Woke up early again, between 6am and 7am, as we hoped to get out to the Rock of Cashel. We once again had the hotel breakfast, though this time mixing Continental with Irish — some pain au chocolat but also a few fried eggs and some bacon. We made it to the bus station (located adjacent to the rail station) sometime around 9am. We had some difficulty figuring out where to go and missed the bus that left around 9:30am — and the next one wasn’t for another two hours! Ugh!
The bus line employee dashed our hopes of taking a taxi (waaaaay too expensive) and suggested a few other destinations that weren’t super appealing. We decided to go to Cahir, not Cashel, as it was a direct bus route that was just over an hour long versus the route to Cashel which was a little over two hours due to greater distance and a layover.
As we had time to kill we walked a short distance to The Gathering, Limerick’s gaming store. As we arrived about 9:35am we had to wait until just after 10am for the owner to open up the store. The store was small but had quite a bit, mostly skewed towards miniatures and such (that’s where the money is now-a-days). Still, he had some RPGs — mainly D&D 5e and Warhammer Fantasy. I asked if he had any Irish RPGs and he said that Cubicle 7 (maker of Warhammer Fantasy) is Irish — I had no idea. But I can get those books at home without the need to toss them in my luggage and hope they survive the trip. What I was really after was an Irish language RPG but sadly he wasn’t aware of any.
I wanted a souvenir from the shop but the dice he had engraved with his shop symbol were all sold. He went in back, however, and came back with an earlier prototype that was printed rather than engraved (and the choice made to go with engraved because the printing rubbed off with use). He said I could have it for free, which I really appreciated. He also said that even a half-day in Cashel would be too little, which made me feel a little better about missing out. Since we had a little time to kill before the bus at 11:30am he pointed out two nifty churches (one built in the 1700s, the other with the tallest spire in the area) a very short walk away. And beyond that, on the grounds of a hospital and incorporated into its car park, a section of Limerick’s city walls. Nice!
We walked to the two churches, located very close to each other in a square. From there it was a short walk to the hospital grounds where we were able to see the walls and even spots that had been hit by cannon balls in the 1690 siege. Apparently this one, by William’s forces, was unsuccessful when Limerick’s women came out and helped repel the attack. Unfortunately the 1691 siege (that’s the one with the tragedy at Thomond Bridge I mentioned a couple days back) didn’t have such a happy outcome for Limerick.
As it was getting closer to 11am we headed back past the Milk Market, the site of the farmers’ market / flea market that happens ever Saturday. As it was Thursday it was all quiet but still neat to see the area nonetheless. Michelle and I were struck by just how many nail salons / barber shops there were about town. Then we realized, we hadn’t seen a long-haired Irishman our entire trip!
Made it back to the bus station in time to catch bus 55 heading to Waterford by way of Cahir (our destination). We tried to pay as we got on board but the machine wasn’t working. Driver was like “not your fault, free ride for you two” which was kind of awesome. As we headed out of town there was some friendly banter between passengers and the driver about the AC.
City transitioned to suburbs (with some businesses and larger outlet type shopping) to the countryside. The countryside was gorgeous — at first it was predominantly green fields with cattle and the occasional cluster of homes and the odd ruin of a castle or abbey but as time went on the terrain got quite a bit hillier and forested with pines (not the ugly scraggly type we have in North Carolina, though). We passed through Tipperary which was fairly bustling. We rolled into Cahir a little before 1pm, passing the imposing castle before coming to the stop just beyond it.
We decided to dine at the Shamrock Lounge, a quaint pub with really neat stained glass pendulum lights over the bar. We ordered some fried garlic mushrooms which were not too bad. Michelle had a toasted ham, cheese, and tomato and I had a open-faced roast beef sandwich with side salad and fries. The sandwich was interesting — two untoasted pieces of white bread with a little butter on it. The beef was a little dry but the brown gravy was oh so good and it all worked out in the end.
We headed back down to the castle. Cahir castle was built in the 1100s by the Butler family on an island in the River Suir. As seems to be quite common the castle didn’t see much action until the 1600s. In 1599 a force arrived with a couple of cannon and caused quite a bit of damage. The castle avoided being destroyed when the defenders snuck out in cover of darkness and abandoned it. It was eventually recovered by the family but when Oliver Cromwell rolled through in the 1640s he wrote a note to the family basically saying “remember how terrifying the siege was in 1599? I wouldn’t blame you one bit if you decided not to fight and just handed the castle over to me.” And so they did.
Eventually, again, the family got the castle back but over time it fell into disrepair and by the early 1800s the head of the family had built a Swiss Chalet residence nearby and had left the castle to fall entirely into ruin. Eventually the Irish government stepped in and took over the castle in 1964 (I think) and restored it extensively.
We paid the entry fee, got a guide book, and sat through a quick video that served as introduction to Cahir Castle specifically but Irish castles in general. We then moved on to the gift shop but sadly they had no magnets. After a quick restroom break we explored the castle. Some places were very narrow or had low clearance (some doors were about 5′ tall) or involved very shallow and well-nosed spiral staircases so Michelle sat out some of it. I’d push ahead, take pictures, and share with her what she missed.
One room had a really nice model of the castle and surrounding area and detailed the 1599 siege (the one ended when the defenders noped out). The feast hall had a fireplace seen in last year’s movie “The Last Duel”. One room in the Great Hall had a Tudor fireplace that had been installed in place of one of the two portcullis controls (as the castle by that time had expanded and the portcullis was no longer needed). There was a reproduction of the portcullis controls, however, and it was pretty neat to see the engineering that went into it. The room above had an amazing series of displays talking about the Irish struggler for independence — the Easter Uprising of 1916, Bloody Sunday in 1920, etc. Finally, the bottom of the Great Hall had exhibits on the role of women in the Middle Ages and another about various types of castles found throughout Ireland. We also learned that some scenes from the 1980s movie “Excalibur” were filmed at the castle.
As it was a bit past 3pm and we wanted to be sure and catch the 3:55pm bus back to Limerick we left the castle and proceeded to a gift store, Castle View Gifts, that the people in the castle gift shop said may have magnets. They did! Made it back to the bus stop at around 3:30pm and waited. And waited. We saw the type of bus drive by right around 3:55pm with “Out of Service” but packed with school kids so went “Oh crap, they press-ganged our bus!” but it turned out the 55 bus was just late. Got on about 4:10pm but didn’t get back into Limerick until about 5:45pm due to horrendous traffic caused by construction just outside of the city.
We dithered about what to do for dinner but eventually chose Texas Steakout right near the hotel. Had to go down some steep stairs to below street level to reach it. We had some very garlic-y garlic cheese bread as an appetizer. Michelle had chicken wings and ribs with a side of mashed potatoes and I had a Kentucky Bourbon Burger (basically beef, cheese, some caramelized onions, bacon, and BBQ sauce) with a side of mashed potatoes as well. It was OK. The waitress asked where we were from and was like “lucky, wish I lived there!” and I was thinking “yeah, well we’d love to live here!”
We emerged back in the waning light of day around 7:30pm. Michelle went to the room while I strolled the additional two blocks to the river to take a few pictures of the sunset. The River Shannon really is beautiful, we’re going to miss Limerick for sure.
Once back in the room we left briefly to eat a bit of dessert at Vincenzo’s. Michelle and I split three scoops of gelato — one chocolate and two strawberry. Michelle had a tea with milk while I had an Americano coffee. We retired back to our room where I worked a bit on the blog and eventually went to bed.