The Ham Nomads

25 May 2014. <IE> Cashel, Co. Tipperary —

Cashel. The day dawned fine for us, but cold. The Rock of Cashel is very exposed, but we decided to go for it! Drove into town and found the car park right at the Rock. Walked up and into the Reception area — nice and warm. And once again, English Heritage got us in without charge! There was a tour setting off in ten minutes, so we decided to tag along. While waiting, we were wondering why most of the group were waiting inside the Reception area. Went outside, found out why — it was even colder up there on the Rock — and came back inside!

Cathedral & Residence

St Patrick's Cross
(moved inside
for preservation)

A bit of history before we start. The Rock of Cashel is a large limestone crag dominating the plain of the River Suir in the heart of Munster. Its origins as a fortress go back to the 4th or 5th centuries AD. According to tradition, St Patrick baptised the Eóganacht kings, the grandsons of Conall Corc, at Cashel. Later the last king of all Ireland, Brian Boraimhe (Brian Boru) was crowned here. In 1101, Muircheartach Ua Brian, king of Cashel, gave the Rock to the Church, thus establishing himself as a church reformer, but his probable motive was to deprive his enemies, the Eóganacht, of their ancient royal seat. From then on (until the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland and the Rock's passing into State hands), the Rock of Cashel was a religious site.

Balcony in Hall of Vicars Choral

The tour set off into the Hall of the Vicars Choral, the residence of the eight vicars who provided all the music for the cathedral (until the Bishop and his entourage decided that a smaller cathedral down in the village might be warmer). The rock was abandoned in 1749 and slowly fell into decay. The cathedral in the town is still functioning, but its associated Bishop's Palace has since become the village pub!

Round Tower from Cathedral

Niche in Cathedral

Remnants of Wall Painting

We next went into the cathedral, a large cruciform Gothic church without aisles, built between 1230 and 1270. Recently the remains of 15th century wall paintings have been discovered beneath the lime wash that had covered them for centuries. The nave is unusually short, and its western end abuts the residential tower, the home of the bishop before his move into the village, and which would have been a cold and dark place!

Cormac's Chapel

Scaffolding

We were taken into Cormac's Chapel, one of the earliest and finest Romanesque churches in Ireland, dating from the 13th century. It is currently undergoing extensive repair and conservation work, so its exterior is entirely obscured by scaffolding and by a roof above it to allow the Chapel's own stone roof to dry out before being repaired and repointed.

Round Tower

We ended up in the graveyard by the Round Tower, the original building on the site, dating back to about 1101. It is unusual in that it is complete, even to its conical stone roof. The graveyard was closed about 1926, but because of pressure from families holding family plots, it was decided to take "reservations" for those living and their children, but for no further generations. The list in the ledger is almost done, with only three elderly ladies still to claim their plots.

Our guide was a wonderful garrulous Irishman who loved nothing better than to tell a tall story. He left it up to us to decide which parts of his narrative we wished to believe!

Tinker's Wagon

We left the Rock and went down into the village, and enjoyed a pizza at a local Italian restaurant, then wandered. Found an old Dominican Priory in the middle of the village and, almost opposite it, the Cashel Folk Museum, a private museum run by a gentleman with family history and connections involving the Rock and most of Cashel. He has a passion for Irish history, particularly that of the Famine of the 1840s and of the Easter Rising of 1916. Our tour guide of the morning was almost taciturn in comparison with our host! A quirky collection, garnered through family connections, car boot sales and donations from visitors. Eclectic to say the least! Some of the items are unique, not even represented in the public museums. For example, he has a blue shirt from an Irish political party of the 1930s that existed for less than 12 months, and he has the last actually used tinker's wagon in which a Romany and his family (wife and 14 children) lived until 1996, 10 years beyond when a Schools Registration Act forced all other Romanies to settle down.

"Garden of Remembrance"

All in all, another fascinating day! We then set off southwest, to stop near Mitchelstown Cave, one of the most spectacular caves in Europe. This will be our first destination tomorrow!

Distance driven — today, 27 miles ( 43 km ); to date, 1,500 miles ( 2,414 km )