Wednesday Ardfert and Tralee

While we were in proximity to another group of Wausau/Wisconsin folks in Killarney, schedules unfortunately didn’t permit cross-pollination. While we were jaunting and cruising, they were doing the Ring of Kerry, which was on our schedule for Thursday. Too bad.

Our Wednesday trips are to Ardfert Cathedral and then into Tralee for wandering time.

Bus leaves at 10 AM, another relaxed start. On Niall Huggard’s suggestion at the hotel, our first stop is Ardfert Cathedral. It is a ruin, and the site of several churches and cathedrals dating back to the 800’s.

The stonework and the church chronicles show evidence of a 10th century rebuild and a 15th century rebuild.

We are led around by a National Office of Public Works guide who explains the details of the building’s history, predecessors, excavations, and nearby temporary churches while rebuildings went forward. He promises time afterwards to take pictures, so please just keep up. Of course he soldiers on at length and there isn’t time. So here are some bootleg pictures.

Some of the renovations include crenellated battlements (above), romanesque, gothic, and moorish arches, and carved sandstone moldings.

In the church and in the churchyard are old and newer burials and above-ground tombs, some in better state than others.

Time to move on to Tralee.