Cashel - Day 1

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Geo: 52.5166, -7.88591

A new day and time for a new town and today I was off to Cashel in county Tipperary, on the hunt for family history. The first stop was Lismore castle. Slight issue along the way. On the road was a lovely little town called Cappoquin which has this beautiful old stone bridge across the river. It was so lovely I had to stop and take a photo, I found a little grassy park around the bend I could safely park the car and take a couple of shots. While there I had a smoke, put my camera on the roof of the car and took in the serenity. How's the serenity? Too bloody good, I jumped in the car and took off leaving my camera on the roof of the car. I realised about 10 minutes later when I found another spot to take some happy snaps and couldn't find my camera. I tore the car apart looking for it. Realising what I'd done I turned around and went back to the first spot. Where the camera fell off, I have no idea. I didn't hear anything and it was nowhere to be seen. Feeling very angry with myself I made my way into Lismore to the police station to report it lost. The lass there suggested I go back to Cappoquin and ask at the Post office, chemist and supermarket. Which I did. They all took my phone number, but alas no-one had found it and turned it in. Fortunately I still have most of my photos as I've been transferring them onto my iPad. I only lost the photo's from the day in Waterford, which included, Kilkenny castle and Jerpoint abbey. I'm so mad at myself.

There was nothing else could be done so it was time to put on my big girl pants and head on to Lismore. The main reason for visiting Lismore was to see Lismore castle. This castle used to be owned by the Archbishopric of Cashel when it was sold it to Sir Walter Raleigh, the guy responsible for introducing tobacco to Europe. But that's not why I was here. The guy who sold the castle to Walt in 1589, was one Archbishop Miler McGrath. I do not know if this man is an ancestor of mine but damn I hope so. He was the Catholic bishop in Down (in the North) at the same time he was the Protestant Archbishop in Cashel (south). Add into the mix over in Donegal (west) he had a wife and four kids. Dat boy got around! So I'm claiming him as one of my ancestors because in my mind, he's a legend.

Lismore castle is a private residence and therefore not open to the public but you can walk around the gardens. I went for a walk around, took some snaps on my iPad. It is quite impressive although I believe the outer walls are 17th century, so after Uncky Miler sold it to Walt. Buts still cool for my first brush with family history. The gardens are lovely and the girl on the front desk was also a McGrath.

I stayed in Lismore for lunch then headed to Cashel. The road lead me up through the mountains, and some beautiful scenery. The roads here were a little bit windy but still very easy to drive on, until I came to the sheep. I noticed a couple of sheep on the road up on this mountain and I slowed down and gave them a wide berth because, you know, sheep are stupid. You never know when they are going to run out in front of you. That was OK for the first couple of sheep. For the next 10km there were little groups of them everywhere and every time I was slowing down and giving them a wide berth. Watching them interrupted my sight seeing. Stupid sheep, why don't they keep inside the fences.

Finally I came down out of the mountains and rolled into Cahir, where I saw another castle. I just took some photo's of the exterior as I didn't want to stop for too long, knowing I had some camera shopping to do in Cashel. When I made it to Cashel, I found my B&B and settled in. The owner, Patrick wasn't there at the time but his sister let me in. As I was walking out to my car he made an appearance. He is a really nice fella, and gave me directions for places I could get my laundry done and buy a new camera. I found the laundry place no worries, dropped off my bag and then made my way to the chemist, which is the only place in town that sells cameras. (Well at least they have one place) the selection was not wide but the prices were reasonable so I brought myself a Nikon Cool pix. Hope it takes good photo's. And the sales lady was lovely. I told her how I lost my camera, she felt so bad for me she took my details as well, just in case. Once I'd made my purchases, it was to early for dinner so I found a pub and had myself a well earned cider.

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