Hello dears! Time flies when you're trying to squeeze every drop you can out of your vacation. We're in Killarney now, which is a happening little town that was named tidiest place in all of Ireland in 2011! Good for you!
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| Help! I'm a bird! |
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We drove down from Castlemartyr, which would have taken an hour if the roads were not basically cow paths, so it took us two terrifying hours instead. We bypassed the ring of Kerry (too many tour buses) and got to Killarney National park, which is stupid gorgeous. We saw this manor house below, the Muckross House, which was built in 1843 for Mr. and Mrs. Henry and Mary Balfour Herbert. They had 52 chimneys and 365 windows installed, but there was a big tax on glass which Henry didn't want to pay, so he decided to invite Queen Victoria, whom he hoped would give him a title, meaning he'd be gentry, and not subject to these taxes. Unfortunately for him, after 6 years of prepping the house for her visit, she showed up for two days and was like "meh" and didn't give him a title, and he went bankrupt and sold the house to one Arthur Guinness, whom you may have heard of. It got sold a couple more times, but then was given to the public, and made into a park. Hooray.
First we walked over to the Torc Waterfall, which is a few kilometers from the Muckross House, and then we took a jaunting car, which is the little horse and buggy you see above, to check out more of the park, including the muckross abbey. I'll get to those in a minute.
So the horses for the jaunting cars live on nearby farms, and they work 2 days a week, and are driven by locals to make some extra money. Our horse, Major, was not interested in us or this journey at all (which takes a total of 20 minutes), having just had a big lunch a little while earlier. He stopped several times just to chill, and our two drivers kept calling to him to "get up, smallbutt," and sometimes he would, and sometimes he'd be like "no thanks I am busy standing here but you can pull the cart if you'd like." We created a jaunting car traffic jam, and the driver of the big cart behind us said "say your rosaries, everyone, for it looks like we're in a funeral procession." Maybe for Major's career as a jaunting horse, anyway.
Our guide complained that his daughter and wife call several times a day to check on her, but noted that he could be hanging out the back of the boat having supper with O'Donoghue, and they wouldn't notice. Lizzie tried to stuff Bella in her life jacket, but didn't manage to get away with it. Alas.
Ross was one of the last to surrender to that a-hole Oliver Cromwell. The Irish had a prophecy that Ross would never be taken until a warship could swim on a lake, and it was indeed by lake that the charming Lord Ludlow beat the Irish Lord Muskerry to take the castle. O'Donoghue/Aquaman was probably reading a super good book that day. 
Yews are often associated with spirituality in Ireland, because of their longevity. They can live between 400-600 years, or possibly even longer (some have claimed 5000-9000 years) though it's impossible to tell their age from rings, as their branches hollow out as they add new bark. According to our guide to Innisfallen (coming up next) yews were popular back in the day as their springy bark made good long bows, and their wood burned the hottest of any available. The berries are also poisonous if you don't extract the little toxic core. They won't necessarily kill humans unless you eat a ton, but maybe just eat some non-toxic berries instead.
