Ireland Day 6 Comments

Another fabulous day in Ireland. I could really get into Irish weather. It rains a lot but is is a soft rain more on the lines of a heavy mist. It isn't a soaking rain so a rain jacket or a small umbrella is more than sufficient. The big thing for us southerners this is sweater weather year round climate. They say it never, or almost never, snows here and the temperature variation is only about 40 degrees from winter to summer. The high in winter is 40 and the high in summer is 80 tips. More importantly is it doesn't cool off much at night. They don't get any hard freezes or snow so you can wear a light jacket or wool sweater pretty much year round. In other words no sweating weather. I love it. Ireland is truly the emerald isle. Everything is green. The fields, the trees, the shrubs everything is deep green. The fields either have cows or sheep in them pasturing so all the fields look like freshly mowed golf courses. After leaving Rivermount we drove to Blarney Castle. Blarney Castle is in County Cork, Ireland.  I made the obligatory climb to the very top up a very narrow circular stone staircase. Not for the claustrophobic for sure. I didn't kiss the Blarney Stone as anyone that knows me will testify to the fact they dropped it on my head as a baby. After Blarney we went on to Muckross Gardens is just outside of Killarney, Ireland. Muckross Gardens main claim to fame is that it is the ancestral home of the Herbert family who built and lived in the mansion pictured below. It is a smaller version of the Vanderbilt House in Asheville, North Carolina. It was a good stop and didn't take up too much time. The drive from there to Kenmare was spectacular as the road winds through a mountain range complete with sheep on the sides of the mountain and few even on the road. I didn't know Ireland had mountains but they do. If you have ever been to Highlands, North Carolina you know what it looked like. As you can see from the photos below the accommodations at The Lodge are more than first rate.