Rosscarbery

Chillin at Castle Salem

There were awesome horses everywhere

View from inside Castle Salem

Coppingers Court

View from middle of Dolmin circle

I can see why these people settled here, gorgeous.

Coppingers Court

The cost along our hike

cow crossing. we were sitting in the car

The next day was adventure day, and while Olan was surfing, Gillian and I went exploring. First up, a walk along the mountainous coast. The weather in west cork is slightly warmer than the rest of the country, so the 65 or so degrees was a nice break from the coastal winds that Hurricane Bill brought andrew and I the week before in the north. The views were incredible, and we even walked down to the beach and watched Olan surfing for a bit. (I am still amazing that people surf in such cold waters, but apparently with a wet suit, its not that bad. I'm calling BS on that one, it has to be freezing).

All of our adventures today centered around the town of Rosscarbery, a lovelylittle town. Click to read up on it. Our next adventure was an abandoned manor called Coppingers Court. Apparently during the famine years, the homes owner was an awful man and if his residents couldn't pay rent, he simply hanged them from the front door of this house. As you can imagine, the place had an eerie feel about it, but it was stunning nonetheless. From there we visited Drombeg stone circle. There are actually TONS of these things around Ireland, but this one was very well preserved. Also, the views from the hill were amazing.

Finally, as were we trying to find one castle we had spotted, we ran into other. Castle Salem was hard to spot at first, it actually had great signposts giving us directions. We pulled up and just saw a house. No castle in sight. We were greeted by an 80 year old man who said the castle was "around back."

So, we walked around and just found a man working on a scaffold. When we inquired as to the whereabouts of the castle, he replied, its right here, and pointed to a stone building attached to the house. We both kind of looked at each other like...ok. However, it was quite an interesting story. I'll let the internet tell it, but basically his family bought it for 500 pounds a few hundred years ago, and he decided to sell off his cattle and spend the money redoing the castle as it would have looked in the 1500's. Quite impressive. He plans on using it as a B&B of sorts. He expects people will find it to be a novelty to stay in a castle. For me, id rather be in a hotel. There is something about a 16th century drafty and damp building that doesnt quite shout comfort to me. But to each their own. Afterwards he asked how an American and Irish girl came to know each other. I told him we were to Trinity and did Women's Studies. He stopped me right there and said"oh, i get it, i understand" and kindly bid us farewell. Gillian started laughing when we got to the car. She said he most likely thought we were lesbians...haha i started dying down laughing. What was even more funny was that moments before this conversation occurred, the local Priest had just arrived to call on this man's ailing father. So, he was probably wanting to get rid of the lesbian tourist before the Priest found out...hahaha, i couldnt get over that.