Stairs and Stones in SW Ireland

A pre-arranged tour with RailToursIreland took me to south-western Ireland via Train to Limerick, then by Bus to Bunratty Castle and Folk Village. Bunratty was wonderful - just what every kid thinks of as a Castle. It had 2 main rooms - One above the other - and 4 turrets, each having a tight spiral staircase with a little room coming off at each level. There was also a lovely little folk village where authentic buildings had been relocated.

For lunch at a pub in Doolin, I had a real Irish Coffee and a large wedge of deep-fried Bree. Then we went onto the Cliffs of Moher - getting there just in time to see them before the fog closed in. Although they were beautiful, I was more impressed by the Burren, which I had never heard of. The pictures don't do it justice...its stone that looks exactly like half-melted ice!

We continued onto Galway and caught the train back to Dublin. The countryside looked just as you expected - very green, no trees, stone fences everywhere and the occasional abandoned stone house. They call the stone houses "famine houses" because they were abandoned either by migration or death during the great potato famine. We saw many stone churches that were "deroofed" by King Henry VIII to discourage Catholicism. And cemeteries with scattered stones marking graves from the famine.