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September 2024 (Part 04)

Ireland Trip (Day Seven): Dromoland Castle (Medieval Majesty)

We spend the next morning at Dromoland Castle (pronounced "druh-moe-land").  As we had a bit of a latter start, we got our early for a hike around the grounds with one of our new friends, Christiane, heading into the forest next to the golf course.  We wandered, intentionally taking a number of fun turns.  We even found a wonderful fairy village, with more fairy doors and decorations as we looked around, finding they were on the backsides of trees we had passed.  We also found this temple out in a small opening.

Given the number of fairy decorations, I can't believe we didn't take any pictures.  I was sure we would be able to find some online, but only found a couple, oh well. 

We exited the woods onto the empty golf course and wandered a bit farther away and up a small hill for a great view back to the castle across the small lake.

After a way too big breakfast, we gathered for a Bird of Prey demonstration, meeting the hawker outside.  Pretty obvious,, she was the one with the Harris Hawk on her arm.

She talked about the history and art of falconry, then invited us to followed her up to their small camp around the side of the castle and up a little hill to discover they had a number of birds of several different species. 

We all got an opportunity to meet and hold a delightful small barn owl.

She brought out an amazing variety of beautiful birds.  Here is a Peregrine Falcon.

Next out was another Peregrine Falcon, also a juvenile, but a bit older than the last bird.

Here is a Harris Hawk.

They also had an old Eagle Owl.

... and several more Harris Hawks

Here are a couple more taken by our Adventure guides.

Such an interesting place

The coat of arms was pretty interesting with a hand holding a dagger above the shield.

We then had time for some excursions we signed up for, beginning with an archery lesson across the way with Tim.

Loved that he had an umbrella hidden and brought it out when it started to lightly rain.

Nancy clearly did better than Steve, but we both managed a bulls-eye.

Gabby came by in the middle of the session and took these images.

Here are some images from our Adventure guides of the other activities.

We then had a bit of time to wander some more, so we headed back to the walled gardens.

I think Nancy and I were competing for who could take the most pictures of flowers, extra points for ones with bees.  First up are the one I took, just so we can compare them.  And, yes, I'm only showing a small subset of the images.

We quickly discovered there were a number of statues scattered throughout the garden.

There was a small greenhouse with strings of grapes and tomatoes hanging from overhead pots and basil leaves in the beds below them, perfect for a quick snack.  Loved the play of the colors or the tomatoes.

Here are Nancy's pictures.

Looks like we were both entranced by the statues and other objects found in the garden.

We headed back to the front of the castle by 2 pm for a "hawk walk," finding the falconer there with a Harris hawk named Brutus.

We were then each given a chance to hold Brutus.

Gabbty and Leisha were seemingly everywhere.  One of them showed up before we left the castle and took the following images.

We then headed toward the forest, where there was a long narrow opening with trees on each side.  She then loosed the Hawk, who first landed on a light pole.  Each time he was released, she held out a treat and signaled him to return.  After the first flight, she held the treat near each of us, enticing the hawk to fly and land on our outstretch hand.  OK, this was cool.

It landed on this sign a couple times as we started heading into the woods.

One more flight from the sign.  It was really interesting to watch him drop so low to the ground then swoop up and stall to land on the targeted hand.

We took more video than pictures, but did get a couple.

It was sometimes hard to find where he landed as a perch.  He is in the lower-left part of this image.

We turned right, following another opening, which led to this small temple.  He promptly flew up and landed in the structure, surprising the handler when he caught and ate a mouse that was hiding on the roof somehow.  They normally try to prevent them from eating anything they kill just to protect them from disease, but it was gone before anything could be done.

We decided the temple would be a neat place for some group photos.  Loved the couple where he was in flight.

Here are a couple more images from the Hawk Walk from another Adventurer.

We made our way back to their compound and got to see a couple more of the birds, including the eagle owl.

One of the other workers had been busy getting the other birds inside for the night.

I think we managed to slip in a nap before we all met up again to head out to dinner.  We were headed Rathbaun Farms, a local farm set up to host tours. 

We were soon settled in a large room and divided into groups of eight to make scones from scratch.  Each person was given a step, some less, some more than others.  Clearly our groups scones were the best batch.  Yes, we got the recipe.

While the scones and the rest of dinner cooked, we headed out to the barn with the owner.  There were a number of lambs and a ram inside.  He discussed how lamb was a major product of Ireland.  Not sure I realized a "lamb" had to be under one-year old, as after that it had to be called mutton.  He stated the meat is there only real income.  The sheer and sell the wool every spring, but don't really make a profit there.

Gabby was happily petting a dog whom she was clearly familiar with.  The owner put him to work pretty soon to bring in the sheep from the meadow.  He made pretty quick work of it, so the owner got him to take them out, then back in again.

Next we were divided into two teams and had a relay race to empty three cans of milk by feeding the lambs.  This was surprisingly fun, and really funny.

Here are some images from Gabby.

We'd earned our dinner by then, which was simply wonderful.  Glad we got the gravy recipe.  Our meal again featured live music, this time from Sean the Piano Man who played a couple traditional sing-alongs combined with Billy Joel and other American standards.  Yes, the scones with jam and butter was awesome.  Nancy even got a great sweatshirt with one black and three white sheep.