An Abbey, a Castle, and the Living Past

Well fed with another of Mary's delicious full Irish breakfasts and happy to have a working vehicle, we set out for an area to the southeast of Ennis, a place rich in history. We are still in County Clare and to the west of the Slieve Bernagh mountains (perhaps redundant since I think Slieve means 'mountains' in Gaelic...like Potomac River means 'river river' near Washington D.C.).

This is day 3 in Ireland for us. Although one of our stops gets lots of tour groups attending Medieval style dinners


and another gets lots of school groups, in general our choices for today were not the usual tourist destinations.

Our first stop was at Quin Abbey, founded by the Franciscans in 1402.

There is a peacefulness to Quin Abbey.


After we wandered around the remains of cloister, tower and monastic building, again being taken with the beauty of the Irish crosses,

we went in to the newer church (on the right in the photo below)

and had a wonderful chat with a parishioner who does the flowers for the altars. Even though it is a modern church, it still has the classic rectangular, simple shape of an Irish farmhouse, and the slate roof, too.

A note in one of the guidebooks mentioned that a famous duelist is buried at Quin Abbey...he had the wonderful name of Fireballs MacNamara.

Continuing in a southeasterly direction, our next stop was Knappogue Castle. It had one of the classic four floor towers built in the 15th century


so we enjoyed climbing the circular staircase


and seeing the views of the walled gardens


and surrounding countryside, but also quite extensive halls for eating and telling tales in the dark of winter in Medieval times. Since Medieval dinners are held here it looks very appropriate with long trestle tables and benches, tapestries and leaded stained glass windows.

The Butlers, owned Knappogue during the 19th century, had taken two rooms for a drawing room and dining room and updated them with neoclassic ceilings and Waterford crystal chandeliers


and marble fireplaces. The gardens had some nice rhododendrons blooming, but much of the borders were waiting for warmer weather and true spring. I was quite taken with the way they placed the stones in the courtyard in circular patterns.

I came to appreciate rock in many ways during our visit the Eire.

One of the things that really impressed me here was that the MacNamara clan owned this castle and many others and was in power for over 500 years. There was an eleven year period during Cromwell's time when it was confiscated, but the MacNamaras again owned it after the Monarchy was restored in 1670.

Lunchtime was at hand but we were still no really hungry because of the robust breakfast. At the next stop, Craggaunowen, in Kilmurry, we had some tea and a little soup...sort of a cream of chicken soup..it was delicious, then followed the handout through the Living Past exhibits.

The first stop was a castle, very similar in many ways to Knappogue, although with a much smaller footprint. Another narrow circular stair took us up and up. Here is the room in the upper part of the tower.

This one looked authentic, but if you really looked you could see that it was made of treads that were cast concrete and much thinner than the solid rock at Knappogue.

Nice view of a lily pond from the parapet.

Next we walked to the Crannog, a reconstruction of a lake-dwelling of a type found in Ireland during the Iron Age (c. 600 B.C. - 400 A.D.). Crannogs were artificial islands on which people built houses, kept animals and lived in relative security. Because they were constucted by layering stone on the lakebed, they reminded me of Nan Madol in Micronesia where stacked basalt 'logs' were used to construct many artificial islands for living on. Here is a detail of the thatched roof construction.

At Craggaunowen a bridge was used to connect the island to the surrounding land, but sometimes dug-out canoes would be the only way to get to the islands. They were protected with a timber fence and had thatched houses. Planting ws done on the surrounding land. It was often too wet for crops, so they developed the practice of planting in ridges of land pushed up in long hills...a method still used for potato planting. Typical crops were barley and Emmer and Spelt wheat, plus vegetables. Hunting and gathering were still a major source of food.

Near the entrance to the bridge, there was a storage place for peat. We had smelled burning peat fires (they smell sort of like Scotch tastes) but this was our first opportunity to see what peat actually looks like.

Peat is still used for heating.

The Ringfort was probably my favorite part of Craggaunowen. They were not a military fort, but rather a farmstead during the 5th to 12th centuries A.D. So many were built in Ireland that it seems almost impossibe to build a new road without coming across remnants of a ring fort.

