Last day in Northern Ireland but first, on to Armagh

Armagh city with the Roman Catholic
St. Patrick's Cathedral in the background.

It's May 12th and time for us to move on to the Republic of Ireland for the rest of our trip.
Not before visiting Armagh, the most historic city on the island. To quote the authenticireland.com web site;

It was the seat of the ancient Kings of Ulster, who were crowned at nearby Emain Macha (Navan Fort). 

That's pretty cool! We decided to make a stop at the Navan Fort as well.

The drive to Armagh began in the rain but by the time we arrived the sun was peeking through. We needed diesel by that time so we stopped at a gas station before parking the car. After filling up, Chris went inside to pay and discovered that they only accepted pin and chip type credit/debit cards not the less secure strip cards that we still use in the states. The bill was £63 and between us we had about £45, we did have some Euro so she agreed to take the balance in Euro since that's all we could do. That was the first time we'd run into a problem with our strip cards but after that we always asked.

On the way into town we'd seen a large cathedral so we decided to find a place to park and walk over to see it. We actually found a spot near the protestant Church of Ireland which is said to be on the same spot chosen by St. Patrick to build his stone church in 445 A.D. We thought we would walk over to see the Roman Catholic Cathedral first and then on the way back visit the Church of Ireland and the Armagh public library.

By this time it was warm and sunny so I elected to leave my jacket in the car. We headed over to the cathedral but first stopped in the visitors center to get information and a map of the area.

Roman Catholic St. Patrick’s Cathedral

The cathedral was a short 2-3 blocks from where we were but by the time we got there the sky was looking black and stormy again.

It's a stunning Italianate style cathedral begun in 1840 but the building was postponed because the church wanted to spend it's money to help the Irish people during the potato famine.

Pews and Pulpit in the
Roman Catholic Cathedral

Inside it's absolutely gorgeous with stained glass windows, sculptures and archways on either side of the pews. Chandeliers hang between the archways to light the interior.

By the time we were finished touring the cathedral it had begun to rain. Since I had left my jacket in the car we waited outside under the cover of the entrance to the cathedral.

The rain soon stopped and we headed for the Gothic style protestant St. Patrick's cathedral, the Church of Ireland, on the other side of town. The present cathedral, dates from 1268 and was last restored in 1834.

We entered the cathedral and were directed via signs to the place to pay our entry fee. The gentleman there was quite friendly and told us all kinds of stories about the history of the area as well as how unusual the weather had been this past year.

protestant St. Patrick's cathedral,
the Church of Ireland

The remains of the
old Celtic cross.

The cathedral was gorgeous inside, full of Celtic and medieval carvings.

 One of the artifacts inside the church is the remains of the old Celtic cross dating from the 11th century.

We left there to visit the oldest library in Ireland founded in 1771 by Archbishop Robinson, located on Vicar's Hill across from the Church of Ireland.



 Unfortunately by the time we got to the library they were just closing for lunch. We were unable to see much but they did allow us to take a few photos. 

We found our way back to the car and headed for the Navan Fort. Not easy to find as the road is small and hidden in the trees. Siri and google finally managed to get us there.

Since it was lunch time we decided to have lunch in the restaurant there. Not our best meal but it was filling.
After lunch we went over to the visitor's area and paid the fees for our self-guided tour. We were given directions and headphones. We wound our way through the displays and headed for the docent tour. By the time we were finished with that it was too late to see the actual Emain Macha. We were very disappointed in the tour and thought it better suited to children.

Lough Rynn castle

Time to head for Lough Rynn Castle in Mohill, Leitrim county, Ireland our lodging for the night. Lough Rynn Castle sits next to Lough Rynn amid beautifully landscaped lawns, gardens and natural trails. It's very peaceful as it's not near a town, fortunately there is a very nice pub in the castle that serves food as well as drink. 

Since we hadn't been able to visit Bushmills Distillery I was anxious to try the different ages of Bushmills Irish Whiskey. Wouldn't want to make a habit of drinking it but I liked the younger of the ones I tried. We ate a very nice dinner at the bar and headed up to our room to relax and get some sleep.

The room was smallish but nicely furnished. The bathroom floor was heated, can you believe it!?  From our window we had a lovely view of the grounds and the lake. Our bed was pretty comfortable too. The only slight glitch was the heating, I couldn't seem to turn it off. I opened the window and called the front desk, they sent someone up and she was able to turn it off.

It just so happened that the night we stayed in Lough Rynn was the eve of my birthday so I woke up in a castle in Ireland on my birthday! What a treat that was!