Ardmore Bay

Our first stop was in Ardmore where St. Declan founded the monastery at Ardmore (Aird Mhór in Irish, meaning "Great Height") prior to the arrival of St. Patrick in Ireland. Ardmore is believed to be one of the oldest monasteries in Ireland.

The round tower at Ardmore may be of 12th century origin, but could have been built as early as the 10th century.

Inside the Monastery ruins were two Ogham Stones which had the markings from a medieval alphabet to form a message - before the Roman alphabet was introduced. 😮

We had Lunch in Kinsale, which is a very cute harbor town, then stopped at a 13th Century Timoleague Friary and explored all of the ruins.

Finally, we visited Drombeg Stone Circle. It is a circle of 17 standing stones which on excavation showed that there had been an urn burial in the center. It has been dated to between 153BC and 127AD. 😮😮

We ended our day/night listening to an Irish man from Cork tell stories and sing in a tiny bar next to our hotel - O’Donovan’s in Clonakilty.

Interesting Fact I learned today: I obviously cannot smell as well as I thought. Everyone, but me, could detect a weird smell from our water glasses at lunch. 🤷‍♀️ I’m going to blame having COVID earlier this summer.Read more