The last full day of the trip, we spent a good amount of time driving to County Clare, the original home of the McNamaras! About 1,000 years ago, the McNamaras were a fearsome clan who were second only to the O'brien clan. The McNamaras built the 5th and most recent iteration of the Bunratty Castle (below). Bunratty means Mouth of the River Ratty, which is where the castle sits.
The current McNamara clan
The inside was still well preserved.
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| Gramps enjoying the hall of his ancestors |
We climbed to the roof and were greted by an excellent view.
The castle also had a village in it's shadow, replicas of what would have been present in the castle's active days. At the end of the street, a MacNamara & Sons pub was open for business, founded by our forefathers!
We drove past Knappogue Castle, which was also built and lived in by the McNamaras. It's now closed to the public except for special events, but you can see a little of it from the road.
Not too far from there was Quin Abbey. This abbey was built by the McNamaras in the early 1400s and was dedicated to the friars who lived and cared for the property. A clan building an abbey was a sign of wealth and power during that time, so it goes to show how mighty our family once was!
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| It was really tall |
You can't read it too well, but the above photo is headstone for a few McNamara members from the 1800s buried at this spot. There were actually a few McNamara sites within this abbey. We believe more would have been buried within the actual abbey (the inside was barred off), as a place of reverence for the members who originally built the site.
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| A peak of the inner courtyard, as seen through some iron bars |
Quin Abbey was an awesome piece of history for the family... some of our great-great-great grandparents may have been buried there...or may have even built the place!
Next stop was the Cliffs of Moher, a gorgeous stop on the west coast of Ireland.
First thing you see walking to the cliffs...gift shops. Love how they were built though, like Hobbit holes. Supposedly they're built like that to maintain the beauty of the site from an aerial view.
We then drove through Doolin, a tiny town near the cliffs. I only snagged this picture of the river:
But the town had a great, locally-owned chocolate shop that used dairy and such from the local farms!
We passed a castle by the sea, owned by an extremely rich man who rents it out as vacation homes to extremely rich people:
After that, we started the drive home, passing on the outskirts of the Burren, which has limestone rock foundations that are extremely rare.
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| And there were cows ;) |
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