It’s been around two years but I have finally made my way back to Ireland. The plan, this time around, is to see a few more places that I wasn’t able to catch previously. The second part of that plan is to not slip and fall on the first day, again.

Getting to Ireland, from Western MA, is a breeze nowadays. Just a quick drive to Bradley Airport and you are off! The one downside, which doesn’t seem to be one at first glance, is that the flight leaves in the late afternoon and gets in early in the morning. Great! You’ve got the whole day ahead of you and you can adjust to the time change quickly…. so long as you can sleep on the plane.

I’ve developed a bit of a problem with sleeping on planes and can now only really doze. So, when then plane arrived an hour ahead of schedule well rested would not be a term I would have used to describe myself. Thankfully the airport is fairly easy to navigate thus getting to my rental car, bleary eyed, wasn’t too bad.

My end destination today was Killarney but as it’s a long drive I decided to break up the drive with a stop back to the Rock of Cashel.

The Rock has been a home for kings, bishops and, now, a murder of crows. The Rock is built on a limestone hill with fantastic views of the surrounding countryside. The remaining structures are all from its days as a religious site incorporating the latest in mainland Europe designs from the time. This made it a rare and much visited site. Today the roof of the cathedral is long since gone leaving the interior open to the elements. The ground around the cathedral have a number of graves from throughout the years, common in ruined religious sites.

No trip to the Rock is ever complete unless it is windy, raining or both. Given the temperature I’m glad I only had the wind. So, if you ever go make sure you are set for either and if you get sunshine buy a lotto ticket that night.

The area surrounding Cashel has multiple religious ruins and an abundance of farm land. Given how awake I was, I didn’t stay for too long but some sites can be seen from the Rock itself.

The town below has a host of shops and restaurants, which I won’t go into, but it does make Cashel a great way to break a drive through the area.

The rest of the morning was consumed with a white knuckled drive along a narrow main road that is the most direct route to Killarney. The locals didn’t have any issues careening down the road at 60 mph but when the road is barely two car widths across, in places, I wasn’t entirely comfortable at those speeds. I probably upset a fair number of drivers who had somewhere to be.

I would love to have details of a productive afternoon but I made it to the hotel around lunch time and my room was ready to go. After bring my luggage upstairs I sat down on the bed for a moment to rest my eyes and stood up about dinner time. Ah well, I should be better rested for tomorrow’s adventure!