Day 362, 9 June '15, Off to Whitegate/Castlemaine on the Dingle Peninsula for two nights - via Adare, Carrigafoyle Castle, Ardfert Cathedral, Tralee, Killarney (Muckross House and a picnic in the gardens, second attempt on Ross Castle). Off to Milltown for a Chinese takeaway and a Euromillions ticket (Arrgh! €130 million - that's almost A$200 million).

You'll never guess what they're doing in Ireland at the moment. Silage. What's that? You may indeed reasonably ask. They're making hay while the sun shines. Literally. Blazing sun, gorgeous weather for the first time in a while and anyone without a paint brush in their hands is out cutting long grass and rolling it into the big bales of hay in the fields. Fascinating - first time we've seen a machine actually rolling a hay bale and it plops out from behind like a big egg! We took off bright and early from Bunratty this morning - fab breakfast but phenomenally uncomfortable night - dodgy bed and people in the room above pounding around like hippos getting packed and out for an early (early!) flight. Tootled off to Adare, which is supposed to be the prettiest, most touristy little Irish town. Actually not that flash. Could barely see the town for the coachloads of tourists - even saw a coach from Nerja, Spain - that is a seriously long way from home. Looked at the thatched cottages, checked out the heritage centre and then pointed the car in the direction of the coast and back onto the Wild Atlantic Way. Sometimes we have a firmish itinerary for the day. Mostly there's a lot of wiggle room for extras. Today we saw a sign leading off our R road and down a winding lane... Carrigafoyle Castle eh (pictured). Never heard of it. Figured it was a nice day and we'd just follow the lane till we found the castle. So glad we did. A ruined towerhouse castle, Carrigafoyle (or Rock of the Hole), was built in the 1490s and was considered to be one of the strongest Irish fortresses. Still in pretty good condition after 520 years and all it's been through. It is an unattended Heritage property and completely open to the public - we actually climbed right to the roof before being foiled by a locked door. There was a VW Combi van parked in front of it with 3 camping type folks (that's folks doing Ireland on a real budget - as opposed to our €10/day for the car and €10/day for food). There's been a new offence invented in Ireland over the last couple of years and if anyone cared, these van folks were guilty. "Overnight Parking". Basically once upon a time there would have been "No Camping" signs up here and there. People have obviously argued that they're not camping, they're just parked, in a free and public parking area, overnight. And so the offence of Overnight Parking was born. Ahh well. Should go and spend some dough at an Irish B&B and support the economy like we are. Moving on from Carrigafoyle we were happy to see signs leading us out in a big circular route since we didn't want to drive out the same way we came in. Back along the coast and then made a quick stop at Ardfert Cathedral (any chance to use our Heritage cards and we were passing after-all, and that's another €8 of value). Golly religion soaks through this Irish land. Back in the car and into (and out of) Tralee as quick as we could and on to Killarney. We've scheduled all of tomorrow for touring the Dingle Peninsula, so today is our opportunity to visit Killarney National Park, see Muckross House (€14 value on Heritage) and Ross Castle (€8). We tried to see these places a couple of years ago in October... but they were FOTM (pron: fot-im). You remember FOTM from Christmas this year! Stands for Eff Off Till March (or May). Basically a lot of heritage properties are closed for Ireland's extensive winter months from September till March or even May. So this time we made it. Muckross House was splendid. Tonnes and tonnes of money were poured into this property back in Queen Victoria's time as the owners were desperate for a Knighthood. Unfortunately, shortly after her visit, Albert died and thoughts of honours for the nice folks at Muckross fell by the wayside. The house was eventually sold because of all the Victoria-decorating expenditure. Unbelievably, the curtains in the stunning dining room are the original silk/damask drapes of the era - 160 years ago. They never see daylight and are lit only by the heavy Waterford crystal chandelier hanging over the table for 16. Glorious furnishings throughout and just like Glenveagh Castle the other day, awesome to see how the other half lived. The chandeliers throughout - assorted Waterford and heavy English crystal varieties are now electric of course - but the house was only connected to electricity in 1972. Big wow there as well. After enjoying our lunch in the gardens we headed back through the park to Ross Castle - essentially the "after" version of the Carrigafoyle ruin. Completely restored including some antique furniture of the period 1500s/1600s, this tour really gave us some insight into how it would have been to live in an Irish towerhouse 500+ years ago. We felt like time-travellers after all these heritage visits. We packed it in after Ross Castle, seriously considered going for a walk around Killarney. In the end couldn't be bothered and motored home via tonight's recommended Chinese joint, (perfect travel food - veges and everything!) Milltown's Little Pavilion did the trick and then it was on to Castlemaine plus a few more kms. Thank heavens for GPS/Google Maps on the iPad. Very much a bath, book, bed kind of evening. With some Travellers' Tonic obviously. Tomorrow? We didn't have enough time to drive the Dingle Peninsula during our road trip 2 years ago, so all of tomorrow is devoted to that - utter luxury to be in the same B&B two nights running.