{i’ll be posting my ireland journal in it’s entirety for the next few days. if you haven’t had a chance to view the images, check that posting out here. i’ll also be posting my polaroid images when i get them scanned into my computer}
“today was long! we woke up to mom knocking at 8:30 (1 1/2 hours after we wanted to be up…), went down to a leisurely sunday brekkie at 9, and left roseville (the b+b) around 9:30. we started with a walk to find the quay gate (also known as cromwell’s gate), the benedictine priory and other town interests.
then it started raining, so mom went to get the car while we kept wandering. after swinging back by the b+b, we headed out of youghal to kinsale. the plan was to check out the fort at kinsale, head to timoleague and continue on to the drombeg stone circles.
i should have known nothing goes according to plan.
kinsale was crowded (sunday at noon) so we walked through the harbour and into the town centre before getting the car and going on to timoleague. of course gma decided she was hungry, so we asked if crackers and cheese would be fine – and it was.
the road to timoleague is beautiful – amazing estuary scenery. of course mom had issues with finding a place to stop so we could get photos but eventually she did. the franciscan friary at timoleague is about the only thing in town… so we spent about an hour there walking through, taking photos and climbing. i found a locked staircase that led to an upper story and tried to climb through a slit in the stone wall. i could have done it too, … but mom nd gma were getting mad/annoyed {ed. note: there is – somewhere – a flattering photo of my backside as i attempted this}.
from timoleague we went on to drombeg. it really ended up not being very far, though at one point we weren’t sure if we’d gone too far. the circles are amazing. i felt as though i’ve reached through time to another place and glimpsed their prehistoric life. there are 17 stones (typical 5-19 at most circles), a well/boiling pit and 2 stone huts. the stones themselves are about 5 feet tall, but 3 are much shorter. they look out across farmland to the sea and out to the west and south. one “altar stone” (shorter and wider/longer than the others) had little offerings on it: a few flowers, a stone, a plastic necklace… i added a tiny white flower. i don’t know what i was offering.
after drombeg, we headed back toward timoleague and went down the other side of the estuary to courtmacsherry. we found the beach and started walking… jess + i kept going around the point and almost to the edge where we had to turn back because of the tide. we went up into the forest to walk back – it was a totally different world up there… i felt like i was in the mountains.
(now looking back it was very similar to the climate of no. cal – forest to beach – or even of new zealand’s abel tasman park)
mom decided she did sort of want to see the fort after all, so we headed back to kinsale, arriving around 6:15. the fort was closed, but we could walk around the exterior and down to the coastline. the fort was built in 1670 and was intended to be impregnable from the sea… it ended up falling in 3 days from land attack… but the coastline is stunning {ed. note: the photos are dark… not sure what happened there… i will try to get some to show you!}
it was after 7 when we left kinsale and headed back to youghal… we agreed on dinner at 8:30 and the quay bar and had a great bowl of seafood chowder. jess + i stayed to chat and have another drink and walked back a little after 11. we are getting up early to walk to the beach (i feel like i said this one already)“