carriganass, bantry, garinish

Jet lag lets me experience life as a morning person, sort of. I crashed at 10:30 pm, woke at 6, and had two hours before breakfast at 8:15. Kinda bizarre. I did my morning wake-up walk, packed completely, drew a picture of the dresser and desk, even had time for a walk outside... But breakfast time is pretty much bedtime back home and I started getting sleepy. So that's where the morning person experience ended.

As we left, Dad intoned a blessing on the hotel: "May your water run pure again." (Macroom was under a boil order while we were there.)

Yesterday's bus ride was mainly on the highway. The highway infrastructure is fairly recent in Ireland, having been built within the past 20-25 years. Today's ride took us through winding backcountry roads, narrow and bumpy. The hills were every shade of green and the sky was every shade of gray.

It was another castle-and-garden day, starting with an unnamed crumbling tower we drove by in the middle of nowhere. Ireland is such an old country that everything has many layers of lore, many of them bloody. Who knows what lord ordered that tower built, and what advancing force either killed him or was killed by his men?

Then we went to Carriganass Castle, a similar ruin except in a residential area and with an informational placard featuring the lord's coat of arms.

Our next stop was the Bantry House, a coastal mansion that was the seat of the Earls of Bantry. Irish liberationists, in collaboration with the French, were trying to free the town of Bantry from the British. (The French were helping because they hoped to use Ireland as a staging ground against England.) But Earl Bantry was loyal to the British Crown. He saw French ships approaching the bay, alerted the British, and the takeover was thwarted.

The Bantry family eventually lost their earldom due to not producing a male heir (yikes), but the house still remains with the family. Now it's essentially an art gallery - the Bantry private collection made public - plus gardens. The Bantry family runs the place like a business (charging for entry, having a cafe and bed & breakfast, hosting concerts and destination weddings) but makes no profit; all the money goes back into maintenance of the mansion and grounds. Costs a lot to maintain such an old mansion.

The Bantry collection was impressive. A giant tapestry of Marie Antoinette in the same room as a collection of eggshells donated by a local school. A Russian Orthodox traveling shrine (for when you go on a journey between your estates and need to pray to the saints en route), plus reliquaries made with the alleged bones of saints. Giant urns wreathed in snakes, and braziers held aloft on the heads of cranes. Portraits of the king and queen of England in ridiculously ornate frames. Portraits of the Earls of Bantry and sketches of the more recent Bantry members as children. Displayed prominently in the main hall was a portrait of the father of the current lady of Bantry, playing his trombone.

Our last stop of the day was Garinish Island. This used to be just an outpost to guard against Napoleonic invasion, but then some guy's wife was like "you should buy the island and turn it into a garden island" so he did. There's probably more to it but we didn't take the history tour. We just strolled around the gardens, which were excellent. Also, on the ferry to and from the island, we saw glimpses of seals: dark heads bobbing above the water before diving back down.

The only downside of the day was dinner. We had dinner at the hotel, which was fine, but afterwards everyone talked so long. I spent a whole half hour trying to look mildly attentive and not fall asleep in my chair. But it seemed rude/unfriendly to be the only one to leave. Probably I'm the one who needed the gift of gab. Finally we all left, and I considered taking a shower and going to bed straight away, but it turned out HGR was streaming his grand escape from Metal Gear Sahelanthropus and I was instantly fully awake. Funny how that works.

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Pictured: The ruins of Carriganass Castle (lol ass)