Day 11, 21 May 2012

This was the day that Tracy and the boys finally hit the wall.  They all needed a day of nesting.  We had planned to do the ring of Kerry but decided on something a little lower key.

A nice model of the old town.  It is bigger, but still laid out the same way.

Nana and Granddad and I headed down to the town of Kenmare after a nice late start.  The drive down was scenic and easy.  Kenmare had been set up on an X plan, which made it easy to find stuff and get around but was a little bit odd.



One of the interesting features of the town is a stone circle.  This is nothing like Stonehenge, but still worth the visit.

The model in the local tourist information (TI)/museum.

A sign, telling you something about what you are seeing.  Weird.  It'll never catch on.

This is the entire circle.  It is quite small, yet very powerful.

The burial tomb.

In addition to the stone circle there are bronze age remnants found in this area.  In the 1930's a local farmer was clearing his land, which pretty much means back breaking labor breaking stones and turning them into walls.  Under a stone he found 6 axeheads, an ingot, a dagger and a halberd.  They were buried there between 2000 and 1200BC.

A recreation of the Killaha horde.

The town had the usual stone row houses. In one spot I found a really nice example of how the coverings of the buildings are done.  All of the houses are built of stone.  Some are left raw and some are plastered.  Ireland has a program to recognize "tidy towns" which involves painting the plaster rather than just white washing it.  This explains the fantastic paint jobs in Dingle.

On the right, raw stone.  In the center, plastered.  On the left, old style rough plaster.  All the same building.

Following the visit to Kenmare our next stop was to be Muckross house.  This is a large 1840s mansion which has tours.  On the way we drove through the Killarney National Park.  It was a good thing that Mama and the boys were not with us as all three of them would have been barfing.  There was not a straight stretch of road for 20km.  There were some spectacular views though.

A lough with islands.

This tree and boulders epitomizes the wild Irish countryside to me.

It is not hard to picture spirits living here.

After surviving the drive through the park we quickly arrived at Muckross.  There is actually quite a complete complex of attractions here.  The main draw is the mansion itself, however there is a lake with gardens as well as a set of traditional farms, with living historians in them to tell you what is going on.

The map.  Farms on the left.  Mansion on the right.

We parked and walked over to the entrance to the farms, more by chance than design.  We had an hour and a half until the start of the tour for the mansion so we decided to tour the farms.  The park starts with the poorest and works up to the richest.  All of these farms date from the 1920's.  People on the plains in America were living better 100 years before that.

Turves and wood for burning.  Turves are dirt, by the way.

The exterior of Farm 1.  On the right is the chicken coop.  Family in the center.  Stables on the left end.

The cooking set up.  They don't even have a crane (next house).  Everyone in America had stoves 100 years before this.

This is where the kids slept.  It folds up into a bench during the day.

The kitchen in farm 3.  That metal thing is the crane.  Farm one couldn't even afford that marvel of cookery.

A closer look at the crane.  If you are going to cook over an open fire, this is the way to do it.

The kid's room.  Seven children slept in these two beds.   Head to toe, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory style.

The well.  It's built into the hedgerow beside the road.

Another spectacular Irish vista.

The final house was for a very prosperous farm family.  They had several out buildings.  The animals were note kept in the house.  They had a radio and a victrola (record player).  They even had a rather nice wood stove in the kitchen.

The house is painted a nice shade of mustard.

The wood stove.  This is a very nice range.

Following the farms we headed over for the tour of Muckross house.  We missed the one we were aiming for but only had to wait another twenty minutes to catch the second one.  There were no pictures allowed inside.  In this case it made sense as there were many original pieces of artwork and upholstery.  The house was very impressive and fairly typical of 19th century mansions.  It would not have been out of place in Newport Rhode Island, though it is a bit small for that town.  They were very impressed by the fact that Queen Victoria stayed there for three days in 1861.  That visit was a consistent theme throughout the tour.

The main entrance.  No longer used.

The tour was interesting but there were way too many people on it.  There were several rooms that we could not fit everyone in to.  They, thoughtfully, walked us through the gift shop on the way out, but did not let us stop and shop, oddly.  If you wanted to buy anything you had to get the guide to take you back in after the tour was over.

Following the grandeur of Muckross we began our trek back to Abbeyfeale and our cottage.  Along the way we were treated to the, not uncommon, site of a traffic jam caused by cows crossing the road.  Several jokes came to mind.  Once the fat ladies had gotten themselves into the new pasture, traffic resumed as normal.

We arrived back at the ranch to find that Tracy had laid out a table of snacks for us.  Smoked salmon, pate, cheese, crackers and sliced salami.  She also had a pot of home made chicken and dumplings simmering on the stove.  It was a great way for us to end our day.

The three of them had a full but less hectic day.  They played outside for a couple of hours.  The boys finally called uncle and went inside.  Owyn sat in front of the TV and watched kids shows all day.  Rhys sat in their room and watched Star Wars on my computer all day.  They each played, separately and were quite content with it, thank you very much.  Tracy got Rhys to snuggle with her and they both took a bit of a nap.

It was a good day for all of us and it left Tracy and the boys recharged for the final sprint to the finish line.