Cashel has probably been my best experience yet. It was nice to just get up and go-- take a bus out of the city. The history was different than Dublin but equally as interesting--if not moreso. I know I've heard the name Carmac Mac Carthaig before, but at Cashel I learned who he was to the Irish. He seemed to be a colorful character that fit into a colorful history. Our tour guide was dramatic in the traditional irish fashion. It became obvious through her explanation that the various owners of Cashel had a love/hate relationship with it. No one REALLY wanted the Castle. It was great protection, but it was dark, dingy, and depressing. According to the text, it was also a battle ground between the north and south dynasties. It explains that it ended "in a great battle at Belach Mughna in Leinster, Flann Sinna, king of Tara, defeated Cormac mac Guilennain, king-bishop of Cashel, in 908" (Moody-Martin, 72). It explains that Cormac was killing and the ancient Cashel dynasty never recovered. Through our guide's explanation it seemed like this was one of the many different shifts in ownership.
The most interesting part of Cashel to me was how it's architecture and history spanned centuries, starting in the 13th and ending with the last building in the 17th. Going onto the rock seemed kind of like a trip back in time--with a few pitstops. The guide really took us back in time, give us a full explanation of the tower. She explained, starting from the bottom that the door was much higher, not only because of ground level shifts but because it was a means of defense. The bishop(?) would climb up on a latter, carry all of the valuables with him and climb to the top away from the vikings. He would have used the steps that went one staircase at a time to a platform and each platform would have another staircase leading up.. some people are led to believe that the staircase is spiralled, but this just isn't true. The problem with this though was that the vikings could easily smoke out or kill the escapee with a turf fire lit at the bottom of the tower.
She also talked about the Stone of St. Partick and about the cross that wasn't actually celtic--no circle. It was interesting because one side was Jesus, while the other side was St. Patrick. Along with that story we learned about the myth about the devil taking a bite out of the adjacent mountain and spit it out-- becoming rock of cashel.
Cashel had so much history that it became a blur, but the architecture was phenomenal and the trip was an experience of a lifetime.
