On the road in County Clare

We've had a great day of driving around the County Clare countryside.  We started by visiting a beautiful, restored 15th century castle (Dysert O'Dea castle).  We watched a video which was really informative about the castle but also of Ireland's history generally.  In this particular area, there are lots of ancient artefacts as well as medieval and more recent.  I'm quite blown away by the age of the buildings and the number of medieval ruins there are, dotted along the landscape.  It's such a beautiful country.  

After visiting the castle, we kept on driving to see if we could find Father Ted's house which we'd been told was in the area.  We were getting quite disoriented (with the GPS telling us that she had lost the signal!) when we noticed a tour bus going past which was called Ted's Tours!  Jen did a quick u turn and chased the bus! When it finally pulled up we drove into the property only to discover that it was private property and that if you want to have tea there, you have to book.  All of the passengers got out of the bus (I think it was a hen's party) and had their photographs taken on the road in front of the house but that was it! Anyway, we got a photo of Father Ted's house! 

From there we travelled through the Burren National Park which is a completely different landscape from other parts of Ireland.  We had lunch in a pub there (in Carren) and then drove along the coast to the Cliffs of Mohor. We did stop at a little village which had a medieval church (1000 yrs old) still intact and an even older church, built in 500 AD.   The coast road was absolutely stunning but it was very cold and windy.  Despite this we did see a man wearing just board shorts and there were surfers!

Father Ted's house

Burren national park

1000 year old baptismal font

The church built in 500 AD canbe seen through the windows

Along the coast road