CAISEAL NA RÍ

I had a hankering to see Cashel again. The last time I was there was the time we were coming back from the Great Family Vacation in Clonakilty. We stopped in Cashel to have lunch and to see the monument. That was close to a decade ago.
Mary came to the house to pick me up. We agreed that she would drive to Cashel and I would drive back. This would be the first time that I went to Cashel specifically to see the Rock rather than seeing it in the distance as I was driving to somewhere else.
It took us about two hours to get there. We took a wrong turn off the Portlaoise roundabout and were headed for Limerick when we realised we had taken a wrong turn. A quick u-turn outside of Mountrath and we were on the right road again. Outside of Cullenhill things got a lot better. A new motorway has just opened. We whizzed down that to Cashel.
By the time we arrived in Cashel we were hungry and our legs needed stretching. We parked the car and walked back up the town to a little bakery and tea shop where we had lunch.
After lunch we walked up to the Rock. It now costs 6 euro to enter the site. Previously it was free but I guess as the OPW does more extensive conservation and maintenance of the site the piper has to be paid. We were just in time to join a guided tour group that was gathering in the Hall of the Vicar's Choral. This is the only part of the monument that has been restored. From there we walked to the Cathedral and the Round Tower. We saw St. Patrick's Cross (a facsimile - we didn't bother hopping around it nine times on one foot to be married within the year). At Cormac's Chapel we learned that Henry II had sent one of his sons here to rein in the English who were starting to fraternize with the Irish. The guide didn't know which of his sons (Richard the Lionhearted or John) was the Enforcer. We were lucky to see the chapel this time. In a few weeks it will be closed to the public as the OPW tries to dry out the walls and reverse the mold damage. This process is expected to take at least four years.
We wandered around the site by ourselves then walked back into the town to explore. We found an impressive Catholic Church (St. John the Baptist) with unusual choir galleries flanking the nave. There was a group of Church Ladies conducting a public prayer meeting. We asked them where the cathedral was. They told us to follow the narrow lane across the street and we would come to the gates of the cathedral. We walked down the long narrow lane. At the bottom we found a Church of Ireland building with a classical façade. It was a striking building but nothing like what I would describe as a cathedral. The building design was modelled on St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London. Unfortunately it was closed but we did wander around the graveyard (without disturbing the sheep).
It was getting late in the afternoon so we headed home. Along the way we stopped in Kildare Village (not Kildare village) for dinner at L'Oficina.