Knappogue Castle & Walled Garden (built in 1467)

For Jenean

Thoor Ballylee (sixteeneth century norman castle ).

The home of William Butler Yeats.  We walked up a tree lined path and heard the large creek before we saw the tower.  The sound of the creek and the shade was enough, there were little paths leading every which way, we took one that led deep in the woods following the creek and opened up to a cow pasture. In one of the ivy covered clearings with all the trees leaning down to listen to the lines that were so familiar to them, I read:

WHEN YOU ARE OLD

"When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars."

One small glance, it is almost not worth posting the pictures.  Here on top of the tower we saw our first real view of Ireland.  I kept thinking "Yes anyone could write poetry here, no matter how dry the man, the music inside would flow"  The view was 360 degrees, with wind in my hair and the feel of stone under my hands and small purple flowers growing out of the cracks.

"Come fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame!"   --William Butler Yeats

"To leave here is to leave beauty behind"  W. Butler Yeats

 "We are in our Tower and I am writing poetry as I always do here, and, as always happens, no matter how I begin, it becomes love poetry before I am finished with it" (written in a letterYeats wrote to Olivia Shakespeare)

The winding Stair, turning steeply up within the tower, had little windows, and small rooms to explore.

Lemaneagh Castle (built in 1480)

I didn't know the story of the place when I first saw the castle by the side of the road, I am surprised I even found the name of the castle.  Like so  many things in Ireland we stumbled upon it going down the road and it felt very much like it was our discovery...that no one had entered the site since the time of Mary O'brien (it's former owner who had wild red hair and a personality to match).  In the 1600's When Mary's servants brought her husband home mortally wounded by Cromwell's men, she put on her best dress called the coach and went to Cromwell's soldiers and shouted that the first one who proposed to her she would marry.  Captain Cooper took her up on the offer and with the marriage she saved the property for her children. (Information taken from Thomas J. Westropp, 'Folklore of Clare'). 

Steve dropped me off and went up the road to find a place to turn around and park, I couldn't go through because the gate was closed, there were no signs telling me that I could not come in, and the electric fence was not hot so I climbed over and ran up to the castle and through one of the windows.  Thinking all the while that as soon as Steve returned it would be time to go, his conscience is a bit louder than mine.  I immediately laid down on the stone floor, like how children make snow angels, and there above me, were birds flying from empty window to empty window and the roof long since gone, opened to a ceiling of bright blue Irish sky.

It is mine now, under my skin, I felt the walls, felt the feeling of the place, completely alone, laughing because I couldn't do anything else.

Kilfenora, the city of the crosses

The cathedral and the crosses date between 1189 and 1200

Passing through all the rooms, seeing hints of each other through the doorways, you get lost in wonder. The history of the cathedral just wraps around you and you find yourself talking softly as though in a museum even though there was not another soul around.

It was so strange to me to see a working farm with cows grazing near some of the high crosses.

Below is one of my favorite images from this trip.  I keep coming back to it,  Ireland is all stone and all green, the texture below is so "Ireland" to me, it represents all the of the silence and peace and strength of this place.