Rock of Dunamase Ireland

After leaving The Wonderful Barn in Kildare, the next stop on our Ireland travel itinerary was The Rock of Dunamase. Since my family wasn't super impressed with the barn (even though I loved it), they weren't quite trusting my judgement on the rest of what I had plotted out on the map. "We've seen a wonderful barn, now we get to go see a wonderful rock. Whoopie!" I knew that if this stop was a bust, that was going to set the tone for the rest of the trip. We set the navigation, and after a long, bumpy drive down a narrow Irish country road, we finally came upon our destination. Watching the ruins of this old fortress come into view, I let out a sigh of relief because I knew we were coming upon something special.

According to Wikipedia, the Rock was first settled in the 9th century, and later in the second half of the 12th century the castle was built. It's in ruins now with not much left standing, but it was still quite a treat to walk the trails leading up to the top of the fortress and imagine what it must have been like for the people who lived here centuries ago. I loved standing at the top of the castle grounds and looking out wondering if the view had much changed from when the first settlers arrived. All I know, the view was pretty spectacular from where I was standing.

We arrived midday and I was surprised that there were only a few other tourists walking the grounds, so it felt like we had the whole place pretty much to ourselves. Allison fancies herself an explorer and had a blast crawling around inside the castle and climbing the walls. She could have stayed there all day exploring if we let her!

Of course, a castle needs a queen and I was happy to oblige for a bit ;)

I am smitten with Ireland's countryside, so I sat down to just breathe in that magical Irish air and just enjoy the view. Below the ruins sits a charming little church that I couldn't help but admire up close and from afar.

While we didn't go inside the church, we did walk the grounds and spent some time reading the grave headstones. Most of the deceased stones were from the 1900's, but we did find a few older graves too.

There was no entrance fee to explore the Rock of Dunamase, so that made our stop all that much better (and gave me a little redemption over the barn fiasco). It's open to the public 24 hours a day and can be found in Co. Laois, Ireland. I highly recommend penciling in a stop if you have a road trip through Ireland in your future!

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Old castle ruins, take 'em or leave 'em?