Time to buy a castle.

I love the city of Galway, but it's always nice to get out of the city and explore the countryside.
Yesterday I was able to go on another field trip! This time the trip was with my archaeology class on castles. I almost didn't go.. just because I already feel overwhelmed. But I'm only in Ireland once.. YOIO? Anyways, I'm really glad I did go because it was an awesome trip!

Pallas Tower House, Co. Galway

View from Pallas Tower House, Co. Galway

Our first stop was Pallas Castle in Galway. This castle is called a towerhouse. The towerhouse was the main stone tower structure enclosed by the walls. There would have been a lot of wooden buildings surrounding the towerhouse back in the 16th century when people lived here--the wooden structures do not preserve well, unfortunately.  This site was really exciting because we actually got to go up into the tower! The tower isn't open to the public, so we got special access. Archaeology perks.

Portumna Castle

Portumna Castle Grounds

Portumna Castle - view from the back of the house

Back of Portumna Castle

Portumna Castle was so cooooooool! I want one of these castles. This castle was used during the 17th century. It's huge! There is a basement, ground floor, first floor, and second floor. This building is not meant for fighting enemies, it's meant to look appeasing the eyes... which it still does even in the 21st century. The house burnt down and was not repaired until about 20 years ago. Something noteworthy about this house is there is a plaque on the back dedicated to a dog named Fury. Apparently, some lady fell out of a window and crushed poor Fury and broke his back. I said, "Oh, I can only imagine all of the children that cried that day" and my lecture said, "The children?! Imagine the what the stone masonry said when he found out he had to carve a plaque for a dog!". Laughter ensued (Archaeology nerd jokes heheheheh). This is the point when Anne & I decided that we had to be BFF's with our lecturer. Back to the dog! Archaeologists uncovered Fury's body and it sits on display in a case inside the castle. I took a picture but I haven't cropped it yet so IOU a dog skeleton, dear reader.

View of the Shannon River from Clonmacnoise, Co. Roscommon

St. Ciarán's Church, Clonmacnoise, Co. Roscommon

Clonmacnoise, Co. Roscommon

Clonmacnoise, Co. Roscommon

Our next stop was Clonmacnoise. Clonmacnoise is a  major Christian monastery in Ireland. It dates to around 500AD so it's really, really old! It sits on the river Shannon, which is a perfect spot to control trade. The first church was built by St. Ciarán and it is said that if you take dirt from foundation of the church and put it around the corners of your field, it will help to yield a very successful crop. Apparently Clonmacnoise was attacked 23 times by the Irish, 6 by the Vikings, and 4 by the Anglo-Normans (I'm trying to remember this off the top of my head, but you get the picture). It held up until about the 12th century. Around this time, a castle was built.

Clonmacnoise Castle, Co. Roscommon

Clonmacnoise Castle, Co. Roscommon

Clonmacnoise Castle, Co. Roscommon ... In action.

Clonmacnoise Castle, Co. Roscommon .... Yay, trespassing!

Not much is left of the castle, as you can see. Today it's not open as a tourist attraction and it's not noticeable since the Clonmacnoise visitor center directs your attention to Clonmacnoise and not Clonmacnoise Castle. We were all super stoked to check out the castle. It was really interesting to check out the stone work and the defensive equipment of this castle. This castle would have served a defensive purpose, more so than the previous 2 castles we saw that morning. What made this castle fun to get to was that we had to trespass. Archaeology just isn't as fun unless you trample on land you aren't suppose to.

Top of the Motte where the castle would sit.

View from the Motte. Looked up tags on Instagram & it came up as "Middle of Nowhere"

Typical Irish Farmland

Our last stop of the day was to check out a Motte and Bailey Castle. These castles are super old--like 12th century! No structures remain of these castles, just because they were made of wood. All that is left is the giant hill that the castle was built upon. We climbed up it and realized there would be no way you would survive climbing the hill before taking an arrow to the knee.

That's it for now. I have one more week of school and then exams start! It's incredible how time has flown.. I mean March is almost over! x