Notices by Infoseepage (infoseepage@mastodon.social)

Wish I'd had more time to spend at the top, but had to descend quickly (but not too quickly) and then speed-walk back to my b&b before 11. I did snap a few shots of the gatehouse from the top. Glad I made the second visit.

The view from the top is, as you might imagine, spectacular and I took some quick snaps of the cathedral, gardens and the old Franciscan Friary which was one of the earliest if not the earliest in Ireland.

The other floors have nicer windows with ledge seating, fireplaces and garderobe.

A modern stair leads from the ground floor to the first floor, where the original doorway to the tower sits at above the floor level. From there, it is a semi spiral intramural stair all the way to the top with landings at each floor level. The first floor is the most spartan, with just a few downward slanting arrow loops to let in light.

The door to the castle opened magically as I was finishing my breakfast. Had just enough time to check it out before checking out of my b&b, though I had to work quickly. They had a reconstruction drawing and it was a more elaborate design than I had in my mind.

Breakfast at the castle is best breakfast.

@martin_fff Also, that article is wrong about how the giant tube is mounted. It isn't a giant steel ball. They've got a universal joint at the bottom. It's one of the few pieces of the scope that was in pretty good shape when they went to restore it.

@martin_fff Nope, it can track, but the period of time it can track an object is limited by the distance between the support walls and the viewing platform. Not sure if the tracking was automated in any way on the big one, so there might have been a lot of shouting at men manning winches involved. They had a smaller 3 foot scope that the 4th Earl continued to develop / refine and they had an automated tracker on display in the museum, although I'm not sure if it was the one they used.

@Captainobservant Took me a while to unlock the puzzle.

@mcnado I'd submit that baring chronic infections, we actually have the technical capabilities as a species to effectively eliminate airborne disease. What we lack is the societal and political will. Most respiratory illnesses could be eliminated outright. We have the scientific understanding of transmission and ways to prevent that transmission to do it. It is NOT a scientific problem at this point.

@mcnado If we had been prepared with a global manufacturing and logistics capability and a true global vaccination mandate, we could have beaten this through vaccination. Alternatively, if the whole world had just masked for a three months in N95 level masks...

@mcnado If we had been able to vaccinate the global populace to 3x (boosted) levels early enough on, the virus might have actually disappeared. Places that got to this level early on, like Israel, were down to something like a couple dozen confirmed cases a day.

I'm not sure how tall the keep was originally, but the present height of 102 feet makes it Ireland's tallest castle. It definitely looks tall in person, though Blarney feels taller in person from sitting atop sheer rock. Whatever. It's tall enough. Feels like a wizard should be standing at the top of the tower hurling down fireballs just as you crane your neck back enough to see the top. It's that sort of tower.

Originally it had a substantial curtain wall and several more towers. The upper sections were added back in the 1860's to turn the tower into a dramatically crowned bell tower for a cathedral which didn't happen due to the US civil war.

Today you get a bonus castle. This is Nenagh castle in...Nenagh. It was a home of the Butlers of Ormonde for a long, long time. Today what you mostly see is the very strong round tower which served as its keep. There is a crumbly gatehouse which also contained the great hall and one outer tower remaining.

But I digress. Did I mention the round tower is next to a Tesco? It's next to a Tesco. Which do you like best as your backdrop for your pictures of ancient round towers?

Ireland seems to have this thing going on where they build facilities at great expense and then one minimally staff them and have random opening hours that disagree with their website. Not real tourism friendly.

The corner of St Cronan's churchyard also has a replica of a high cross. The real deal is across the street in a museum which is a 2-for-w special with entrance to the castle...except neither were open, so it was more like a 0 for 2.

Seriously, appreciate it. It's really nice.

There is a round tower a few blocks from the castle. It's across the street from the remains of what was once St Cronan's 12th century church. Only a bit of one gable end survives, but it has a nice Romanesque facade you can appreciate.