It’s a long way to Tipperary
It’s a long way to go
It’s a long way to Tipperary
To the sweetest girl I know! – Count John Francis McCormack (14 June 1884 – 16 September 1945)
Woolly says – We had arrived in Cashel yesterday evening and although I had tried to hide one of our main places to visit on the following day it had been a bit tricky given its size, so both of the humans knew where we were headed after breakfast in the morning.
Cashel is a historic medieval market town in County Tipperary in Ireland. The town gives its name to the ecclesiastical province of Cashel.
The morning dawned with a lovely sun warming the country and having packed up our bits and pieces we were parked up and ready to see a most spectacular sight by 9am.
According to local legends, the Rock of Cashel originated in the Devil’s Bit, a mountain 20 miles (30 km) north of Cashel when St. Patrick banished Satan from a cave, resulting in the Rock’s landing in Cashel. It was Originally the traditional seat of the kings of Munster as early as the 4th century and prior to the Norman invasion. In the 5th century the Eóganachta clan built a fortress at Cashel retaining supremacy there for hundreds of years. In 977 Brian Boru was crowned there as king and made Cashel his capital. In 1101, the King of Munster, Muirchertach Ua Briain, donated his fortress on the Rock to the Church. Few remnants of the early structures survive; the majority of buildings on the current site date from the 12th and 13th centuries.
In 1647, during the Irish Confederate Wars, Cashel was sacked by English Parliamentarian troops under Murrough O’Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin. The Irish Confederate troops there were massacred, as were the Catholic clergy.
Sometime during or after the mid 1730s, the main cathedral roof was destroyed by Arthur Price, the Anglican Archbishop of Cashel.
We were sure what to make of St Patrick and Satan having a spat but however the rock arrived we were very glad that it had. Having taken a few snaps from the parking area we puffed our way up the hill and having paid our entrance fee turned to see the immense cathedral ruin.
The closer we got the bigger it seemed to be with massive windows and doors, and some really cook looking towers, sadly things like are usually closed to visitors but I was always up for slipping under a gate and making my own way up to the top!
Work started on the chancel in 1235 with the central tower being added in the 14th century, by the 16th century tombs had been added and more chancel houses. Recesses in the walls allowed us to sit for a moment and try and take in the sheer size of the building.
A huge domed archway stood high above us with a small hole in the centre which must have been tricky to find the exact spot to put the bucket when it rained. As we approached the altar area there were more fascinating recesses to look at and a number of tomb stones embedded on the floor.
Looking back towards the rear of the building seemed to make it look even bigger.
In the naves on each side there were some interesting finds including tombs with the carvings still in excellent condition, even better was a boxed area with the remains of a medieval painting which although difficult to see what had once been incredible in still being there.
We headed outside to find that the building next to it, well less than an inch from the cathedral was a much more modern piece of building, this was Cormac’s Chapel and held further wall murals that were now closed off to preserve them which was a shame as they looked incredible on the information board. Jo did put her camera to the glass door in the hope of getting a picture which turned out quite well but didn’t include the splendid artwork.
As we wandered round the outside admiring the burial plots and their memorials, I was able to peek over the walls and across the fields far into the distance, the views were spectacular.
A rounded tower caught my eye, Rapunzel would have loved it, having tried to find an entrance I had to admit defeat as there didn’t seem to be one.
Across from the main buildings was a much smaller set of buildings which might have housed clergymen although there was a lack of information on that. Inside the first was a small kitchen set up with wonderful oak doors.
The second room had the most fantastic carved ceiling with small effigies places along it in different colours, the woodwork skills were amazing.
The second half the building was dedicated to a video screening room where we sat down to watch a video about the rock and the incredible buildings on it, sadly it was in German, so we gave up after a few minutes and headed back outside.
During our wanders we had seen a ruined building at the bottom of the rock and with the main part of the rock concluded we decided to head down to it.
Woolly says – We walked down the hillside getting ever nearer to the new destination which looked rather cool. As we reached the bottom of the track and crossed the road, we found that we needed to walk along the road to gain access so avoiding the traffic we set off to the unknown. Luckily there was a nice metal sign telling us that it was in fact Hore Abbey.
Hore Abbey is a ruined Cistercian monastery, ‘Hore’ is thought to derive from ‘iubhair’ or yew tree. The former Benedictine abbey at Hore was given to the Cistercians by Archbishop David Mac Cerbaill (in 1270), who later entered the monastery, and was buried there in 1289. He endowed the Abbey generously with land, mills and other benefices previously belonging to the town. Hore Abbey is distinctive among Irish Cistercian monasteries in that the cloister lies to the north. The siting of the Abbey, with the Rock of Cashel close by to the north, may explain this departure from the usual arrangement.
We crossed the field which had a number of cows grazing or lying and enjoying the sunshine, Zoe was slightly apprehensive about the bull but as Jo and I live on a farm with cows that held no fears for us as herding cows was one of the requests for living there when they get out or someone leaves a gate open.
