Ruins Day - Thursday

After our night in our tiny B&B and a decent breakfast, we headed off this morning and decided we were going to see a few sites on our way to where we’re staying tonight at Sligo.

We headed off to Aughnanure Castle which is about half an hour from Galway and had a good wander around. Really interesting - built in the 16th century by the O'Flaherty’s and formed the seat of their power for several hundred years until they were knocked off by the Poms. It was one of the few castles that wasn’t destroyed as part of Cromwell’s actions in Ireland, mainly because the O'Flaherty’s fled before Cromwell got there so there was no need for him to destroy it. 

After that we headed cross country and had a look at a couple of interesting pictures of countryside went to lock you know one of the most spectacular England views we’ve seen so far in Ireland reminds me very much of what we expect to see in Scotland. With a large inland lake surrounded by the highland type mountains. 

From there we continued further along and came to Killary Fjord, which is a long narrow arm in from the Atlantic Ocean - presumably glacial. We found a spot to have lunch called the Misunderstood Heron -  a really quirky little shack off the side of the road that you wonder how it survives. It obviously had been there for a while and the lunch was pretty good too with a great view. 

From there we headed up to Downpatrick Head,  which was a longer drive on some "interesting" roads (narrow and bumpy). The head itself was pretty impressive with the Atlantic Ocean rolling in and some pretty impressive rock formations clearly showing the strata of the rock. 

The last stop of the day was Rosskerk Friary - yet another I’m victim of the protestant incursion into Ireland. This was an interesting one because it was a Third Order Friary for married couples who wanted to follow a Franciscan lifestyle but weren’t allowed to be monks or nuns because they were married. Although a ruin that was burnt down in the 1590, it was still remarkably intact and you could see all the different components of the building quite clearly including the church, workrooms, halls and the cells where the monks the would have lived.

Again, a really interesting experience.

We are staying just outside of Sligo having to relax after a nice dinner.

Cheers & be good.