I was fascinated by the repeat rings of stone walls with the interior one topped by sharpened logs...imagine the labor involved in making those rings! This was also the time when the Irish people were creating beautiful jewelry, pottery, turned vessels and the Book of Kells.

As we walked on through a forest full of ferns, we passed a replica of a standing stone tomb, with angled walls.

Of interest to history buffs and sailors, The Brendan is the actual boat

that Tim Severin built in 1976 based on the vessel described in a 9th century manuscript that claimed that St Brendan the Navigator (c. 583 A.D.)was the first man to discover the 'Promised Land' across the Atlantic.

Made of oak-tanned hides sewn together and stretched over a flexible ash framesd,The Brendan made the journey proving that St. Brendan could have made the voyage to America in such a craft.

Before leaving this lovely living museum, we passed the boars who were enjoying the hillside where they live although it looked pretty boring.

After all that history we headed back to Ennis for some more tea and a bit of reading. That evening we had some very good seafood at a small but delightful restaurant off an alley. It was called the Sicilian Restaurant, Parnell Street, Ennis - www.sicilian-restaurant.ie. The general style is Mediterranean Cuisine.

Tomorrow we hear some music and ride a ferry to meet some family...


One of the nice things about the Sicilian was that they had some yeasted brown bread. I enjoyed the soda bread type brown bread that came with breakfast, soup, and many meals, but the yeasted brown bread was delicious! Once back in the States, I made a version found in the Ballymaloe Bread Book. It is basically a yeasted batter bread. It would have been better if I had removed the plastic over the batter before it rose to the top of the pan. As it was, I lost some of the air bubbles on the top of the loaf, but there was still plenty of spring and it was quite good with some good cheese. It had a great texture and nice crust.

Ballymaloe Brown Yeast Bread
Based on a recipe from the Ballymaloe Bread Book by Tim Allen

Makes 1 loaf

Get out your scale for this recipe:
14 oz brown flour (I used King Arthur wholemeal flour)
2 oz unbleached all purpose flour
1 package dry yeast - Rapid Rise is great
15 oz warm water
1 teaspoon molasses
1 teaspoon salt

In a large, wide mixing bowl, combine the brown and white flours. Add the dalt and combine.

Sprinkle the yeast on top of the water and stir in along with the molasses. Let sit in a warm place for about 5 minutes to let the yeast become active.

Pour the yeast mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with a clean open hand, drawing the flour from the sides of the bowl.

Mix to a wettish dough, too wet to knead. Pour into a lightly oiled bread loaf pan (2 lb size). Cover with plastic wrap or a tea towel and let sit 35-45 minutes to rise. Remove the covering before the bread reaches it! The bread will have risen to about twice its original size and will be just peeping oer the rim of the pan.

Bake in a preheated 450 degree F. oven for 45-50 minutes, or until the bread looks nicely browned and sounds hollow when tapped.

Cool before slicing.

Ancient Church, Meeting Tommy & Waffles for Breakfast

Our last stop on our first day of sightseeing was in the town of Kilfanora where we learned a lot about the Burren botany and geology in the Burren Centre museum, followed by a visit nearby to an ancient church, St. Fachnan's.

Notice how narrow the street is? That's the church in the background. The blue bit at the back is a covering they have placed over the deteriorating high crosses and older sections of the church. It is very old...eleven hundreds.

That is one of the awesome thing about travel...getting to experience really old places.

It has some 12th century crosses with beautiful, although very worn, knot work designs, plus tombs of bishops.

During the time of the potato famine, Kilfnora was the smallest and poorest diocese in Ireland. Because they were barely able to hold it together Pope Pius IX in 1866 declared himself the bishop...a very unusual situation. There is a bishop's head over a carved window in one wall

and an ancient tomb inside the church with a very eroded tomb cover carved with a bishop.

The day had been a sunny one most of the day...rare indeed...but it started to cloud up in the late afternoon after we left the church. Sweetie tried to start the car, but found that some part wouldn't connect with he flywheel (he understood the mechanics, but I'm clueless). The museum was closing in 15 minutes and we were many miles from Ennis. He went into the museum and they helped him look up the Hertz phone # and called around the corner to Connors Garage.

