Kell's Priory - Undiscovered Ruins to Call Your Own

[Note: These next few sections may be a little shorter - they are really just snapshots of our Irish highlights - I guess they could have been combined into a single long entry but they were all so much fun we thought it better to set them apart - which also gives more scope for more pics!]

Armed with a bottle of wine, two 'loan' jackets (Ireland weather was cooler than we had expected) and an umbrella which Hilary and Ronan had thought we might need, we drove out of Dublin.  It was nice to be back on the correct side of the road!! (Denise of course finds that kind of comment infuriating...so I make it often!)

Just Sheep, a Babbling Brook & the Sounds of Silence

With loads of traffic on the road, and much construction work, it was slow going.  This is a lesson you soon learn in Ireland - the road conditions may have greatly improved - but with so few motorways it takes a long time to get from A to B when you are driving - even if the distances seem quite manageable.  We had super weather though, and a number of Irish music CD's that Ronan had burnt for us to set the tone - it was great.  The Emerald Isle clearly deserves its name - and we soon felt that we had left the big cities behind - exactly where we wanted to be to find 'rural' Ireland.

Arriving in Kilkenny we stopped at the local Tourist Info Office and got directions to Kell's Priory (about 13km South of the town) - a complex of ruins that, from the 12th to 15th Centuries were the site of a monastery and religious village, but which today are little more than a series of crumbling walls, towers and walkways lining the most perfect country vista imaginable.  Recommended by our guide book as the best 'Off the Beaten Track' spot in all Ireland it was superb!  No development, no ticket office, and no other tourists for miles - just sheep, a babbling brook, and the sounds of silence.  We spent hours just wandering around and enjoying the stillness.  A self-made picnic topped off the perfect start to our rural Irish adventure.

One note to future travellers - the local signage is misleading.  When you follow the signs for the priory through the village you end up in a parking area on the wrong side of the river.  Re-trace your route back over the river, turn right and park at the ruined mill.  From there follow the river path for about 500m and you reach the ruins proper.  We hope that when you visit it is as untouched as it was when we were there.

After a longer afternoon drive we realised that the sun was setting so we chose a quaint B&B just outside of Dungarvin - with a great view of the Atlantic - as our rest stop for the night (see separate review)