Wednesday 5 July

We decided to go cross-country to check out a couple of ruins shown on the maps. Couldn't find the ones mentioned but the whole country is 'littered' with ruins of churches and 'watch towers'. We took photos of the ruins of 2 unidentified churches, one just before Urlingford and one just after.

We were now on the road to Cashel but did a quick detour through Thurles and saw the Holycross Abbey.

From there it was on to 'The Rock of Cashel'. Approaching from Thurles it can be seen from miles away. Some problems with rain here. It had been one of my wishes to sit in the grounds and paint the Cathedral ruins but we had to huddle on the steps under brollies and only managed a quick sketch of the Choir's living quarters. We joined the guided tour but were generally cold and miserable with intermittent showers.

Some spectacular views as we neared the top, looking north over the farmlands. Some of it was pretty tedious driving ...nothing much to be seen over the high hedges and again intermittent showers along the way. We drove through Middleton into Cork Probably too late in the day to hit a big city, the driving and navigating an absolute nightmare.

We eventually found a B&B with a vacancy at Tower ('Maryland', hostess, Liz Jennings), near Blarney.

We were pretty beat by the time we found our way there. I hated the drive down through the mountains. The narrow, wet, winding roads and seemingly too fast speeds (legal BUT)! 50 MPH, which I think equates to 80 Km... faster than we'd ever dream of doing at home in similar circumstances. I was tired and VERY stressed when we arrived.