This year for St. Patricks Day we went to Dundalk in the Republic of Ireland. We first went to the McDowells for lunch and then headed downtown to the parade.
The streets were lined with people in green with real shamrocks pinned on their lapels. Vendors were selling snake tails and the Republic flags.
Here's the Guard, (the police in the south)
The Irish Red Cross
The little children were so cute all dressed up.
Some fun floats...
Cute little leprechauns
This band was Great!!!!
Lots of Gaelic
Several dance studio!
Several soccer teams, hurling teams, karate schools, Gaelic football teams, and schools of many kinds.
Cyclists!
This was a favorite. Great Irish music!
Hurling......
The Scouts!
More floats
More bands....
Lots of fun old cars!
We had a great time at the parade. The weather was pretty nice, at least it didn't rain and it wasn't too cold! Maybe next year we will make it to Dublin for the Big Parade!
After the parade we headed out of town. The McDowells had a special treat for us. They had found some castles!!!! I was pretty excited to see my first Irish castle, and I wasn't disappointed.
We came to a gate, opened it up, drove into the pasture, closed the gate and there it was! Right in the middle of the sheep field.......
We came to a gate, opened it up, drove into the pasture, closed the gate and there it was! Right in the middle of the sheep field.......
The Roche Castle, built in the 13th century.
We hiked up the hill and it was spectacular!
The view was incredible. I could see why they pick that spot! I'm sure you could see the enemy coming from every direction, quite a distance away. All I could think about was the people who had lived there, and what their lives might have been like. I was re-living Camelot! My favorite story!
Here we are at the enterance.
Legend has it that the lady who wanted the castle built was very picky. No one wanted to build it for her, so she said she would marry whoever would build the castle for her. One man stepped up and built the castle for her. On their wedding night, she took him to the window to look over their land and pushed him out the window!
Inside the walls.
Sister McDowell is sure this is where they threw prisoners to their death!
Still inside.
Pretty fasinating!
Another view
Outside the walls. It was really windy. We stayed pretty far from one edge for fear we would be blown off!
I love this picture, but none of these pictures do it justice! It's much better in real life!!!!
These sheep were grazing not far from us. They kept a close eye on us and were probably wondering what we were doing in their pasture! There were signs that they had wandered through the castle themselves!!!! (we had to watch where we stepped!)
Heading back down the hill.Next we headed for Carlingford to find the Carlingford Castle. Carlingford is about 30 minutes east of Dundalk on the coast.
It is a nice little tourist town. There are actually 6 castles right in this area!
There were alot more people here. The town was having St. Patricks Day celebrations. We spotted 2 castles right away. We parked and walked around town and had fun exploring these castles too.
Two white doves sitting up there in the window. They were pretty cute.
This castle was built for King John. It's about 34 years older than the other one. Again built in the 13th century. It says King John actually stayed there 3 nights......
We couldn't go inside this one, just walk around the outside.
The castle sits right on the water. By the time we left, the tide had gone out and that white boat was sitting in mud!
Looking across the street the other direction was this castle. It sits right downtown in the middle of a bunch of little shops. It always amazes me that these very, very old buildings are everywhere and the new buildings just build around them. We got slushies at the little ice cream van parked on the corner of the castle!!!
Castle number three for the day!
Beautiful...
h
This little pigeon was letting everyone take his picture!
This is another old building called the Mill. I'm not sure if it's really a castle, but it was pretty interesting.
The village....
More of the Mill, and Elder Holt....cute gift shop just down the way.....
Favorite picture......
Heading back to the car. After we enjoyed some yummy chips at the chip van!Before going home we drove around downtown Dundalk. We stopped at the church, saw where the missionaries live. They actually live right next to this old windmill. There were alot of Dutch people that settled in Dundalk.
St. Patrick's Cathedral. The perfect way to end St. Patricks Day. We went back to the McDowells for hot fudge brownies and ice cream! They are good friends and we enjoy spending time with them on our preperation days!!! We made it home safe and sound, before everyone left the pubs!!!!
