Day 3: By day 3 it was time to leave Dublin. We drove down the old military road and the Sally Gap on the way to Glendalough.
We stopped road side to explore a stream and the poor Princess fell in! We had to do a roadside outfit change… It was horribly cold for a Vegas kid with soaked pants and all… Then it was get back in the car for another bit of driving.
At Glendalough we walked the grounds and forests. It’s easy to see how the Irish folk tales started about various bad fairies. The woods were far more lush than our trip to the 100 acre woods in England. Darker and certainty more mysterious!
There we also a high number of ferns!!! This of course was very exciting for us because we love the Incorrigible books (See our reviews: book #2, book #3, book #4. We are still reading #5. But, look for a review of it soon!) In the books, there are A LOT of side bars on the different types of ferns. The desert kids loved seeing them in their natural environment.
And speaking of ferns leaving Glendalough it was time to rush to Ferns! Okay, why Ferns you might ask? Well, it was the seat of power for the kingdom of Leinster. The castle there was built by none other than William Marshal (Shameless plug for my book here!).
Ferns Castle built by William Marshal
Two fire places at Ferns. The lower more primative fireplace may have been built by Strongbow
We made it to the castle just in time for the last tour of the day. Our guide was a delightful young man who was pleased to see we were interested in the Marshal, Strongbow and Diarmait Mac Murchada (Modern Irish: Diarmaid Mac Murchadha), anglicised as Dermot MacMurrough or Dermod MacMurrough. He spent a long time with us discussing the castle history and the history of those men.
Dry moat at Ferns
We also made our way to the Abbey founded by Strongbow as well as the place thought be be Dermot MacMurrough’s grave site. After visiting the grave a small lady bug and we took it as sign from the warlord himself.
The Booky Mom 