Kilkenny and Dunmore Caves

This is Kilkenny, one of the main streets. It is such a nice town, I loved it here and w0uld return for sure. The weather permitted us to really enjoy the pubs and local craft stores (well, I enjoyed the local craft stores, I left Chris outside to take pictures).

We ate breakfast and went out for our walking tour of Kilkenny. Kilkenny means 'church of kenny'. Kill means church, Kenny is a family name. This town was a critical point in Ireland because of it's nearness to the river Nore. When the Vikings came and started raiding, the Irish went over to England and recruited Strongbow and his army to come here and live and fight off the Vikings. A castle was built for him in the 1300's and was made of wood. Now, there stands a castle in it's place made of stone and was built in 1800's as a family residence for the Butler's who had strong English ties here. Kilkenny was divided into the English town and Irish town and the English controlled the movement in and out of their part, which by the way was far more developed and higher up. Actually the city crest here has a lion on it which represents the city's strong ties to Normandy. Those danged vikings, always causing trouble!

We also went to Dunmore caves and saw the largest stalacmite in Ireland and one of the largest in Europe. we went as far down as 60 meters under groung and were as close to the surface as 10 meters. These caves were once used for storage and emergency shelter from invasion. We know this because of the 1000 people massacre back in 928 AD. There were many bones excavated here and as far as the scientist and historians can deduce, the women and children who were here hiding from the vikings were suffocated by smoke when the vikings lit fires near the one and only entrance. One interesting find was the purple cloth found 11 years ago, among coins and other artifacts. the purple cloth was made hundreds of years ago using a special kind of snale and only the very rich could afford it. If anyone was caught with purple cloth, it was assumed they stole it and they would be killed for theivery, therefore if it was ever found before that, it would have been turned in to authorities.

Another interesting fact is that the temperature inside the caves remains constant at nine degrees year round. This provides a great environment for bats during the cold winter months to hibernate. A bat can eat up to 1000 bugs in one day, so we should learn to love those little things. And, they don't fly into your hair, because their hearing is so keen, they send out high pitched signals, we can't hear, to navigate around in the dark and they don't bang into things. They are harmless animals and don't like us so are not prone to fly or bit us.
We had a picnic at the caves today and a nap in our little car, which I keep hitting the curbs with cause I'm not used to driving on the other side of the road. All in all, I like driving on the other side and can do quite well, Chris too.

tonight, we go in seek of some live music and more craic............can't get enough of the craic.