Today saw us with an early start so that we could drive to the town of Cashel, and to the Rock of the same name. Of course, in the Irish, the Rock is known as Carraig Phádraig (the "Rock of Patrick"), and before it was an ecclesiastical site, it was the fortress and home of the kings of Munster.
One can only imagine what it would have been as a monastery and as a cathedral, but there's a clear sense of that as you enter into the ruins of the cathedral itself.
The Rock of Cashel holds a particular especial place for Mum's side of the family: the farm from which our ancestor departed for Australia is located only a couple of kilometres inland from the Rock itself, almost visitble (if one has good eyesight, that is) from the top of the Rock.
The other significance for Mum's side of the family is the rite of burial for some of the ancestors - including one we discovered who we had lunched with when last we visited but now lays interred in the family plot atop the Rock. It was moving to stand there at the grave of family members...including Richard. It probably explains why he didn't respond to emails...
Unfortunately, we weren't able to visit Cormac's Chapel, but we did visit the Hall of the Vicars Choral, an interesting building of later addition.
Because we weren't able to visit Cormac's Chapel on the Rock of Cashel, we made a decision to move on from Cashel, where we originally planned to have lunch, and head to Cahir (pronounced "Care") and in Irish as an Chathair.
The town is host to a stone fort that is a famous movie star, which dates back to the middle of the 1100s, but that's not why we chose to visit it.
We visited the town - as brief as we did - because it is reputedly the place where St Declan, who had set out from his monastery in Ardmore to meet St Patrick, was met by St Patrick, who having heard St Declan was on the way, set out to meet St Declan.
They met according to legend on the site upon which the town of Cahir stands.
