Carrigadrohid Castle

Just back from an exhausting and somewhat eventful exploration - I dropped Himself off in Kealkil, Plan B for him as the route he intended to walk was the very one that the Fastnet Rally was also intending to take and the noise was incredible. Instead he decided to walk to Gougane Barra, a mighty 11 miles across the mountains. I went off towards south of Mallow, 5 wells on the agenda. Disaster at the first exploration - I managed to slip and actually sit in a fairly large stream, everything absolutely soaked - backpack, camera bag (camera ok) and everything on me from the waist down! Fortunately I had a spare pair of wellies (my posh one!), some socks and an old towel in the car so just had to soldier on. It was a bit of a slog and only one well was found and that much messed about with. I did marvel at Carrigadrohid castle though - the name means bridge on the rock, and the bridge is very tiny and still used but it has since been joined by a rather magnificent tower house. On the other side of the bridge is a rather unusual  BVM (see extra) - unusual because the grotto depicts Fatima not Lourdes (still with me? the things you discover). I also found a chunky bullaun stone (containign a cure for toothache by the way) and managed to get even filthier finding it.
I picked Himself up at Gougane, he too had managed to fall on his arse coming down off the mountain and was also covered in mud, but had  had an enjoyable hike. The new car is now acclimatised.