Day 6 - Rock of Cashel and Some History

September 28, 2025

Drove through Tipperary on our way to Killarney
…and, yes, it’s a long way!

We headed out early from Waterford on the way to the Rock of Cashel. To help put things in perspective, here’s a bit of simplified Irish history first.

The island was settled thousands of years ago by a mix of European peoples, including Celts. The people were quite sophisticated, building great stone forts and portal tombs such as the one at Newgrange, which is older than the pyramids of Egypt. The island was initially ruled by hundreds of tiny, independent kings. During Roman times, Romans certainly visited Ireland, but they never created any permanent presence. Christianity came to the Island in the early 5th century. St. Patrick (more about him in later posts) is usually credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland, but it was almost certainly present before his arrival in 432.

During this same period, the hundreds of kingdoms gradually coalesced into four: Leinster, Munster, Connacht, and Ulster. These four kingdoms all fought back and forth with each other, making and breaking alliances frequently.

The kingdom of Munster is where we drove through today. Their seat of power, from about 400-1100 AD, was the Rock of Cashel, and their kings were crowned there. After the mid 12th century, the English had gained control of Ireland, and “the Rock” was turned over to the Catholic Church. At that time a great Gothic cathedral was built there. The church was used up until the 1700’s. At that time the local bishop grew tired of living on top of a wind swept rock, and moved down into the town of Cashel. The buildings fell into disrepair, and are still in ruins. However, even as ruins it is a majestic and imposing structure and one can see why a king would claim the Rock as his seat of power. A chapel was also constructed adjacent to the cathedral that has fresco paintings in it, so photos of that are included as well.

Chapel doorway

Inside the chapel. Frescos are on ceiling. Frescos in such a wet environment was not a good choice.

Shows how closely they crammed
the chapel to the cathedral

Also near Cashel is the ruins of Hore Abbey, a Cistercian abbey from the same time period. Many times abbeys sprung up next to Catherdrals. Sort of basking in the local power. It is a beautiful ruin also.

Hore Abbey

Rock of Cashel from Hore Abbey ruins

At Hore Abbey with Cashel in the background.

From Cashel we wound our way through the Irish countryside to Killarney, our next stop and our base for circling the Ring of Kerry, one of the famous peninsulas on the west coast of Ireland.

Our hotel is by Lake Lein, which is part of Killarney National Park.

Killeen House Hotel

We had dinner at a place called Danny Mann Pub. According to legend Danny was hired to sail the wife of a local wealthy man to Canada in order to “get rid of her”. Instead he killed her. Not sure why that sells food, but our meal was good.