This is me having dinner at Durty Nelly's which was a pub at our next stop ~ Bunratty Castle.Actually, the pub is so near you can sit on the wall around the castle and have your beer while you listen to a live band. And the weather continued to be sunny and hot, which everyone was constantly amazed at.
Durty Nelly's was established in 1620 and has an interesting history including the original owner being the creator of poteen. An Irish cure-all.
It is clearly a very old building and I enjoyed looking around. The food was excellent and the service and the people extremely friendly.
My second picture was taken in a tiny room somewhere in the back that I thought looked interesting and old.On to Bunratty Castle
Once a castle of the O'Briens, Bunratty was acquired by the Studdart Anglo-Irish family in 1720 and they lived there for about a hundred years, so through the Regency.They eventually moved into a smaller house located in the grounds in around 1804 and gradually the castle fell into decay.
I'm not going to say very much about the castle, since we focus on Regency, not medieval, except to say that it was lived in at the very beginning of our period and has been beautifully "done up".
If you want to get a good feel of a medieval castle, this would be one to take a look at as it has floors and furniture. If I ever write a medieval story, I will find this visit of great help.
And that Jackie Kennedy visited it during a visit to Ireland.
There is also a folk park with farms and houses or ordinary people which would not have changed much through our era.
I did take one picture of a wall, which is very unusual though apparently typical of stone walls in the Moher area of County Clare, and thought I would share it with you.
I thought they looked like old gravestones with the names worn off lined up in a row. But no, it is a regular form of wall for a particular district. I guess this kind of stone was readily available.
Notice how green everything is. And yes, that is a palm tree. Not sure what it is doing there.
The house the family moved into in 1804 is also in the grounds. A classical Georgian dwelling, almost. Because the windows are not quite symmetrical and bits were added.
This was called a Regency walled garden. I have seen nicer ones, but thought you would like to see it. The walls did go all the way around.So that is it for Bunratty, unless I get huge requests for some of the pictures I took inside the castle and some of the cottages.
More on Ireland to come.
Until next time, Happy Rambles