ROCK OF CASHEL

This weekend we went to see the Rock of Cashel. It is a group of Medieval buildings in the county of Tipperary (and it's not a long ways), from the 4th or 5th century and was the seat of the Kings of Munster, whose kingdom extended over much of southern Ireland. In 1101, they handed Cashel over to the Church and it flourised as a religious centre until a seige by a Cromwellian army in 1647 massacred its 3,000 occupants. The cathedral was finally abandoned in the late 18th century. This is one of the top tourist attractions in Ireland and is beseiged by visitors in the summertime. The day we went there were a lot of visitors.
I really enjoyed visiting this site and we also visited an old friary, of which I'll post pictures tomorrow.










In this picture of the domed ceiling where you can see the blue color on it, that whole domed area was painted at one time. Then someone plastered over it. Archeologists found and uncovered what you see there. They had a small picture of what they thought it might have looked like.





In this picture I have my arms around the stature of St. Patrick's cross. The guide told us that if you have a toothache and you can put your arms all the way around the statue to where you can touch your fingertips, your toothache will go away. Since I had a toothache that day, I tried it. As you can see, I didn't make it, but come to think about it, my toothache did go away at least for the rest of the day. :o)
Starting with these pictures of the tapestry and the wooden corbel angel, we're in the Hall of the Vicars' Choral. It was built in the 15th century for Cashel's most privileged choristers. The wooden picture I'm standing in front of is carved and has an organist and eight choir members on it. You can see it better in the close-up. There is also a picture of the wooden choir loft. I had to get those pictures for Imogene and the Volcano Cliffs Ward Choir. :0)