Two Irish Castles

Our next destination was the little village Ballyporeen in County Tipperary, famed for being Ronald Reagan’s ancestral home; he visited the village in the 1980s. We arrived last night, stopping for a hearty pub dinner in the Galtee Inn in Cahir on the way. “Grannie’s Cottage” is markedly more comfortable than our previous gaff, and Ally and Davie switched on the television and started watching football enthusiastically; it was a cup final between Manchester City and Inter Milan. 

This morning we awoke refreshed and I dropped the hill-walkers at the trailhead for Galtymore, today’s mountain. 

I headed back to Cahir to visit the large castle that we had passed yesterday. I was not disappointed. An overcast early morning had segued into a very hot and sunny day. Built (from) 1142, it has seen a lot of fighting and sieges (by the British) and is now a national monument. It’s a gorgeous castle and has been used as a location for various films and tv shows, including The Tudors and The Last Duel, a film we saw only a couple of weeks ago. I had a good wander round and a coffee in The Keep café across the road, before heading back to Galtymore to collect the others at about quarter to two. Their mountain had been successfully bagged and they were in good spirits. 

At Cat’s suggestion we then travelled to Blackrock Castle in the city of Cork, where we had a tasty mid-afternoon snack at their delightful café. It had a really good menu and the staff were very friendly. We went on the 4 o’clock tour, of which the first half was about astronomy because the castle is currently used as an observatory, with a telescope on top of one of its turrets. The guide’s talk about the planets and stars was very interesting, it made me want to start using James’ telescope. Then a second guide marched us up a hundred steps to the top of the tower and told us about the castle’s eventful history, during which it was burned down and rebuilt many times! Among many interesting facts and stories, she told us that the spiral of the spiral staircase is the opposite way round than usual, because it was designed for invaders coming in upwards from the sea, so that the defenders could still have their swords in their right hands when fighting. At least I think that’s what she said. I found it kind of hard to understand. 

We set off to our next destination; Milltown in County Kerry, our base camp for MacGillycuddy's Reeks. Our Airbnb is lovely, the best yet. On our host’s recommendation we had dinner in Bunkers Bar in nearby Killorglan. Dinner was good, it was all decorated in Kerry’s green and gold, there was hurling being broadcast on the bar television there was a live band playing Irish music, and it was definitely the most Irish place that I have ever seen in my life!