EIS – To Ennis (Day 13)

EIS – To Ennis (Day 13)

(8/30/2010) We left Sligo and headed for Knock and the Knock Shrine and Pilgrimage Center. It is a shrine because in 1879, 15 people witnessed an apparition of Mary, St. Joseph, and St. John on the gable of the church. To the right, in the center of the gable, was a plain alter on which stood a lamb. Behind the lamb, a cross stood upright and angles hovered around the lamb during the apparition. The chapel now depicts the scene that those people saw.

Our next stop was in Galway and Eyre Square. This is also, where St. Nicholas, the church reported where Christopher Columbus prayed before leaving for his trip in 1492.

In the back side of the church is a wall with a window and skull and cross bones. This is where the then Governor Lynch, on his son being found guilty, ordered him to be hung. Hence, the slang name given to a hanging as a lynching.

After leaving Galway, we enter the town of Kinvarra and pass Dunguaire Castle built around 1529.

We enter a region know as the Barrens and we soon pass a 1500’s residential fort, now in ruins.

Also in the Barrens is a section of the road known as corkscrew hill, where the road follows a number of switchbacks allowing vehicles to get to the top of the hill. The road was defiantly not made for the size coach we were in, but our driver, Dai (Welch for David) had no problem getting us up the hill. Although, a couple of turns we needed the whole road to navigate around the corner.

This leads us to the Cliffs of Moher. We stop here for about an hour. As you can see these cliffs are quite high, if you look closely, you can see people on the top of the cliff in the front. The peninsula at the end of these cliffs, called Nag’s Head and there is a tower there. We did not have time to make it out to the tower.

O’Brian’s Tower is also on these cliffs, closer to the parking lot. We did not get to this tower either; we had headed towards Nag’s Head and again, we were running out of time. This picture is from halfway to Nag’s Head. In order to get to where we took this picture we had to pass a sign indicating “Private Property” and “Please do not go beyond this point”. We did anyway, and the views back towards O’Brian’s Tower are fantastic.

We pass more ruins, as this day seems to have had more old castles and other ruins then we have passed before, at least close enough to get a picture.

We have gone by many rock walls on this trip so far, this is a sample.

Tonight we go to Knappouge Castle for a castle dinner and show. More on this in my next posting.



Until later, Bob and Carmen – EIS.