Moving down to Killarney and County Kerry, and eventually the Ring of Kerry itself, we checked into one of the nicer hotels we've come across in quite some time, the Brehon. Can't say enough about these digs, for the food and drink (Guinness Stew!), accommodations, and all-around ambience. Didn't hurt that they had U2 songs piped in through the hotel's speakers, either. The hotel and spa is located just on the lip of Killarney National Park.
Lots of walking queued up for this stretch of the trip, and the first thing on the docket was a 3+ mile walk to sort-of nearby Muckross House, on the shores of Lough Leane. Truly a treasure logging the mileage alongside the one you love.
What's a Muckross you ask? Well this blog is nothing if not educational, so luckily I found out Muckross comes from the word Mucros, which is a “the wood of the pig” and refers to the early practice of pasturing hogs in the woods. So now you know.
Before we got to the aforementioned Muckross House, though, there was a pitstop at the Muckross Friary, located on the expansive grounds of the estate.
The friary was founded around 1445 by a chap named Donal MacCarthy, and occupied by the Observantine Franciscans, so called because of their observance of rules regarding diet, clothing, and personal property.
The story goes that Donal’s great grandfather Cormac MacCarthy Mor wanted to found an abbey of his own, and it appeared to him in a vision that he should build it at the legendary Carraig na Chiuil, the Rock of Music. He sent men to search for the place, and they were about to return to Cormac having failed to locate the site, when passing by this chunk of Killarney they heard beautiful music coming from a rock, and Cormac founded the abbey there.
The friars inhabited the grounds until 1652 when they were driven out by the Cromwellians. Feel free to look up the details of that little conflict.
Hands down one of the coolest features of the friary is undoubtedly the massive yew tree which stands in the center of the structure.
Straight out of Game of Thrones or the Lord of the Rings trilogy horticulture, the tree dominates the center courtyard and is said to be as old as the friary itself.
Looking good for a 600+ year-old tree!
From there, it's on to Muckross House itself!
The 65 room house built in the fashion of Tudor. It was built from 1839 to 1843 but further work was carried out during the 1850’s in preparation for a visit from Queen Victoria herself! (Those improvements, btw, supposedly contributed to the financial woes of the estate's owners, forcing them to eventually sell it.) This may explain is why I hate doing home projects in advance of our own annual parties.
Because what's a mansion without some mounted elk heads?
Had to take this pic for Andrew - his idea of a dream library for his home, with books floor to ceiling, and a doorway built right into the bookcase itself
My bride and I are official Lord of Lady of a patch of grass in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, courtesy of our children. And while we have yet to build a manse upon that postage stamp of land, we could practice for our mansion photos here in the heart of Muckross.
Jack and Sue loved the offerings of one of the multiple kitchens in the home, straight out of Mrs. Patmore's cooking digs at Downton Abbey
The grounds consist of 11,000 acres, and we did our best to try to explore as much of it as we could.
Afterwards, after logging more than six miles of walking just getting to and around the friary and estate, we quickly took one of the horse-drawn buggy drivers up on his offer to get us back to the parking lot in style.
If you're in the neighborhood and have some downtime before embarking into the nearby Ring and national park, take the time to wander through Muckross - a worthy detour and historic spot worth mucking around in!
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