Dungaire Castle

The happy couple at Dungaire Castle in Kinvara

As we moved north out of the Burren area, the northern point is marked by what many think is now the most photographed castle in Ireland. Built in the early 16th century by the Hynes clan, Dungaire castle has been fully restored to its original grandeur. Again, the castles in Ireland were less palaces as they were manor houses with defensive structures in place. Its was built along the coast in a spot that only allows access by land from one side, making it very difficult to attack. Have we mentioned how much there is to see and do in Ireland??? Although we still haven't found a pot of gold yet!

The second floor of the castle

From the bottom of the castle to the top of the tower is 77 steps. Of course, Mindy counted them and arrived at 76 steps and then proceeded to question the guide about just how many steps there really were.

Watching for approaching enemies from the top of the tower

Dungaire Castle and the surrounding lands as they would have looked like in 1568

Catherconnell Stone Fort

In front of the ruins of Catherconnell Stone Fort

Out of all the things we say in the Burren, probably the most impressive were the ruins of Catherconnell Stone Fort, a fortified village that was built over a thousand years ago. Again, using dry stone masonery, Catherconnell allows a visitor to imagine what life would have been like in southern Ireland over a millenium ago. The stone fort was a popular idea at the time as Ireland was a country with its fair share of clan warfare where one needed a way to protect valuable assets such as livestock and grain stores.

Catherconnell was used up until the late 17th century when it was finally abandoned. As we discovered on our travels, much of Ireland's history was never documented as stories were simply passed down from generation to generation. As such, it is unknown as the present time who actually lived here. Archeological work is still being done at the site, so maybe they might figure it out in the future.

Mindy surveys the inside of Catherconnell

The rocks above are the remains of what was once a seperating interior wall that divided the fort into two sections.

The remains of foundation rocks of what was once the principal house in Catherconnell

The foundations for a smaller dwelling inside the fort

Mindy was all smiles as we walked the path down to where the current archeological work is being done.

Life did not only take place inside the fort as there was plenty of evidence of activity along the outside walls. Here you can see a pen with a small hutch at the back that was used for keeping baby animals at night.

Catherconnell as it might have looked like in the year 1000 AD

The Burren

Poulnabrone is classic example of a portal tomb dating from sometime around 3800 BC. Stone tombs like this one dating back from the New Stone Age, are known as megalithic tombs and can be found all over the Burren due to the abundance of stone.

The Burren is a region in Ireland that comprises about 250 square kilometers covered in limestone rock. Despite the rock, the area is very lush and their is quite a bit of agricultural activity in the area, most notably beef and sheep farms. Due to the limestone that is available in virtually limitless quantities, the Burren is full of stone buildings and archeological significant discoveries such as the Poulnaborne portal tomb pictures above.

We were amazed by the dry stone masonery that we viewed while travelling through this region as we saw stone fences and out-buildings made in this fashion that were still in use today.

The Burren landscape is basically a limestone pavement filled with crevices in which grass and other plants seem to spring from.

A stone church at the base of the hills leading into the Burren

The modern graves are underground with huge tombstones and often a small area sectioned off in front of the grave.

A ruined manor house at the base of the Burren. We could only speculate about its history as we found no information posted.

I decided to take a closer look at the inside. This picture also shows the dry stone masonery.

Looking up the crumbling frontside of the manor house.

Okay, where to now???

Carron Church

While driving in the Irish countryside from the Cliffs of Moher to our next destination, this building caught my attention as we passed by. So of course we stopped to investigate.

The strange building was actually the remains of Carron Church, the largest parish in County Clare until the mid 16th century. The parish was founded in the 12th century although the building that is standing today was contructed in the early 15th century. The cemetary that surrounds the church is still in use as we found out later in the day when a local gentleman informed us that his grandfather was buried here. Although the roof has long since disappeared, the walls are a great example of the dry stone masonry used in the area. Buildings like this one can be seen throughout southwest Ireland.

The gate leading to the church had a nice little warning. We checked our weapons and then hopped the fence.

While crossing the field to get to the church, a cow pie was mistaken for solid ground as you can see from the imprint of my left Nike Free.

Nature is slowing reclaiming the church.

