We ate sausages and cereal this morning before setting off for downtown Limerick to King John’s Castle. They had an awesome museum with the history of the castle and important sieges that happened there. They also had reinactors sparring. Very cool mix of new technology to educate and old buildings full of history.

We drove 20 mins to Bunratty Castle; another traditional Irish Tower House, but bigger and fancier then the previous ones we have seen. An earl lived here. They also had 17 and 18th century farmer and fisherman cottages, a made up town, a fairy village, and lots of animals. Sadly no Irish Wolfhounds as advertised online and on the map but oh well. We ate our picnic lunch in the parking lot and headed another 20 min to Knappogue Castle. It was closed for, I assume, the bank holiday weekend. Which, thankfully hasn’t messed our plans up since we are not by any sports or holiday towns at the moment. Irish workers got out early Friday and have off Monday. We took pictures of the outside of the castle and headed on to the Cliffs of Moher.

The Cliffs were very crowded. The parking lot was loaded and hard to find a spot. There were so many people on the path. The view of the cliffs was gorgeous. There was a safer path behind a rock wall, but you could also go right to the edge. Many people did go right to the edge. We were more careful and stayed further away. We walked further away past the official path to another walking path. There was cow fields around the cliffs and an electric fence preventing you from not being close to the cows. You could, however, get right to the edge and beyond of the cliffs. A few groups of younger people were joking and walking and sitting close to a painful fall and end. I stayed well away.

We drove back to Limerick and made pizza. We watched a crazy British show called Catch Phrase and tried to get the heat on to dry our clothes. Finally Brandon figured it out which was great because it was a bit chilly in the house. We turned in early for a big day tomorrow driving all the 4.5 hour way up to Bushmills and two castles on the way.

We got up early to pack up, put our finally dry laundry away, do dishes and head off to Birr Castle and telescope by opening time. We sad good bye to our Limerick house and headed off. We got to Birr and played in the expansive tree house. We did not get to get close to the castle because it is a private residence. We did get to see the telescope and science center explaining the astronomers that worked at Birr and what they found. The Earls at Birr were the original engineers on the project and had many other inventions including the steam powered engine. There was gardens and walks to do but we were on a strict time limit so we took off again.

We drove an hour and stopped at Trim Castle. They filmed some of the movie Braveheart there. The castle was another towerhouse that was only accessible via tour. We walked around it and my camera had an unfortunate drop that put another dent in it. The shutters don’t really close at the moment, but hopefully she will recover. At least it still works. Brandon and I were discussing getting a different one anyways before the next trip.

We ate our picnic lunch in the car on the 3.5 hour drive up to Bushmills. We checked in to our B&B which this older couple named Hugh and Marilyn run three rooms and live in. We rushed over to Bushmills Distillery to try to get onto the last tour of the day. Sadly it was full so we wondered around the gift shop then headed back to the B&B to get the car.

We drove north to Dunlace Castle which had a crazy full parking lot. We drove further on to a scenic lookout parking lot to see the beautiful sea views. I thought the coast view was more beautiful than the Cliffs of Moher. We saw the castle from there and drove to the local beach for more views and to play on the rocks.

We dropped the car off and walked downtown to a fish and chips shop. We brought our food (fish and chips!) to the park by the river and ate it. We headed back to the B&B for tea and cards and an early bedtime from getting up and driving a lot today.