Bunratty

I got back from spring break and it hit me. I’ve got a week till exams and then I leave in less then a month. Naturally this made me a little depressed. But before my depression could form into something more then thoughts my mum came to visit. She landed in Shannon 3 days after I got back from spring break.



I was a little scared to have my mum come visit. First because I was having a hard time coming up with things for us to see and do that was cheap. We had wanted to see the Dingle Peninsula, but that was a bit expensive. Second I wasn’t too sure she’d like my cooking. Also most of my housemates weren’t nice enough to clean up after themselves so the kitchen tended to be horribly dirty, even if I’d just cleaned it.


So I got up early to meet my mum at the airport. After 3 and a half months of seeing her only on skype it was nice to see her in person. I pretty much talked her ear off the whole bus ride back to limerick.


We stuck to Limerick and Campus the first 2 days my mum was in Ireland. Then I decided it was time to travel and see fun stuff. I decided to take my mum to Bunratty Castle and folk park.


Now I’d passed Bunratty at least a dozen times throughout the semester going to or from Shannon airport. It was also the first castle I saw in Ireland. Yet I hadn’t gone. So my mum and I were up early and took the bus to Bunratty Castle.


There was so much to see and do there! We walked around the Folk park. This info is all from the guide to the park, I'm just copying it right off it.
1) The Loop Head House - The house of a fishing- farming famiy in West Care. The thatch is roped down to protect it against the Atlantic gales.

2) Cashen Fisherman’s house - A simple two-bedroom house of a North Kerry salmon fisherman. Much of the timber would have been salvaged from the sea. The floor is of rammed clay.

3)Mountain Farmhouse - A poor farmer’s house of a type found on the borders of Limerick and Kerry. It has a loft for extra sleeping space

4) Weaver’s Shed - A wooden outbuilding for housing the loom of the weaver

5) Shannon Farmhouse - This was the first farmhouse to be reconstructed in the Folk Park. It originally stood on the site of the main runway at Shannon Airport

6) Bothan Scó ir - One roomed dwelling of a poor landless labourer who worked for the local landlord. Many of these houses and the occupants were lost during the Great irish Femine.

7) Golden Vale Farmhouse. The home of a farmer from the rich lands in the Golden Vale Counties of Limerick and Tipperary. It has stables/byres and a corn barn.

8)The School House - From Belvoir In East Clare. It would have accommodated up to eighty children

 9) The Village Street -  The village and shops have been chosen from many different areas to form a collection of typica 19th century urban Irish buildings.

10)The Doctor’s House - The Parlour is used as both dispensary and surgery.

11) Brown’s Pawnbroker - These shops were often an important part of the local economy

 12) Traveller Wagons - The Horse drawn wagon was the main type of transport used un the past by the Irish ethnic group known as Travellers 

^And there was a goat!!!^

13) Hazelbrook House - Built in 1898, this was home to the Hughes Brothers who started a dairy industry in the 1800’s and later produced HB Ice Cream which became a household ice cream brand in Ireland

14) Regency Walled Garden - Built close to Bunratty House and is part of the original much larger garden which existed. Views overlook the Owenogarney river and Shannon river.

 15) Ardcroney Church - The church was moved stone by stone from Ardcroney in County Tipperary to Bunratty Folk Park

 

 

 16) Vertical Mill - A classical example of a rural undershot watermill

 

17) Byre Dwelling - An example from County Mayo of a dwelling occupied by both the family and their milking cows.

^AND THERE WERE PIGGIES!!!!!!!!^
 

Now part of the walk around the park was obviously the castle. It looks really small from the outside but when you’re walking around and climbing all those stairs to get around you realize it’s actually quite huge.


Before I get to the pictures I’ll give ye a bit of castle background straight from the Shannon Heritage site. “The Castle is the most complete and authentic medieval fortress in Ireland. Built in 1425 it was restored in 1954 to its former medieval splendour and now contains mainly 15th and 16th century furnishings, tapestries, and works of art which capture the mood of those times.”


So my mum and I hiked around in the castle and I had to take a lot of pictures because that’s what I do.

After we left Bunratty we got lunch at the Creamery Pub across the street before we caught the bus back to Limerick.

Cheers,