Mindy was of course a little cold in the wind, but found relief inside the church where we discovered even more graves.

On our way back down the hill to the road leading past the church, Mindy shows off her athletic prowess at descending a hill while avoiding cow pies.

One day this church will collapse and nature will retake what was taken from it.

Cliffs of Moher

The jumping off point of our tour of Ireland was at the famed Cliffs of Moher.

At a maximum height of 214 meters, the Cliffs of Moher present a pretty imposing view of the west coast of Ireland. It is also advisable to stay away from the edge as Olympic diving hasn't quite found a way for the divers to survive this event. The cliff side is unbelievably impressive as the waves below crash into the rocks below. There are thousands of sea birds that make their homes in the cliffs including the Atlantic Puffins.

We hiked the trails along the cliffside, including a small little "out-of-bounds" trail where there were no guard rails to keep you at the 200 meters above sea level elevation. We managed to stay on the trail however and really enjoyed the breathtaking views and the sea salt breeze.

Mindy decided that the sign was actually encouraging you to climb on to the stone wall barrier.


And she did finally manage to perch upon the top for a better view.

The waves smashing into the rocks below.

Checking out the view from the top. On to the next destination...

As go Éire

Mindy is all smiles as we touched down in Shannon, Ireland.

As everyone who speaks Gaelic Irish would know by the title of this post, we were off to Ireland! And so begins the travel month for us with a short trip across the English Channel to search for pots of gold, four leaf clovers, and the ultra rare pint of Guiness! We landed in Shannon, County Clare in the southwest part of the island and were immediately impressed by the friendliness of the people. Mindy of course was happy to chat up everyone and by the time I picked up the car, she had made friends with half the county!

Driving on the left side of the road and the right side of the car is a wonderful experience.

We picked up our rental, a Santa Fe with automatic transmission (yes!!!), and headed out on the highway to learn how to drive Irish style. In sharp contrast to France, or at least Paris, everyone here obeys the speed limit and is really quite courteous and patient on the road. Maybe they are just used to having to a bunch of tourists driving around lost.

A view from the left side of the road. Don't try this in Canada!!!


Gaelic Irish is still very popular as a language although everyone speaks English. All the signs were posted in both languages.

For our first night, we were staying in Limerick as we didn't arrive in Ireland until a little later in the day. We decided that the first order of business, before we checked out the tourist sites, was to find a real Irish Pub for dinner. We of course checked with our local sources and headed to Dolain's Pub where we dined on Irish Stew (for Mindy) and Meat Pie with Beef, Mushrooms, & Guiness (for David). A pint of Kilkenny rounded out the fabulous meal as we enjoyed the cozy atmosphere. As we finished our food, a band started to tuning up and we were treated to some a nice little performance. A pretty decent start to the trip in my books!

Guiness Meat Pie and Irish Stew. Can it get any better?

The band. Notice the pints of Guiness on the table in front of them. No joke, they would play a song, stop, have a sip of beer, and then play again.

Slow News Week

Just like a regular teacher, when classes end, you sometimes receive some nice little gifts from your students.

So the past two weeks have been a little slow here in Paris as hockey is done for the year but we haven't really started our grand finale travel month. As we are heading back to Canada in just over a month, we have been spending quite a bit of time preparing for making the transition back to Edmonton as we will be arriving to a new house in Leduc as well as potentially new jobs. The result has been what could be the described as the "dog days" of our Paris experience. Here are a couple of the highlights.

• Some of my students wanted to thank me for my efforts and got together to buy me a french cheese cookbook (pictured above). It was a wonderful surprise and greatly appreciated.
• Romain and I got together for a couple of beers and nachos at the TGC pub to watch the Canadians wax the Slovaks at the World Hockey Champioships. France also pulled out a victory against Germany which was a nice surprise as well.

So yeah, almost sounds like a regular week back home. Fear not however as starting tomorrow, Mindy and I will be back to running around Europe, touring like crazy and maximizing this incredible opportunity that we have been blessed with. We will also be welcoming a few visitors to Paris (stay tuned to find out who they are) which we are really excited about. In the meantime, tune into the Stanley Cup playoffs and cheer on your favortite team, but don't forget to check back with us soon!