It was a lovely building with an area that might well have been gardens leading into the abbey itself. Large arches and windows meant it must have been quite bright in there for the monks during worship.
It was difficult to tell what areas where what with zero information, so we just enjoyed admiring the features.
The altar was one area that was obvious as it still had the stone in place housed just past a beautiful domed ceiling.
Just to one side Jo spotted what looked like some very old drawing or possibly where something had been attached many centuries ago, I liked to think it was part of the decoration.
Further small buildings allowed us to see how small some of the rooms must have been, were they where the monks had once slept, I wondered. Way across the fields we could see the Rock of Cashel which still looked magnificent.
With the abbey remains completed we trekked back past the herd and clambered back up the hill passing the Cathedral as we headed back to the car and our next port of call.
A twenty minute drive took us to the small town of Cahir. Cahir is a town in County Tipperary, for much of the twentieth century, Cahir stood at an intersection of two busy national roadways: the Dublin to Cork N8, and the Limerick to Waterford N24. The N8 was realigned in 1991 to run west of the town, while the old road through it was renumbered the R670. Traffic from the N24 still left the town badly congested, however, until October 2007 when this road was also realigned to bypass Cahir to the north and east. Today it is a sleepy town with no congestion and a large number of bars and cafes, it is also hope to Irelands largest castle.
Cahir Castle is sited on an island in the river Suir. It was built from 1142 by Conchobar Ua Briain, King of Thomond. Now situated in Cahir town centre, the castle was sited on and near an earlier native fortification known as a cathair (stone fort), which gave its name to the place. Granted to the powerful Butler family in the late 14th century, the castle was enlarged and remodelled between the 15th and 17th centuries. It fell into ruin in the late 18th century and was partially restored in the 1840s. The Great Hall was partly rebuilt in 1840.
Large is relative when you have been to as many castles as us and it seemed rather small in our world, small yes but it was gorgeous to look at. Sitting on the river gave us a lovely scene of the castle walls and tower and the ducks and geese splashing away. There was also a Movie garden which took us a moment to figure out but it related to movies that had used it as a location for filming which was brilliant. Which included, Catholics (1973) – Starring Martin Sheen and Trevor Howard, marking one of the earliest modern productions at the castle. Tristan and Isolt / Love Spell (1978/1981) – Brought actor Richard Burton to the town for production. Barry Lyndon (1975) – Directed by Stanley Kubrick; the castle stood in for a Prussian military camp. Excalibur (1981) – Directed by John Boorman; featured prominent siege and battle sequences. The Tudors (2007–2010) – The historical television series used the location for various background scenes representing Tudor-era England. Stella Days (2011) – Irish drama film starring Martin Sheen. The Green Knight (2021) – Directed by David Lowery and produced by A24; featured the castle as Camelot and won the EUFCN Best European Filming Location Award and The Last Duel (2021) – Directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon and Adam Driver; used the site to portray a 14th-century French château. It did in fact look a bit French chateau like so I could understand their choice for using it.
We walked towards the entrance admiring the river and its weir before heading inside just as a huge tourist group arrived.
The main part of the castle was the keep which loomed above us, we ducked thorough a small doorway and into an exhibition about the castle history with a great mini model portraying the battles it had encountered from the English.
Heading down some steps we found ourselves in the bottom of the keep which help display boards about other castles in Ireland and how medieval ladies had lived.
Outside was a green space which gave us a good view of the towers and had two lovely cannons sited on it.
We also found the steps leading to the higher levels of the keep which were sparse rooms with tiny rooms leading off them, a large fireplace in one would have kept everyone warm in the winter months.
Far far better though was a small corridor that led us to the portcullis, an actual portcullis not just the space where it had once been housed. I could have admired it for hours with its chains and pulley systems, sadly the tourist group found it as well so having given it one last fond look we headed out.
Next was the Great Hall, which really lived up to its name with a beautiful wooden ceiling and roof joists not to mention a huge stone fireplace. Sadly, the tour group was now hot on our heels, so we fled back outside and towards a square tower in the corner of the courtyard.
Up the narrow steps we climbed encountering metal grills across the doors of the castles former prison, being small in stature I decided to see what being a prisoner would have been like, the women not realising that I had stopped continued up the tower to the top.
We had an amazing view from the top across the river and took our time to take in the view. As we set off back down the steep steps I could him the mammoth squeaking and found that he had managed to get himself into the cell but couldn’t get back out, I pondered a moment.
Woolly says – She’s a cruel woman and actually left me there and carried on whilst I spent another ten minutes trying to break free before realising that some of the gate sections were slightly wider and I was able to squeeze through.
Catching up with them as they were heading out of the castle and under the port cultus I voiced my complaints but as usual was completely ignored until arriving back at the car where I was presented with a large muffin as a peace offering, I accepted the muffin but heard no apology, humans can be so cruel.
With our day complete we set off to our overnight accommodation with our Irish play list ringing in my ears, it was an interesting mix made up by Jo of many of the songs she had once played whilst in an Irish group back in the 80’s, who knew she could play whistles, hopefully she was better at it than she is at singing!