Cathedrals to Caves and Another Dolmen

Thursday, August 28th

A blue sky morning for our last full day of wandering our way through Ireland! We arrived in the city centre at the St. Canice's Cathedral, a Church of Ireland congregation of about sixty families, just as it opened. Beside the church was a round tower that, for a fee, we were allowed to climb. The one hundred food climb was on a series of ladders connected by small platforms. Up and down and then a walk through the cathedral guided by our laminated information sheets. 

View of Kilkenny from the tower

View from the tower

St. Canice's Cathedral

After a quick left and right we located a walking bridge over a stream into the courtyard of the Black Abbey. There was a morning mass taking place but we tiptoed into the back to view the beautiful vividly colored modern stained glass. Although it was time to leave Kilkenny, we both agreed it was a lovely town probably worth more exploring.

Black Abbey

Not wanting to miss anything that might be interesting we headed for the tour of the Dunmore Cave, a large limestone cavern with a number of different chambers. A pretour video explained the formation of the caves, gave a history of the peoples who used the caves, and information about the bats who now occupy them. Being in Ireland they are much less fussy about tourist behavior. Flash pictures? Be our guests. 

Staircase into the Dunmore Cave

Next was our third and largest dolmen of the trip. Browne's Hill Dolmen is just north of Carlow, well signed and easy to find which is unusual. It dates to 2000 BC and has a 150 ton capstone. Where they found the rock to build it and how they managed to transport and assemble such an  edifice is beyond belief.

Mike and another dolmen, Browne's Hill

Finding our hotel for the night was definitely the low point of the trip. On the outskirts of Dublin we had hoped to check into the hotel we had booked for Friday night. No vacancies. We called from there and found a hotel less than five miles away. We circled for an hour, asking directions several times and being send in opposite and wrong directions before we found it in a bad tempered fashion.