this:

That summer was an exceptionally dry year for Ireland, and the "Emerald Isle" was more yellow and beige than green. Not quite California dry though. Despite the dryness, the vistas from the castle ruins were beautiful.

I enjoyed taking photos through the castle "windows", it gives the photos a nice frame.

The yellow wildflowers on the grounds were pretty as well. Of course I took pictures of flowers - these thistles I thought quite charming.

We explored the ruins for quite some time during which we saw two other people who didn't stay long. Then we made our way back down again.

There was an old church and cemetery. I love old cemeteries, so we spend some time exploring here as well.

Eventually we left the rock and moved on to our next destination. Before we got there, though, the Geek had to stop because I wanted to take photos of the fields with hay bales. 

Then we were off again - more about that next time.

Did I mention that the roads were really narrow?

Since this is a "dinner post" for Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date, here's the only picture I took of the food we ate in a lovely pub in Cork that evening - fish & chips, of course, accompanied by freshly draught Guinness (I don't drink Guinness from a bottle or can) and a Baby Guinness Shot.

Sláinte!