After a nice breakfast in the Dunraven Arms Hotel, we started north to see the Cliffs of Moher before arriving at Kilcolgan Castle. The Cliffs are not exactly on the way between the other two, but they are not too far off course. We started on a fairly nice two-lane road, spent a few miles on a toll motorway, then the road quality went down progressively until the gps noted we were driving on an unnamed road and ready to turn onto another unnamed road. At least they were supposedly all two-lane—too narrow for my liking, but still two-lane.

The day has been quite gray, foggy, and drizzly making the stop at the Cliffs of Moher less than spectacular. We will have to go back another time and hope for sunny weather. We had a break for drinks at the Visitors' Centre which was pretty crowded while we waited for the weather to clear and made a short walk outside to see the cliffs. My photos don’t show much, but even in the fog, we could tell that the cliffs were quite impressive. And our waterproof/windproof jackets worked well.

We stopped for lunch in Kinvara and went inside a bar that we thought was open. There were three men behind the bar, and one of them told us that they weren’t open. I told him we were looking for lunch, and he suggested a couple of places, one right down the hill. His friend said that the second one wasn’t open. We thanked them and walked to the Gentian Restaurant for chicken wraps and caffeine. Perfectly fine lunch with good service.

Kilcolgan was only a few more miles away, and we made it there fairly easily. For some reason, the gps took us off the main road through a rural area for a few miles, but we were eventually directed back to the national road. When I made the Airbnb reservation for tonight’s accommodation, I looked at the location and photos on Google maps. Then I saw the road up to the gate of the castle and where it was in relation to the river. When I looked at it yesterday, the route to it went on the opposite side of the river and showed a dotted line across the water. I am so glad that I looked at it the first time so I knew what to look for. The address for the castle is just the village name. There is no street address nor satnav locator.

We drove right up to Kilcolgan Castle. As soon as we entered the gate, a car approached to leave the property. It was Karen, the owner, on her way into town to do a little shopping. She offered to pick up anything for us and told us to go on in the castle since the housekeeper Maria was there with her daughter. We found Vanessa first in the kitchen playing and happy to see us. She went to get her mother when I asked her to. Maria greeted us and let Vanessa, who was eager to, take us on a tour of the castle. She is very sweet and explained everything she knew about the rooms and the important pieces in them. She’s only nine years old.

Karen returned pretty soon and told us more of the history of the castle and the area and explained about the doors and lights and electric shower and such. I think we know what to do. Her uncle lives on the second floor of the tower and does some handyman tasks from time to time. She says that we probably won’t ever see him, but to be sure not to put the chain on the front door so we don’t lock him out if he goes outside.

The castle is just as described in the airbnb record (other than the uncle living on the first floor). There are a number of rooms downstairs – dining room, half bath, library, TV room, and lots of sitting rooms as well as the kitchen where Philip and I are writing now. The bedrooms are at the top of the tower up a lovely, wide spiral staircase two floors up. One of the rooms has twin beds and the other has a full size bed and a twin. Vanessa suggested that we sleep in a different bed every night.

Karen offered to and then made reservations for us for dinner tonight. We went to Moran’s Oyster Cottage which is about 2 miles away on the other side of the river. It was easy to find but down a one-lane road. Dinner was okay, but not great and the service was slow yet friendly. We did have a snug to ourselves. I hadn’t heard that term before. It was a small private room with one table that could have held six people at most. Moran’s is on Michelin’s Eating Out in Pubs list.

We have spent the rest of the evening writing (me) and working on genealogy stuff and school stuff (Philip). I finished my ten thousand steps inside the castle. It is much more interesting to do that here than at a hotel. I see new things every time I pass through the rooms.