On our first full day in Ireland, we went for a scenic drive along the Shannon River. We had two rental cars; my dad drove one and my husband drove the other. They had fun getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road! Especially since many of the roads are very narrow and curvy and are closely bordered on either side by hedgerows or stone fences. It was obvious that the people who'd had our rental car before us had come in contact with at least one stone fence as the passenger side (the left side, which should be the driver's side!) was all scratched up and the casing of the side view mirrors on that side of both cars was broken. Dave and my dad did their share of trimming the hedges, but, over all, they did a great job! They just kept reminding themselves to "drive left and look right." The fact that they'd both had experience driving through roundabouts (or traffic circles) did help.
This was actually one of the wider roads.
We stopped in the lovely little village of Askeaton first. There we explored the outside of the ruined Desmond Castle, an old church with a Knights Templar tower, and the ruins of a Franciscan friary. We were only able to explore the outside of the castle because they were doing some work on the inside. The foreman on the job was very apologetic that he couldn't let us in, but said he had safety inspectors on site that day so he couldn't allow us past the construction fence.
Tower of Desmond Castle in Askeaton.
Desmond Castle, Askeaton.
Celtic crosses in the graveyard around St. Mary's Church of Ireland in Askeaton.
St. Mary's Church of Ireland with the remains of the Knights Templar Tower.
Franciscan Friary ruins in Askeaton.
Cloister in Friary.
My mom and Dave explore the Cloister.
Brett takes pictures of his own in the ruined Friary.
After thoroughly exploring the Friary ruins with no one else around, we drove on down the road. We ate lunch in a pub in Foynes and our friendly waitress told us where to find a "lovely" ice cream shop in Ballybunion. On our way, we stopped in Glin to explore the outside of another castle ruin, the Castle of Glin. We also took a walk along the Shannon River.
Castle of Glin.
It started to rain just as we got to Ballybunion's beach, but we explored anyway! The guys had lots of fun climbling in and out of the caves and crevices of the cliffs surrounding the beach. Brett even found a soccer ball that had gotten wedged into one of the crevices, so, of course, they had to kick it around on the sand. Sean managed to fit the soccer ball into his suitcase and bring it home!
Ruins of Ballybunion Castle on Castle Green in Ballybunion.
Brett squeezes through a crevice in the cliffs at Ballybunion.
Sean explores a cave in the cliffs at Ballybunion.
Soccer (or "football" to the Irish) game in the rain on the wet sand of Ballybunion beach.
We found the "lovely" ice cream shop and enjoyed delicious ice cream including Brett's favorite, honeycomb ice cream! They also made yummy home-made donuts.
We then drove back inland through the rain to our villa in Adare where Brett made us all omelets for dinner. We went for a short walk on the golf course near the villa until more rain drove us back inside to play some Tripoley before heading to bed.
Comments