Adventure #5: County Clare and The Burren

As Damon's co-pilot, I did not do a good job of ensuring we visited all of the tourist spots on our first visit to The Burren last month. (I read The Burren section of our Ireland travel book AFTER our trip.) Alas, we drove over for another day trip on Saturday.

We started our day by visiting Dysert O'Dea Castle, built in 1480 at the former O'Dea clan stronghold at Dysert O'Dea in County Clare. This is actually south of The Burren, but we didn't have time to see it after we left Bunratty Castle last Saturday.
http://www.odeaclan.org/history.htm

Dysert O'Dea Castle today houses a Archaeological Centre, known for its wealth of historical and archaeological remains. Within about one mile of the castle, there are more than 25 archaeological and historical sites. Unfortunately, the castle was closed for the season, but we still walked around to see some of the historic sites. We walked through a pasture of cows to find Saint Tola's High Cross, a 12th-century cross showing Christ and a bishop carved in high relief on the east side, with geometric motifs and animal ornament on the other sides. After photographing the cows, we climbed over a wall to the ruins of Dysert O'Dea Church, which stands on the site of an Early Christian monastery. The monastery was founded by St. Tola, who died about 735, although most of the present buildings are from the 12th century. The church is known for its famous Romanesque doorway.
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/places/the_burren/dysert_odea_church.htm

We also read that there are two stone forts across the road from the church and castle, used during battles between local noblemen in the 16th century. We followed the archaeological trail signs, walking through mud along country paths meeting up with locals burning trash and a friendly Border Collie that jumped on us - but we could never find the forts. We only found a sign that pointed to the forts - could this actually be them? What a bummer.

On our way back to The Burren, we came across a monastic site in Gort that I had seen in pictures, but didn't know where it was. Kilmacduagh Monastery is actually located in County Galway. It was the birthplace of the Diocese of Kilmacduagh: The 7th century Saint Colman, son of Duagh, established a monastery on land given him by his cousin King Guaire. http://www.stcolman.com/life_monastery.html
We took pictures of the various buildings on the site: Round Tower, Cathedral, Glebe House (Abbot living quarters), Church of St. John the Baptist and O'Heynes Church. We also got to watch a local farmer move cattle from pasture to pasture. Check out his farm truck in the photo album!

When then drove north on R480 to see several sites along this road. First, we passed Leamaneh Castle, which was impressive but not a destination for stopping and touring, as it only has four walls left standing.
http://castlesights.com/castles/ireland/leamaneh/leamaneh.html

Then we came across the Carron Church (also have seen it spelled Carran) near the village of Carran at one of the highest points in The Burren. Carron Church is a good example of a medieval parish church. A church was built here about 1200 but most of the ruin dates from the 15th century. There were graves inside, ruins from the altar still visible, stone windows overgrown with vines and the a Holy Water font built into the doorway on the right was still in tact.

While looking for the Poulnabrone Dolmen, we came across a brown sign (these are points of interest) for Poulawack Cairn. This Cairn is one of a number of prehistoric burial mounds found in the Burren and certainly the most impressive. It dates back to between 2000 and 3000 B.C.
http://www.burrenforts.ie/mainj/poulawack.htm

We still had not found the dolmen, so we stopped by the Caherconnell Stone Fort & Visitor Centre, but when we went inside and found out the price to see the tiny fort, we decided it wasn't worth it. But we did find out that the dolmen was just up the road. http://www.burrenforts.ie/

There are more than 70 megalithic tombs in The Burren, and the most well known and most easily accessible is Poulnabrone. It was excavated in 1968 and found to contain the remains of "between 16 and 22 adults and 6 juveniles, including a newborn baby." Radiocarbon dating suggests that the burials took place around 2000-2500 BC.

http://www.stonepages.com/ireland/poulnabrone.html

We then tried to find the Cahermore Stone Fort just west of the Aillwee Caves, but could not. (Damon doesn't seem to have interest in visiting the caves either. I think it's a photography thing.)

We then drove back east to the village of Kinvara, which we visited a few weeks ago to see the Dunguaire Castle. Brenda and Steve bought us the BEST gift for Damon's birthday and our anniversary - a gift voucher to one of their favorite restaurants in the area, Pier's Head. We walked around town for a little bit before dinner, noticing all the purple and gold sporting flags, banners and even cars painted purple and gold. We learned that the regional Hurling championship was the next day, and Kinvara was in the final match for the cup. Hurling (in Irish, iománaíocht or iomáint) is an outdoor team sport of ancient Gaelic origin, administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association, and played with sticks and a ball. It shares a lot of rules with Gaelic football.

At Pier's Head, we had a couple of coffee drinks before dinner in the bar, then a baked goat cheese tart, filet mignon with mushroom sauce and monkfish medallions for dinner with a half-bottle of Sancerre from the Loire Valley in France - followed by a chocolate hazelnut torte and ice cream. It was fabulous. Then we went home and stayed up until 2 p.m. because we drank coffee. :)
http://www.kinvara.com/eatpierhead.html

Little did we know, the SHC final Portumna v. Kinvara was at Pearse Stadium in Salthill - maybe a half-mile from our apartment! We went to the gym on Sunday afternoon and saw all the cars with the purple and gold flags and thought that everyone just came to town to watch the game on TV - but we could have gone and watched it live. Bummer.