On Tuesday we explored the city for the afternoon, then walked over to St. Mary's Cathedral. The church was beautiful, and held a lot of Irish history within it. Construction began in the 1840s, but had to stop because of the Famine that took over Ireland. During the years of the famine, what was already built was used as a hospital for the peasants that were starving, and construction began again in the early 1900's, and it was completed in the 1970's.
On Wednesday, we took a day tour around the Dingle Peninsula. This was absolutely beautiful, and truly defines the essence of Ireland. On the peninsula is the most western point of all of Europe, and the scenery was just beautiful.
The Beach at the start of the peninsula
Some of the countryside, where a lot of movies set in Ireland have been filmed
Some of the cliffs. I honestly thought this was more beautiful than the Cliffs of Moher
Beehive houses built by monks around the year 800. What's really amazing about these is that there's nothing holding them together, it's just the stones all supporting each other, and they've stayed standing for two thousand years, completely solid.
Me in the doorway to the beehive house
More beautiful cliffs
The three of us by the countryside
Me in the door of an old observatory, constructed in the same way as the beehive houses. It's truly amazing that these structures are still standing.
On Thursday we went to Killarney National Park and were spoiled with the best weather I've had since I've been here. We toured the Muckross House, which was where Queen Victoria stayed when she visited Ireland. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was beautiful. The owners of the house spent three years preparing for the Queen's two night visit, and an entire wing of the house was built especially for her.
The view of the mountains and the lakes from the front of the house
Some of the gardens for the house
Suzy, the horse that took us through the national park to see some more of the sights
The Troc waterfall, which was huge and absolutely beautiful
Another view of the lake
The Muckross house from further down
This is the Muckross Abbey, where we walked that afternoon. The ruins are still in pretty good condition, and what was really interesting about this abbey was the fact that the layout was still known, and when we walked through the abbey we knew whether we were in the kitchen or the reflecting room, or other parts of the abbey.
It was a really great week, and Killarney was by far my favorite town in Ireland. I'm off to Europe later this week, which will make for a lot more posts at the end of the month!
