Cahir City, County Tipperary

June 15 – 18, 2008

This was geographically a central point in our trip. From here we were able to visit

Kilkenny, Cashel, and other areas of “The Golden Vale” (The Plain of Tipperary).

This is Carrigeen Castle, where we spent three nights.	The early morning view from our bedroom window. Cool, but claustrophobic after a while!	The lovely town of Cahir, as seen from the tower of Cahir Castle.
A path in the Tipperary countryside.	Cahir Castle, built in 1142 on a rocky island in the River Suir. We visited several old castles, churches, and abbeys, but this one was the most fun!	The ‘Moat’
You can see our lodging, Carrigeen Castle, in the distance (actually it was only ½ mile!). Ireland has more castles than England, Wales, and Scotland combined.	Craig is inspecting a fireplace in Cahir Castle (Lori is so glad she got to carry the camera!)	This was a lodge in the Cahir Castle compound. Those antlers are prehistoric – a Giant Deer.
This is a model of what Cahir Castle would have looked like during one of the sieges.	I sure hope they don’t drop the draw bridge right now!	Lori’s favorite part – the spiral staircases! Note the lack of landing at the doorway. An interesting bit of trivia – spiral staircases in castles always wound counter-clockwise so that the defenders had the sword arm advantage against invaders coming up the stairs.