This is looking back toward the pub just around the corner from Connors.

Tommy Connors came over, tried to start the car and confirmed that it was indeed a non starter. He walked back over to his shop and drove over a huge car carrier truck with a winch and pulled the car up onto the flatbed and secured it. The amazing thing was that Tommy did all of the talking to Hertz and arranged an exchange. We never even talked with them or signed anything! Next we were treated to a swift ride through country roads...an Irish roller coaster in some ways...as his son Jason drove the big truck hauling the car and took us back to Ennis where he dropped us at our B&B. He then drove to Shannon Airport, exchanged cars and dropped the new one at our B&B.

If you are ever in Kilfanora and have a moment, go say "Hi" to Tommy and Jason...two truly wonderful Irishmen and fun to talk to. We were really lucky that we broke down there instead of at one of the ruins on a back road and really, really lucky to meet Tommy.

A full Irish breakfast

was one of the pleasures of staying at B&Bs in Ireland, but I did find that I missed baking.

Once we were back at my Mom's and at the end of our stay, I offered to make breakfast. We had some fat, juicy blueberries from the market and delicious, sweet, ripe strawberries from the farmer's market. I decided to make yeasted waffles. The only waffle iron we had was for Belgian waffles, but they make some crispy, decadent waffles when paired with the fruits. I baked the blueberries in the waffles

and spooned sliced strawberries over. No butter or syrup was needed with these babies!
No sourdough starter needed for these either, just some time overnight.

The advantage of this recipe is that you start the batter the night before and only need to add the egg and melted butter in the morning.

Now, it's true, there is still some cleaning up to do and waffles do take a while to bake in the waffle iron, but the amazing ease of putting the batter together, plus the fact that they taste great, makes it worthwhile. An added bonus is that the house smells like freshly baked bread...hard to beat on a lazy morning.

The ingredients for this are so simple that most people will have them handy in the pantry. That makes it so easy to whisk the first part together one evening, cover it, let the little yeasties do their thing overnight, then finish it off and enjoy the next morning. We had a couple of cooked waffles left over (I know, hard to believe, but we did try our best to demolish them all...and failed) and they went into the freezer and then a couple of days later the toaster oven...and were still delish.

Sending this recipe over to Susan at Wild Yeast. Happy first anniversary for Yeastspotting Susan! This is one of the best place to see yummy yeasted recipes every week...check it out at http://www.wildyeastblog.com/category/yeastspotting/.

Amazing Overnight Waffles
from Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe' Cookbook

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg (I used ¼ cup egg substitute)
Nonstick spray
Butter for the waffle iron
Sliced strawberries – optional, but nice
Pure maple syrup – hard to resist on waffles

Combine the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl Add the milk and whisk until blended. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temperature (or put in the fridge if room temp. is over 70 degrees F.)

The next morning, preheat the waffle iron. Melt the 6 tablespoons butter and let cool a bit. Beat the egg is a small bowl (unnecessary if using egg substitute) then beat it into the batter along with the melted butter. The batter may be a bit thin.

Lightly spray the hot waffle iron with non stick spray, top and bottom plates, and then butter a piece of bread and use that to rub some butter on top and bottom plates.

Add just enough batter to cover the cooking surface…this varies by waffle iron…about 2/3 cup. Lower the top and cook until golden brown…it’s OK to check now and then. It takes about 2-3 minutes. You want it golden brown, but not dark brown.
Serve hot, right away, with strawberries and maple syrup, or toppings of your choice.

Note; If you have too many waffles for the number of people you are feeding, bake the leftover batter a little less than the ones you are eating, let cool on a baking rack, then freeze and store in the freezer tightly wrapped. Re-heat in the toaster.

Cliffs and Rocks and Smoked Salmon

Driving in another country is always exciting as you navigate unfamiliar territory in an unfamiliar vehicle. Doing so in a country where you are also driving in the lane that usually contains oncoming traffic is unsettling.

