Ireland Day 3 (Continued): Going on a Witch Hunt

County Limerick

Well we had a decision, go to Dingle (we’ve heard good things) or head north. We decided to head north due to wanting to go visit the spookier side of Ireland. Or as we like to think of it as, we were going on a witch hunt… Well not actually a witch, but a haunted ghost story of a woman, the Countess of Desmond, who was accidentally buried alive. When they opened up her grave they saw that she tried to claw her way out, ever since then there have been reports of a haunting nearby.

But first things first, we found a place to stay for the evening. On our route there we were stopped by local traffic (sheep and cows crossing the road) but eventually found our way to the Old Castle House a little B&B in Glinn. In catching up with our innkeepers they indicated a few places to eat within walking distance but warned us that places don’t stay open too late around here. With it being summer and all, with the sun wanting to be awake so early and late in the day, sometimes you would lose track of how late it was and it was almost 8. We popped over to Wallace’s and enjoyed their ginormous portions. With full bellies we went off in search of the haunted grounds. We didn’t know exactly where to go, it wasn’t like she had a posted location but we knew of the general area of the town that was nearby so off we went.

It was a stunning sunset that night, I would’ve loved to stop and get some photos as the sun was reflecting off the river. My sister was on a mission though. I joked it was like we were racing the sun in Bram Stokers Dracula. It would’ve been a perfect soundtrack song for the mission.

So we turned towards the general area the old abbey, we hit a fork in the road. Lisa felt we should go left but looking at the map in general it appeared we should continue veering towards the right. All we knew was it wasn’t readily seen from the road and it’s in a field somewhere. Of course at this point in time we lost all cell coverage. We drove past this old graveyard and it appeared we should continue down the road right until we pass a small creek. We drove to this point but nothing, we drove back up the road but still couldn’t see anything. All we kept seeing was this guy just hanging out in his car at the end of a driveway just doing nothing.

Back and forth we drove down this road trying to see past the hedges for a sense of this ruined abbey. We decided to stop for a bit at the graveyard and take a walkabout. There was a building in the middle and some neglected markers. Here is where we found the Farrels. One of our family names is Farrel, so who knows, maybe this is why we found this spot.

Defeated we decided to head back, but instead of completely retracing our steps we decided to take the road we skipped on way in. The road took a rather ominous turn. The sun was completely set, the woods were dark, the vibe seemed off. We couldn’t see over the hedges but felt like we needed to drive slower. Odd that there was this man at the end of his driveway just standing there slowly putting a chain across his driveway. It must’ve been almost 11 pm at this point. He’s just standing out there. All we noticed is that he had creepy dead eyes. I’m going to put it on it was dark but the were just black pools and he gave us an uneasy vibe.

The road continued to narrow to almost just a path, then we emerged from the thicket back onto the main road, back to our old castle.

Oddly enough when we got home and did more research, we will find this Black Hag. Right where the creepy guy was with the dead eyes. There was a footpath about 20 feet back on the other side of the road. That was the path to the hag. You need to cut through someone’s farmland to get there, but we were so close. Maybe that’s why we had an eerie vibe, who knows. What I should have done and thought of was to take the drone with me and pop that up into the air. We would have found it then having that birds eye view. We will be back one day…

Askeaton Friary

The morning came quickly. It does that when you go to bed late and want to push off early in the morning, the Cliffs of Insanity were the docket for the day. As we made our way up the road to hit the main expressway we felt compelled to pull off to explore Askeaton Friary. We were wandering around the grounds when we stumbled upon the “official” guide. Now I don’t know how official he really was but he was interesting enough so we let him tour us around and show us the place.

This is what I love about having a flexible travel plan, just pulling off the side of the road when you find something that interests you. No real agenda just a general direction we wanted to head that day. If we stuck to our original plan we would have missed this little gem. Now I think we spent a little longer than planned at the Friary but that was okay it was a lovely visit, and better yet, no crowds (our favorite places of all).

Links

Our daily drive