Sophie and I arranged an 8-day layover in Ireland on our way back from France. We had visited Dublin before several years ago, but had not explored anywhere else. After our positive experience camping in New Zealand earlier this year, we decided to give it a try in Ireland.
After a two-hour afternoon flight from Toulouse, we picked up our campervan rental near the Dublin airport. The campervan was a brand new Weinsberg van complete with a dedicated bed, bathroom and kitchen. At 20-feet long and 10-feet tall, it was very spacious. This was nice, but it would also prove to be a challenge sometimes for maneuvering and parking. I grew up on a farm with big trucks and tractors so I was fairly confident in my abilities. However driving this beast on the left side of extremely narrow roads – and the fact that it was a stick shift that I had to use with my left hand – did take some getting used to. After an hour of campervan orientation with the rental company (including a test drive to make sure I was competent), we took off for Kilkenny, our first destination a couple hours southwest of Dublin. We had a campground reserved on the outskirts of the town, and spent our first evening grocery shopping and getting settled into the camper. We spent the night next to a couple of cute ponies in a paddock.
Kilkenny
We left our campsite the next morning to go visit the center of Kilkenny, a colorful inland medieval town that features an impressive Anglo-Norman castle. It took us a while to find parking for our big vehicle and we ended up near the train station. Relieved, we explored the rest of the city on foot and enjoyed walking through the streets full of colorful shops and medieval facades. The city was decorated with black and yellow flags. Black and yellow are the colors of the local hurling team, a very popular sport in Ireland. In a tiny street under an ancient archway, we stumbled upon a charming restaurant dating back to 1602 called Petronella where we stopped for lunch.
Once our bellies full, we headed back to the Kilkenny castle. Built in the 13th century, this castle was privately owned and continuously lived in until 1967, when it was donated to the town. Over the eight centuries of its existence, many alterations and additions were made to the castle to become the complex structure it is today. We were able to tour the castle and see many of its impressive rooms, including an immense art gallery that was the second-longest room in all of Ireland (after the Trinity College Library in Dublin). A beautiful park surrounded the castle and since it was sunny that afternoon (quite a rarity it seems in Ireland!), people were enjoying suntanning and being outdoors.
After touring the castle and its grounds, we headed west to the city of Cashel – our next destination in the fertile Plain of Tipperary – and its famous Rock of Cashel.
The Rock of Cashel
We arrived at our next campsite, a little campground in Cashel situated at the base of the Rock. It was a very quaint campground and across the road from the ruins of Hore Abbey. The Rock was closed when we arrived, but we were free to visit the Hore Abbey ruins in the middle of a cow pasture. The abbey was founded in 1266 by Benedictine monks, but they were soon replaced by Cistercians monks in 1272 after the Archbishop had a dream that the former monks were plotting to murder him. It was strange and interesting to climb around the ruins, imagining the many generations of monks who lived there.
The next morning, we climbed the sheep-dotted hill for a tour of the Rock of Cashel. This is one of Ireland’s most historic sites, as it was the seat of the kings of Munster between the 4th and 12th centuries. Strategically located and perfect for fortification, the Rock was fought over by local clans for hundreds of years before being given to the church in 1101. St. Patrick (yes, that St. Patrick) baptized King Aengus there in 450 AD. A stone cross was carved in the 12th century to commemorate the 600th anniversary of this event.
The Rock is a compact tangle of three architectural styles: early Christian, Romanesque and Gothic. The Round Tower (early Christian style) was the first stone structure built there – after the church took over the Rock. It is 92 feet high and it was easy to imagine how impressive it must have looked from the village and fields below, perched high atop this hill. It was surrounded by a cemetery with several examples of the Celtic Cross, which features a round circle around the cross that appealed to the ancient sun-worshipping Celtic religions.
Cormac’s Chapel was built by King Cormac MacCarthy in 1134, and was our favorite part. It was the first church in Ireland to be built in the “new” Romanesque style, representing a shift from the Celtic Christian churches towards a church more influenced by Rome. Like all the other ruins, it would have originally been plastered and painted white both inside and out. Inside, you could still see some remnants of beautiful frescoes and strange figured stone carvings.
In 1230, those in power wanted to cement their command by building a huge Gothic cathedral on the Rock. They squeezed it between the Tower, Cormac’s Chapel and a well – taking up all the space and strategically closing off the main entrance into the older chapel. The Cathedral required imagination to envision how grand it must have been. There were hidden passages in all the walls allowing the priests to move from the front of the congregation to the sides and back. Again, it would have been plastered white inside and out, with frescoes throughout the inside.
The Rock was abandoned in the mid-1700s when the Anglican Church transferred cathedral status to the church in town. The buildings were vacated, the roofs demolished and nature left to take its course. As the morning ended, we walked back down the pasture to our campsite. It was time to leave for our next destination, the city of Kinsale.
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