Being passed, a high speed, on your right hand side by traffic coming in the other direction (when usually all that is at your right is the passenger who is giving you grief for missing the turn) is unnerving. Most harrowing is doing all this on very narrow roads that are lined with rock walls covered with hedges. Sometimes those rock walls are all that is between you and a drop down into the sea. This is a vacation?

Fortunately, I never had to drive while we were in Ireland. Sweetie quickly figured out how to tell if we were too close to the rock walls without actually having to run into them, and learned to ignore those folks swooping by on his right. Occasionally I had to remind him that he was in the wrong lane and might want to move into the left lane, but overall he was stellar! My job was to navigate and figure out which road on the roundabout would take us where we were going. Honestly, the signs were mostly really good, so it wasn't that difficult. Overall it was fun to explore on our own instead of taking tours and it was really exhausting. That meant more time on foot exploring towns and early nights.


On our first full day in Ireland we traveled northwest to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren, standard fare on most tours of this part of the country. Since we were still new at this driving on the left thing, it didn't take much encouragement for us to stop where ever something looked interesting. All of these stone crosses caught my eye.

Fairly soon we were pulling over at a small churchyard near Ennistymon and taking photos of crosses. Modern gravestones seem to often be polished granite upright slabs, but the older graves often had these beautiful Irish crosses with beautiful designs carved on them.

This is one of hundreds and hundreds of ruins, many from the time of Elizabeth I or, more often, from the time of Cromwell. The 'Roundheads' laid waste to so many churches, monasteries and friaries.



Then I fell in love with some stone....

We continued west to Lisconnor where I fell in love with a local stone. Lisconnor stone has circular patterns in it which were formed by mollusk trails eons ago when it was still mud. Over time it became stone and it is often used as flooring stone since it tends to be easily formed into even thicknesses and is long lasting. Everywhere we went after learning about it in Lisconnor I noticed the use of Lisconnor stone, often where plain slate would usually be used as paving stone.

After Lisconnor we headed up the coast to and past the Cliffs of Moher. On approaching the turnoff for the car park at the Cliffs Visitor Centre we noticed lots of people streaming across the road toward the Heritage Center, plus two tour buses turning in.






Not being in the mood for so many people, we kept driving and were able to get some views of the cliffs at a distance, from Doolin Point. The first photo in this post shows what we saw.






Some of the photos were taken by the Hand Sister a year ago when she and my Mom and Health Sister visited Ireland. They did the full Cliffs of Moher experience, including walking along the edge...brave women!

Before reaching Doolin point we took a side road to get a better view of an interesting tower (probably a private residence) and a nearby elegant newer home sporting an old fashioned thatch roof. Experienced roof thatchers are rare and can command steep fees so these kinds of roofs are for the wealthy. Kind of ironic since they used to be a Iron Age roofing form for poor people. I think this castle was near Kilconnel.

The road curved around so from the town of Doolin, another popular place for tours to stop for shopping, we were able to see back across to the castle. Doolin also has traditional music in the evening.

Doolin Point is where you can catch a boat to the Aran Islands, home of those gorgeous sweaters. It also is the beginning of where you can see the worn stone of the Burren, with almost a moonscape look to it most of the year. In the spring the wildflowers growing up in the spaces between the rocks soften it.

From Doolin Point we traveled on the the Burren Smokehouse at Lisdoonvarna for some smoked salmon...delicious and salty. They also had some nice Irish music CDs - that's where I found the one for my former office mate who has a collection of music from around the world, so it seemed right that she have some Irish dance music, too.

From there we headed inland to Kilfanora and the Burren Heritage Center. That's where we had car trouble and experienced the true spirit of the Irish...next post.

Now we'll just have a cup of tea...a favorite end of the afternoon past time in Ireland.

Proper Tea

Lots of water, heated to a rolling boil
A teapot which has been preheated with hot water
1 rounded teaspoon loose tea - I love Earl Gray tea myself - for each cup, plus one 'for the pot'
sugar, milk (never cream), lemon slices
a tea strainer

Bring the water to a rolling boil. Once water is boiling, empty the hot water out of the tea pot, then add the loose tea. Pour in the boiling water, usually to about 3/4 of the capacity of the tea pot. Stir briefly. Cover with tea pot lid and let steep a few minutes. The longer it steeps, the stronger the brew.

