On Sunday we found a Branch of the Church in Galway not too far from our B&B, so we headed there and then set off towards the castle we would be staying in that night. There weren't a lot of touristy things to do in that part of Ireland because it's known to be a quiet and peaceful area, but we found a few things to do. We stopped at a friary on the road and explored there. Kenney found a strange stone with etchings, and then we spent the afternoon and evening walking around the castle. We had dinner reservations at the castle restaurant which turned out to be excellent. It truly was a beautiful and quiet area.
It was a very small congregation that met here about 30-40. It reminded both of us about growing up in a small unit much like this one.
They meet in the upstairs of an office building, next to several other businesses. Quite different than our usual buildings, but it was comforting to know that the same spirit could be felt there just like any other church building.
Claregalway Franciscan Friary
This friary was built as a place for the friars to live in the 13th century. In the 15th century the bell tower was built. King Henry VII forced the friars to leave as part of his policy dissolving the monasteries, but throughout the next 2 centuries Franciscan Friars occasionally occupied the buildings.
Irish clovers
There were several washing basins throughout the building like these two here.
The Irish High Cross seen all over the country.
Castlestrange Stone
This stone is from the Iron Age and is assumed to have some sort of religious or ritualistic purpose.
These trees around the stone just made it feel old.
Lough Rynn Castle
Part of our package deal came with 2 nights in different castles. This castle was beautiful and busy. There was a wedding going on at the time so the bar was packed and people were taking pictures. The women were walking around with fascinators, and for the first time I actually wanted to wear one. It looked like a lot of fun! The castle grounds were impeccably kept and the gardens were beautiful! The dinner we had was outstanding. We weren't sure what to expect, but it was really fancy and delicious.
Our room on the backside of the castle.
Castle Grounds
The castle sat on several acres that was very well manicured and maintained. It was so nice to walk around and not worry about snakes and there were hardly any bugs either. The grounds were on the banks of a river with a boat house and an old castle ruin. There were many different tree species and a trail through a wooded area too.
Inside the castle ruin.
This made me think about all the movies set in medieval times.
The old boat house
That's a lot of lawn to mow!
Sunset on the river.
The two white dots are swans that were swimming around.
The Ha Ha Wall??? It must be a really funny wall.
Gardens
There were so many different kinds of plants and flowers in the garden as well as statues and fountains. The colors were so vibrant with roses in any color imaginable.
Dinner
When we booked the trip this dinner was an add-on option that we didn't think we would want to pay for, but it was free!! So we scored a ridiculously fancy and incredible dinner that we never would have indulged in by ourselves. It was a 6 course meal with all the extra silverware and glasses (nothing we can get around here). Our waiter was amazing and extremely nice. He found out we were celebrating our 10th anniversary and brought us a special dessert which was a complete surprise and so thoughtful.
Here's the menu, half of which we couldn't pronounce and had no clue what they were talking about. I recognized some of the words from Top Chef, but I hadn't eaten most of this stuff! Thankfully we choose well because it all tasted great!
The first course made us nervous that we would be very hungry once all six courses had been severed because it was literally one bite!
This was the best soup I have ever eaten! I wanted to lick the bowl clean, but I remembered my manners and just used my spoon.
Herbed butter made daily, so good!
My duck something or other. Lots of new flavors, but they all worked really well together.
Pear tart
Full breakfast the next morning.
Excuse the smirk, Kenney was getting a picture of the restaurant while I was eating porridge. I had never had that either, but I wanted another 3 bowls of that too!
Kenney's cold chicken 2nd course.
Kenney's entree of cooked beef with a portobello mushroom he will be talking about for a long time. I took his word for it since I don't eat mushrooms, but apparently it was amazing!
Cheesecake.
Special treat made just for us. Thankfully we mentioned to our waiter that we didn't drink alcohol because he brought a sparkling drink of some kind with a strawberry in it. He assured us it was nonalcoholic.
One of the fireplaces in the castle.
The pink lighting was kind of odd, but it might have been requested for the wedding because they were having a cocktail hour in this room when we arrived.
Our room smelled like someone had been smoking in it when we walked in. The front desk had someone come check it out, but said there was no evidence of smoking. Well we weren't concerned about the evidence of it, we just didn't want to smell it. However they didn't have any other rooms so we left our windows open while we walked around and ate dinner. When we came back we discovered 2 birds had flown into the room. This is Kenney getting them out.
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