Monday, August 17, 2015

On the Way to Dingle: the Rock of Cashel

I have enough pictures from this little part of our trip that I think I'll just make a separate post about it. As we were driving west across Ireland to get to Dingle, we stopped at the Rock of Cashel. The best way I can think of describing it is as a compound of church buildings. It would have been a good site for a castle, but as I understand it, one clever local lord many hundreds of years ago decided to give it to the Church so that none of his competitors could claim the spot. It then became an important seat of church power.

The buildings are mostly ruins, but they're still beautiful! 

One of the buildings is a huge, ruined cathedral. 


There's also a smaller, older church next to the cathedral. It has a very old fresco, one of few from its era that has survived.

There is a ruined abbey down the hill from the Rock of Cashel. 

Christina takes in the view.

This round tower is one of the oldest parts of the complex. 




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