Grails

We started in Killarney National Park, visiting Torc waterfall in heavy rain then, in drizzle, Ladies View where Queen Victoria's Ladies-in-Waiting were taken to see the lakes (extra).

Then we went on a bit of a mission to Ardtully Castle. After the original castle on this site was destroyed during the Cromwellian war against the Irish (1649-53), the Orpen family acquired the land and built a grand house then, in 1847, this building. We'd heard that in 1921, during the Irish War of Independence, the IRA had doused the furniture with petrol and set the building alight. We hadn't heard the version told to us by a local farmer who found us wandering around, that before setting the building alight, the IRA had removed all the furniture and hidden it along the river bank to collect it later. He told us more tales of how the Orpens had behaved - preventing tenants from collecting wood and evicting a family for collecting sand from the river for building - which made it very clear why they were a target for nationalists. William Orpen, he of last Saturday's gathering, almost certainly came here before it was burnt down.

Now it is a home to crows.

From there we climbed narrow winding roads up the mountain through Priest's Leap, touched the bottom of the clouds, had our breath taken, wound our way down the other side, drove through Bantry and alongside an unexpectedly turquoise sea under the purple mountains to a very warm welcome from freespiral and Himself. 

Who took us out, along with Jensphotos, on a walk to Kitchen Cove and the Air India memorial.

A dereliction tribute to SarumStroller. What sad news.