Place a tea strainer over the cup you are pouring the tea in and pour your tea. Continue with each cup you are serving. Set tea pot aside, covered. Cover the pot with a tea cosy if it's chilly and you want to keep it warm for a second cup.

Serve at once with sugar, milk and/or lemon slices. Enjoy the aroma with each sip. Repeat as needed.

Ireland Journey

There is always a bit of apprehension when one finally gets the opportunity to have a long held dream come true. Will it meet any of the expectations that have built up over the years? Will the people, places, food, flowers, music, culture be anything like what you think they will be? Will you be able to enjoy the travel and not get cranky from lack of sleep or from poor directions or unfamiliar B&B beds and shower controls or sharing breakfast with strangers?

Despite my nervousness, Sweetie and I decided to fulfill a dream I've had since childhood and to visit the lovely island of Ireland in May. We decided to concentrate on the southwest corner and made it a priority to visit some cousins my mother had met a year earlier.

On coming home you can really appreciate what you have and then, somehow, appreciate even more what you have just enjoyed while exploring all of those new things. I unpacked this morning, started up the washing machine, had a nice long walk with our black lab and Sweetie, then tackled grocery shopping and a long column of e-mails that had come in while I was gone.

I know that some like to keep in touch, check their e-mails, surf the Internet, etc while traveling. I actually enjoy being out of touch for a while and enjoying the moment free from any attention to the life I normally lead and all that goes with it.

Now that I'm back home I hope to share some of the journey and photos, too. There will be some food blogging here and there, and recipes, too. Hope that you have been enjoying yourself over the past weeks and won't get too bored with my travel tales.

One of the first challenges after negotiating customs after a long night and morning of travel was to get to the first B&B in Ennis, Gray Gables, while driving on the left hand side of the road. We were fortunate to have good advice, so had rented an automatic transmission auto and Sweetie decided to upgrade to an SUV, so we headed from Shannon airport on the airport access road in a nice KIA vehicle. The first traffic round-about was uncrowded, so it was easy. At the next one I had to remind himself to look to the right, not left, for oncoming traffic and to exit into the left lane despite years of practice going into the right lane. It got easier as time went by, but was still a bit harrowing on some of the narrow roads and byways later in the trip.

There are so many piles of gray rock ruins everywhere. At first you think - I'd better stop at that one! - thinking that it must be rare and important as such ruins are here in California...we are such a relatively YOUNG place! As it turns out, ruins and piles of gray rock are everywhere in the southwest and probably in much of the rest of the country. One of our favorite church ruins was a simple place on the side of a country road and not on any map or guidebook that we are aware of. It was just outside of Reens in County Limerick. The graveyard was still in use, with lots of contemporary headstones, but the church was abandoned. See the shrub gr owning out of the window in the photo. It also had no roof.

That is part of the charm of driving around on your own instead of as part of a tour. You can find your own ways to appreciate how ancient a country it is and enjoy discovering unusual churches, towers, graveyards, and even shops and cafes that rarely see tourists. That may not appeal to you, but if it does, give yourself permission to explore. We did.

Our first stop was Ennis, the main town in County Clare, and a good place to start since it is a short drive north of Shannon Airport and a great place to leave from to explore the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, and the area on the way to Galway. Mary Keane, the proprietor of Gray Gables, is a wonderful, gracious innkeeper. When we showed up at the dining room for breakfast the day we arrived (obviously suffering from jet lag) but found that it was 8:30 in the evening and not 8:30 in the morning as we had thought, she was amused, but understanding. It stays light for a long time in late May and we had fallen asleep. The late day light looked a lot like early morning light to me. When we discovered our mistake we just went back to bed and slept through until morning! This was our favorite B&B.

