The Rock of Cashel

Some day (I've lost all track of days now - I must be on holiday!), the one after Kildare, I spent in Cashel, home of the famous Rock of Cashel.

The Rock of Cashel - looking so warm and welcoming, don't you think?

The Rock was for many centuries the coronation-place of the kings of Munster (the southern province of Ireland, and a counterpart to Tara, which was the coronation-place of the kings of the northern province of Ulster). Legend has it that St Patrick himself spent some time there in the 5th century AD, including baptising Aengus, King of Munster, around 448 AD. During the ceremony, St Patrick is said to have accidentally driven the end of his stave through the foot of Aengus. Despite the pain, the king did not cry out as he thought it was part of the ceremony!

The earliest building on the Rock itself, a round tower dates back to 1101 - it was later joined by Cormac's chapel, a small chapel which we weren't able to go into as it was undergoing conservation, but unusual even from the outside owing to a roof made completely of sandstone. The grand edifice of the Rock is its cathedral and tower, the latter built as a stronghold for the archbishop in case of war. The cathedral was a melancholy place, with just enough of it still remaining to take your breath away, yet sufficiently derelict for it to lead you to all sorts of meditations on rises and falls, the circle of life, the impermanence of things.

One of the highlights of the cathedral was learning about what was known as a "lepers' squint" - a separate area where lepers could attend Mass without infecting others, with a hole (the "squint") through which they could watch proceedings. You can see the photo I took of the lepers' squint here.

Melancholy meditations were not allowed to continue long as the Rock was icy cold, and in order to explore it properly I kept having to take frequent breaks in the (slightly heated) move theatre before venturing back out into the cold. When a break in the clouds and the wind came I stood in the sunshine like a cormorant, soaking it in for as long as it lasted.

[Sorry if this is a bit stilted - I'm out of practice at writing things at present, and having to catch up on a good many of them in a hurry means I can't give each post the attention I would like to!]