We left the Westport Woods Hotel around 9:30 with clouds around of course and a gloomy forecast but this has come to mean nothing to us! We were heading toward Ballina (small town in county Mayo) and Rappa Castle, once home to Ann's Great Grandmother. What an adventure.
We had no trouble finding the town but needed GPS coordinates to find Rappa Castle and this was the exciting part. The road was tiny and seemed to shrink as we got closer. Our anticipation mounted and we were thrilled when we got our first glimpse of Rappa. Ann recognized it immediately. Her great grandmother had lived there as a girl while her family were caretakers of the estate. She fell in love and ran away with a farm hand much to the dismay of her family. Eventually they ended up in Inverhuron, just north of Kincardine and that is how Ann ended up in the Kincardine area. What a story! It seems so romantic and adventurous for a young couple to leave their home and make a new one on a different continent. I am sure there were lots of difficulties however.
It was a moving scene for me so I can hardly imagine how Ann must have felt seeing this.
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| Imagine! |
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| Beautiful even as a ruin...ivy gives it new life. |
This is the farm house with acreage for sale that has Rappa Castle on the property. Maybe Ann and Ken should buy it as a summer home!
Trim Castle Hotel did not disappoint us. It was a modern and fairly luxurious Hotel, like the Westport but right across the street is Trim Castle another beautiful ruin. John and Ken went golfing while Ann and I checked out the town. There wasn't much there so we decided to have dinner at the hotel. It looked like the best place in town.
We toured the castle the next day in the rain as usual. This castle is preserved in a state of disrepair with modern walkways allowing access to parts not safely restored and models showing the castle at various stages of history. Part of the movie "Braveheart" was filmed here.
From the hotel the castle dominated the view but from the castle the view of the hotel gave us a much different perspective. This gives you an idea of how large this Norman castle was, and still is.
June 21st; our last day of touring has arrived! We had to make the most of it. We headed off to Slane and the Bru na Boinne Visitor Centre, the starting point for a tour of Newgrange and Knowth, two of the three great passage tombs in Ireland. Like Maeshowe in the Orkney, these sites showcased the archeology, history and burial tombs of the ancients from 5000 to 6000 BC. The similarities between the Newgrange Chamber in particular and Maeshowe are remarkable to me.
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| Anticipation is amplified as you walk toward the Visitor Centre. |
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| This Centre does justice to the historical and archaeological significance of the sites. |
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| The endless spiral is a predominant theme of the ancients. |
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| I just wanted to get inside these mounds. |
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| Access was restricted at Newgrange Passage Tomb but I got this shot through the viewing fence. This reminded me so much of Maeshowe in Orkney. |
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| The spiral drawings are over 5000 years old. |
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| Passage Tomb |
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| Huge stones guard the entrance and the familiar spiral is carved in the rock. |
This was a long day but we still had the energy to tour Trim Castle before an early dinner and bed. Tomorrow we head off to the airport at Dublin and the long journey home.
Trim Castle Hotel did not disappoint us. It was a modern and fairly luxurious Hotel, like the Westport but right across the street is Trim Castle another beautiful ruin. John and Ken went golfing while Ann and I checked out the town. There wasn't much there so we decided to have dinner at the hotel. It looked like the best place in town. 
We toured the castle the next day in the rain as usual. This castle is preserved in a state of disrepair with modern walkways allowing access to parts not safely restored and models showing the castle at various stages of history. Part of the movie "Braveheart" was filmed here. 
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