Contact information: Grey Gables B&B in Ennis, a block from downtown, included off-street parking and full breakfast. Cormfortable rooms, tea anytime, a beautiful parlor to sit in, gracious host Mary Keane, all rooms en suite, helpful directions given to local attractions upon request. Double: 75 euros, tel: 065 682 4487, www.bed-n-breakfast-ireland.com, e-mail: marykeane.ennis@ircom.net.
We had heard great things about the "Full Irish Breakfast" and were obviously anxious to try it. Looking through photos from the trip I found that I never did take a photo of an Irish breakfast!

The thing to know is that it is a lot of food! You start with a choice of cereals, juice, and often a choice of fruit. After that you get a plate full of eggs (usually poached or fried), some Irish bacon, which is closer to what we think of as Canadian bacon or even ham, a round of black pudding - which I loved - which includes blood in the mixture, a round of a sausage that seems a bit like scrapple, plus sausage links and, often, a broiled tomato. On the side there is toast and brown bread, plus yummy Irish butter. Coffee and tea are offered, and are usually quite good. Some B&Bs also either provide a tea set up for you to enjoy on your own schedule, or some tea when you arrive. As you can see, a full Irish breakfast can fill you up for most of the day. We often skipped lunch, or just had some tea and soup or tea and scones in the late afternoon.

Sweetie and I discovered that we enjoyed the muesli cereal that was always a choice at the B&Bs we stayed in, so today I bought a bag of Bobs Red Mill Muesli cereal to enjoy at home.

The brown bread served was brown soda bread. I enjoyed it a lot, but Sweetie wasn't a fan. When we got back to my Mom's I decided to make some brown soda bread since she had also enjoyed it on her trip to Ireland the year before. As a memento of the trip I had purchased The Ballymaloe Bread Book by Tim Allen. It had a great recipe for brown soda bread. Since my Mom likes hers with caraway seeds and I like mine with raisins, I added those. Turns out that Sweetie likes brown bread that way! So did all of the family visiting over the weekend. This recipe makes a good sized loaf, but it was polished off pretty quickly. It tastes great with some good butter spread over it, even better with a little blackcurrant jam over that, and delicious with some cheddar cheese instead of the butter and jam.

The nice thing about soda bread is that it goes together quickly. I was surprised at the high oven temperature and had never heard of turning the bread over for the last 10 minutes, but it worked like a charm. As with most quick breads, minimal handling is best for a tender loaf. Tim Allen suggested a plastic washing up basin for mixing the dough in. You really need some room to mix it with your hand the way he suggests, so be sure to use a wide bowl. There is one word for this bread - YUM!

Irish Brown Soda Bread – Seedy and Spotted
Based on a recipe from the Ballymaloe Bread Book by Tim Allen

Makes one loaf

2 ½ cups brown wholemeal flour (I used King Arthur Flour’s version)
2 ½ cups all-purpose unbleached white flour (plus a little extra for the pan and shaping)
1 rounded teaspoons salt
1 rounded teaspoon baking soda, finely sieved
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
½ cup raisins
About 1 pint buttermilk (I used a little less)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C)

Mix the flours, salt, baking soda (do sieve it – it really helps it evenly dissolve in the bread dough), caraway seeds and raisins in a large, wide bowl. Set aside.

Prepare a cookie sheet by sprinkling with flour.

Prepare a clean, flat surface by sprinkling with flour.

Pour most of the buttermilk into the middle of the flour mixture. Using your hand with the fingers open and stiff, mix the ingredients in a full circle, drawing in the flour from the sides of the bowl, adding more milk if necessary, until the dough holds together as a soft dough, but not too wet.

Turn the dough out onto the floured work surface. Then wash and dry your hands.

Tidy up the dough by lightly rolling it around with lightly floured hands. Minimal handling of the dough is best. Pat the dough gently into a round about 2 -3 inches high.

Place the dough ball onto the prepared baking sheet. Cut a cross on the top with a sharp knife. Prick it here and there over the top with the point of a knife to release extra steam.

Bake in the preheated over for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and bake for a further 20 -25 minutes. Turn the bread upside down on the baking sheet for the last 10 minutes of baking, then remove from the oven and cool upright on a wire rack. When the bread is cooked, it will sound hallow when tapped.

Wonderful when served with good butter and current jelly.