an irish adventure: bunratty, the castle

On September 29th, Theresa and I had plans to go to Bunratty Castle. It's about a 20 minute drive from Limerick. My housemate, Maille, and her friends (Kelsey and Sam) were planning on going to Galway, I think, but when that didn't work they tagged along with us. We bought our bus tickets and ate breakfast at the station.

Maille showing off her breakfast muffin

At 10am, we got on the bus and our adventure started.
Of course, we started taking pictures as soon as we got there:

Bunratty Castle from outside the gates

Irish flag a wavin'

Kelsey, Sam, and Tees found where the troll lives!

oh no!

feeding Maille to the troll...

just kidding, we're bff's :)

We finally made it inside to buy our tickets, get our maps and head back outside.

The map. It was like an entire city inside.

A little bit about the Castle:

We walked through the folk park first. We started at the Loop Head House which was like a fish-farming family's house.

Loop Head House

Next, the Blacksmith's Forge. We learned that the blacksmith was one of the most important and respected members of the community.

inside the blacksmith's house

After that, the Cashen Fisherman's House. It was blue, so obviously my favorite one....

Cashen Fisherman's House

We had to be careful because the walkways were "slippy":

We actually got to go inside and tour almost all of the castle. That's where we went next.

welcome!

Outside the castle, there was an assortment of cannons:

little cannon

big cannon

The O'Brien Family must have been kind of important or something. Our crest is EVERYWHERE!

Tees may have been having a little too much fun. What do you think?

We followed someone else's tour through the first part of the castle and learned about "the pit". It was basically a death sentence. They pushed someone through this gate and if they didn't die by the impact or injuries of the 15 foot fall then they starved to death at the bottom of it. so sad.

the pit

There was an old lady in the tour that seemed to have fallen asleep while listening to the tour guide's speech.

Kelsey mocking the old lady

We romped all around the castle and took pictures everywhere we could. Unfortunately we couldn't use a flash so they're kind of dark.

Queen Tees

2.
O'Brien, again.

We learned that it was probably a royal marriage that accounts for the two crests together under the crown.

Sorry, Tees. King beats Queen.

little chair means second in command ;)

one, big, happy, ROYAL family

The views from the towers are my favorite. You can see so far, and Ireland is truly beautiful.

beautiful, except in this picture. I don't know what's going on here...

PEEK-A-BOO

The first of many stair shots:

adorable.

I think this was the Earl's room. There was a fancy dress on the bed, some HUGE boots and a scary looking toilet...

O'Briens rule. literally and figuratively...

4.
lions, lions everywhere!

There were cutouts in the walls in a lot of rooms. I would assume that they were used for storage or decoration but there wasn't anyone around to ask. So, naturally, we climbed inside them.

we found a better use for them :)

After hours of walking around...

we're still having fun!

Another view from a different tower:

gorgeous, darling!

In this picture, you can see the stairs that the guards used to patrol.

O'Brien, O'Brien, O'Brien, O'Brien, O'Brien, O'Brien, O'Brien...

5.
Not a very good picture, it was really high, up on the ceiling. It's a wooden carved angel holding the O'Brien crest.

Climbing up in places that I probably shouldn't have been...

storage or decoration?

Back outside, to tour the rest of the village. But first, for your entertainment....

Irish Dancers

Disco Dancers

I'm a farmer.

cute puppy.

pretty little grotto :)

Up next, the mountain farmhouse. Probably Theresa's favorite, considering that it's pink.

After the mountain farmhouse came the a couple others that weren't cool enough to take pictures of... and then the Golden Vale Farmhouse which featured a lady making apple tarts. It smelled delicious inside! Upstairs there was a tiny little bedroom that made me feel HUGE. I can't even imagine living in there.

everything was so little!

MY FAVORITE PART OF THE DAY!! I didn't know that this was a part of the tour so I was really excited when I saw it. I may or may not have run down the road like a child. I also may or may not have spent 6x as much time there as the rest of the girls...

Such happy little guys! and majorly adorable too :D

As we ventured on, we came upon the horizontal mill:

cool

We also met donkey:

"and in the mornin', I'm makin' waffles!"

This is the enchanted forest. We found a pond in here, as well, and we all stopped to throw a penny and make a wish!

The vertical mill was a cool place. There was a bungalow type building that I didn't get a picture of but it worked together with this and the waterfall.

The day continues... I know this has to be the longest post ever but we took more than 500 pictures this day, so count your blessings since they don't all fit!

I didn't know that monkeys were indigenous to Ireland...