August 28, 2011- Shannon, Cliffs of Mohr, Bunratty Castle
On our way to Shannon and Bunratty Castle Hotel we had to take a ferry ride across the River Shannon Estuary to reach the breathtaking Cliffs of Mohr. The cliffs rise 390 ft above the Atlantic Ocean at Hag's Head and reach their maximum height of 702 ft just north of O'Brien's Tower, eight kilometres away. The views from the cliffs attract close to one million visitors per year. The drive up were on beautiful country roads and when we arrived at the Cliffs of Mohr we decided to climb to the top of the tower where you can view the whole area. Unfortunately they charge 2 euro to make the climb up a very narrow stairway and once you reach the top it is a very small area so it can get quite crowded. The views were nice but not sure it was worth the $$$. But all in all we really enjoyed the Cliffs of Mohr.
Headed to our hotel in Shannon, the Bunratty Castle Hotel. Really liked this hotel although our first room we had to complain about since we had 2 twin beads. They did move us to a room with a king bed and the room was lovely, with heated floors in bath, bathrobes and slippers. The grounds here were also nice and everything was close by although it was a very small town with just a few shops, a pub and the Castle.
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| Bunratty Hotel |
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| Our room at Bunratty Hotel |
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| A Pub at Bunratty |
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| Bunratty Castle |
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| Shops at Bunratty |
We had time to shop and walk around the town before we had dinner at the Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. The 15th-century castle is situated in the village of Bunratty on the banks of the river Shannon, just outside the city of Limerick. It has been destroyed no less than nine times during various periods of conflict and its drawbridge, moat and paved courtyard revive memories of times gone by. Bunratty also hosts splendid medieval banquets, which are held twice nightly at 5:30p and 8:45p with traditional music. The castle is open throughout the year. I loved every minute of this very touristy medieval dinner and show, but they did such a great job and felt very authentic down to the costumes, the music and even eating dinner without utensils, yes we used our hands like they did 1000's of years ago. We first entered the Castle draw bridge into the gathering room where we were greeted by the cast who were dressed in medieval garb and offering us Mead (a type of wine) and appetizers of bread and salt. We were entertained by a harpist and violinist playing wonderful Renaissance music. They then chose a King and Queen from our group and we were escorted down the spiral stairway to the banquet hall. The banquet hall was set with long "family style" tables where we were served wine and soup that we slurp from the bowls and dipped our bread. Then we ate messy but delicious spareribs with our fingers but had water bowls with lemon to rinse our fingers clean. Our main course was chicken in wine sauce, potatoes (of course), mixed veggies, and dessert was a custard and that was the only time we used utensils, they gave us a spoon. The food was pretty good, better than I expected, the wine was free flowing, red or white and we were entertained the whole time with song, comedy and skits. It was a great time and I would recommend this on a visit to Shannon. I found it very fun and enjoyable.
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| Actual Castle where we ate |
After breakfast at the hotel, we did some more local shopping and then we headed to Shannon airport where we had a complimentary shuttle service at the hotel to the airport. It was a great trip, so if you get an opportunity to go, I hope you found this Blog helpful in planning your trip to Scotland and Ireland.
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