Weekend in Waterford & Dungarvan

Karen and I spent the long May bank holiday weekend down in Waterford and Dungarvin with David and Ena. Finally, it seems we're getting some real Irish weather. It wasn't cold, but there was a slight chill in the air and we had a little precipitation... not nearly enough to bother us though.
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Here we are on the beach in Clonea. We found a skeleton of what we thought was a sea horse and Jay collected a few rocks to add to the collection!
Here's the map of the Ardmore Cliff Walk we took. The 4 of us drove here Sunday after breakfast for a nice hike along some beautiful cliffs. I think the hike was a little less than 2 miles and offered us some really great views.
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Ardmore is recognized as the oldest Christian settlement in Ireland.
Below is David as we just started the hike. The path was worn well but not too wide. It was exactly what we'd hoped for.
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Saint Declan was the first person to bring Christianity to Ireland. He lived here sometime between 350 – 450 AD and introduced Christianity here before the coming of Saint Patrick.

Below is the actual Declan's Hermitage. This place photographs so well! It was really beautiful.

At one point, we found a castle ruin to explore, so David and Ena waited under a small hill that blocked the wind. When we came back from exploring, the picture below of them waiting for us just seemed quintessential. It's really nice to have found good friends here in Ireland.

Here we are sitting under the same small hill with the castle ruin behind us. It was unreal how cottony soft the grass was. It honestly felt like there were 12 inches of down feathers right under the grass.

Here are the round tower ruins of St. Declan's church. The monks designed these towers to use as an escape when warring people came through. They would climb up inside the well-stocked tower and bring in rope ladders behind them. They would simply wait out the invaders. Pretty smart, huh!

Here is a picture of some very old stone carvings on St. Declan's church. They depict various scenes from the bible.

One interesting and very realistic thing we got to see was a reenactment of some early battles during Ireland's civil war. Granted these guys were firing blanks, but the sound sure made us nervous!

Here's Jay with Melly. This is David and Ena's pup who's the sweetest thing, but getting on in years. She doesn't quite have the teeth left to keep her tongue in her mouth, but a sweety nonetheless.

Thank you David and Ena for having us again. We sincerely enjoy your company and hospitality.