Ireland Day 6: Finding Unexpected Gems and Tomb Raiders

Gems

So now we go to the really unplanned portion of our trip, well as it was a roadtrip we left ourselves up to the whims of the fairies on this trip but had a general idea of places to see, but you see we had planned to loop around the island mostly along the coast. If we did that we would have had to stay in Northern Ireland. Since that was not where the magical beings wanted us we were off to go find a castle, not just any castle though, the ultimate introvert castle, right up our alley. Keep the people at bay!

Now there are quite of few of these gems throughout Ireland (they knew what was up back then) but this one my sister had heard about and was discussing the previous night so that was our first goal upon our return to Ireland proper.

Finding the place was a little more difficult, introverts eh? It was near Killykeen Forest Park and internet connection was spotty so we had to wing it a little bit darting in and out of the tree lines and windy roads. Every once in a while, we would see a sign but it was more just following our guts even though we would question it every now and then.

We hit the end of the line and a little parking nook. We walked towards the waters edge as we could see a glimpse of the castle through the trees but it was sectioned off as a boat launch and you couldn’t really access the shoreline. My sister and I have been in tight spots before and we don’t let much deter us, there as a gap in between the boat launch and the shoreline that we shimmied ourselves through and found the shoreline. We also found some campers/anglers we needed to wander through their little party.

What a serene little space. The castle, Cloughoughter Castle specifically, was situated on this little island in the middle of the lake with swans floating about. Now if only we had a canoe, perhaps we went to the wrong side of the lake, maybe on other sides or further up or down the shoreline maybe there was someone who rented out canoes. It would’ve been great if we could’ve gotten over to the island to explore, now the castle itself you could see inside from the mainland due to some disrepair so we could see the stairs winding up to the upper levels towards the windows. This is when it decided to properly rain on us so we decided to head back to the car but this time we wandered inland more within the trees, and of course getting back we find a much easier access back to the carpark, no shimmying required.

Now what next little unexplored gem can we find? Well through the power of Instagram I found Coolamber Hall House, well not found, but heard about it. Finding it is a completely different story, but we persevere and keep jumping in our seats to try to see over the tall shrubs and grasses. Bingo!!!

Now this is on private property but you can see it from the road, although the cows on the other side of the road were not too impressed with us.

We set our sites on our final destination for the day, but just hold on, is that another castle?! It’s Ireland, they are everywhere but this one looked fancy. No big deal, just a little country house, over 120 rooms for the Earl of Longford in the family for over 350 years. Tullynally Castle and Gardens are quite spectacular, we didn’t wander the gardens but I don’t doubt they are wonderful just seeing the main ground as we were driving in and admiring the outside of the castle.

Tombs

Now for a strong recommendation. Our final destination for the night was Loughcrew Cairns – the Hill of the Witch or Hag’s Hill. This is a megalithic tomb with a Witchy Legend.

“This witch may have had her origins in the Celtic goddess Buí. She was a supernatural figure responsible for the landscape; placing large boulders in rivers and creating rock formations on hillsides.

Local legend recounts her jumping from one hill to the next dropping stones from her apron. The fallen stones formed the Cairns we see today. She was attempting this magical feat to attain great power and rule over all of Ireland. She was able to drop her cairns of stones on the first three peaks. As she jumped to the fourth hill she missed her mark and fell to her death on her last leap. The story claims that she was buried where she fell on the slopes of Patrickstown Hill. Indeed visitors today can sit on the Hag`s Chair at Cairn T. Local belief claims that if you make a wish while sitting on this stone the witch will grant it.”

Dang it! I didn’t know about this wishing seat. Good thing we sat in the Wishing Chair earlier in the day at the Giants Causeway and made our wishes there.

Now back to visiting the cairns. We parked at the thatched visitor center and camper park and hiked up to the start of the cairns and of course found a carpark there. Oh well the extra steps won’t kill us. What will though is climbing these hills to get to the cairns. Man that was steep! Huffing and puffing, stopping along the way to catch our breath and hang with the sheep, but I will say it was all worth it!

The place felt magical. It was right before sunset, the crowds were gone, mostly.

There was this very annoying family there. Now I am not calling them annoying just because. It was their behavior that made me unlike them. They clearly don’t understand how to respect places and do not bother to teach their children proper manners. They let their kids run around everywhere climbing over all of these historic rocks. What was worst the entire family climbed on top of the main tomb just to stand atop of it (even though there are signs everywhere saying please do not climb). Deep breaths, just be a good example of a human yourself.

We missed the cutoff time by 30 mins so we were unable to enter into the tombs ourselves so the longing to see inside stays with us.

That was it for the day. It was time to find our lodging for the night and settle in. Knowing what our next days plan was we decided to hunker down in Trim. As this was our last overnight with the car, we decided to do a good cleanout and spent some time redistributing things, bringing it into our room for the night so we could do a proper repack of everything.

So we have been in Ireland for about a week now and didn’t feel like we really got a good glimpse of any true Irish people from our expectations. Seriously why am I the only redhead around? Well turning on the local news gave us a few chuckles and gave us a little more of the Irish People experience we were hoping to encounter. I mean it isn’t surprising we were mostly hitting up tourist locations so we probably spent more time with tourists around the world than the Irish.

We didn’t put a big effort in finding dinner, we just went down to the hotel restaurant and grabbed some food. Man, it was good! I would recommend the Arch Lounge. I also hit the jackpot as I spied our lovely mustard packets on display, so it may have happened that when paying for the bill I might have grabbed a few handfuls so we could take some home with us.

Links

Our daily drive