#Jerpoint Abbey

[stairnaheireann]

In the Liturgical Calendar, today is the Feast of St Nicholas. St Nicholas (Naomh Nioclás) is believed to have been buried in Newtown Jerpoint in Kilkenny some 800 years ago.

According to local Irish legend, St Nicholas is buried in Co Kilkenny. The grave is said to be in the ruined Church of St Nicholas, Jerpoint. The church is all that remains of the medieval village, Newtown Jerpoint, that fell to ruin by the 17th century. The village was surrounded by the Cistercian Jerpoint Abbey, founded in 1183. Located on 1,880 acres, the abbey had its own gardens, watermills,…

[asatinyseed]

jerpoint abbey // ireland // july 2018

Source: asatinyseed

[germanlander]

Free OPW Wednesday

Little day trip to Poulanassy Waterfall, where I saw my first jay in Ireland, Jerpoint Abbey for the free OPW Wednesday - there is always some new detail to discover - and the lost village near Stonecarthy (behind me in the panorama shot, because one always sees them better on satellite pictures anyway). That one did not end very well with the farmer whose land we were on. But anyway, if you look closely, you can spot Kilree round tower on the panorama shot.

[lynnebarbara]

[stephenodwyer]

Jerpoint Abbey

Founded around 1160 for the Benedictines

In County Kilkenny, not far from Inistioge.  It must have been a pretty huge place in its time.

[irisharchaeology]

Medieval cross inscribed grave slab, Jerpoint Abbey, Kilkenny

[devilsbastion]

sometimes the helmets just aren’t strong enough...

[snufflandia]

Then we went to Jerpoint abbey - another medieval monastery that has wonderful carvings!

[mikerickson]

Well that was one hell of a trip. And of course it wouldn’t be official without a bullet point wrap-up:

That was my first time flying international and apparently this is the normal way of doing it, but I didn’t like leaving the east coast in the evening and landing in Europe first thing in the morning local time. I can’t sleep on planes, and then you have to play the “we can’t go to sleep yet or we won’t adjust” game. I feel like it’d be easier to leave in the morning East Coast time and land in the evening in Europe, but what do I know?

My perpetually-sensitive tooth in the top left started hurting during our layover in Charlotte and really kicked in during the main flight. When I woke up the second morning there, it was killing me and I had to get a root canal done. Miraculously there was a dentist within walking distance of the Air BnB and I was able to get a walk-in appointment and get it done, but it pretty much took me out the rest of the day. Had I not done it then though, it would’ve ruined the trip.

Dublin is way smaller and walkable than I expected.

A lot of people, even in urban areas, walk their dogs without leashes and I guess it’s not really an issue?

This was also an unusually “safe” feeling country to me. Like we only saw like 5 Gardaí (police) on the entire trip and I don’t think I noticed any of them carrying guns. I especially took notice of how there were a lot of women walking alone at night in Dublin and that just isn’t the kind of thing I’d expect to see in a big city over here, but I guess that says more about America than anything else.

Me and a buddy took turns driving. Driving on the other side of the road and the other side of the car was terrifying for like the first ten minutes and then I adjusted surprisingly quick after that. Adjusting back to American driving has also been a little tricky; I’m still drifting to the left more than normal.

This being a glorified road trip, we listened to the car radio a lot and besides the accents on the DJ’s and the obsession with Love Island (a reality TV show that’s currently running), you wouldn’t be able to distinguish a lot of stations from American stations. We heard “Señorita“ like 2 or 3 times a day.

Glendalough was neat but it was packed with groups Italian teenagers who kept shouting, “woooOOOOOAAAaaaaahhh” at each other. Some kind of summer camp thing.

We rented bikes to go around downtown Kilkenny and that lasted all of 15 minutes because we’re all pansies too afraid to ride bikes in traffic with cars.

Left my Quip toothbrush at the Kilkenny Air BnB, R.I.P.

Jerpoint Abbey was neat and we had the whole place to ourselves. We actually got their too early because the staff wasn’t ready to open yet.

Rock of Cashel was beautiful and windy as hell.

We spent hardly any time on highways during this trip because the GPS kept putting us on these backroads only wide enough for one car at a time. Apparently these backroads are all posted with an 80 km/h speed limit (50 mph), so the GPS assumes we’d be doing that speed, when in actuality we were going close to 35 km/h (~22 mph) because of all the sheep and hairpin turns and hills and stones and trees that just kinda take up half the already-tight roadway sometimes. We probably avoided tons of tolls this way though.

Speaking of which, we decided to taxi in to Kinsale one night and the taxi driver was actually speeding on these tiny little roads at night and I felt like I was going to die in that front passenger seat. When we decided to head back to the Air BnB, we got the same taxi driver and it was equally terrifying the second time around.

Knowing I have a fear of heights, my dumbass put the Blarney Castle on our itinerary and I had a full-blown anxiety attack up there. When I saw Andrew lean over the side to kiss the stone I almost passed out. The staff was like, “It’s your tur-” and I was already halfway down the staircase noping the fuck out of there.

The Ring of Kerry has some fantastic views and it was one of those “pictures can’t do this justice” moments.

Heard a lot of different spoken languages on this trip. If I had to guess, it was probably like 55% English, 20% French, 15% Italian, 9% European Spanish and 1% Irish. The only time I heard spoken Irish was between two Gen-X guys in an ice cream shop in Dingle. That said, the Irish language is written damn near everywhere, so I’m still glad I learned a little before this trip, even if I didn’t have a conversation in it.

Traditional Irish food is... good at providing sustenance and keeping you alive. Unrelated, the first thing we did after coming home yesterday was head straight to the best Indian restaurant in town for the spiciest dish I could handle.

The Slea Head Loop on the Dingle Peninsula was like a tighter, more compact version of the Ring of Kerry.

The Cliffs of Moher were cool, but I feel like it would’ve been more impactful for me had I seen them before the Ring of Kerry and Slea Head Loop. Then again, there’s probably only so much enjoyment I could get out of them (see bullet point above discussing fear of heights).

Galway was a neat town that definitely felt like it had the youngest population, I wish we’d spent more time there.

The drive out to Kylemore Abbey in the northwest in the morning was probably the most beautiful part of the trip for me. I was driving this day and couldn’t take pictures though.

The Abbey itself was beautiful and such a change of pace; it was a Victorian-era mansion and pretty much everything we’d seen up to this point was from the early middle ages so it was weird saying something was “only” 200 years old.

Looking back, only three things from our original itinerary got cut, which is not bad considering how much shit we got done.

Overall a fantastic trip, but I’m ready to just kick back and not do shit for the rest of the summer.

[stairnaheireann]

In the Liturgical Calendar, today is the Feast of St Nicholas. St Nicholas (Naomh Nioclás) is believed to have been buried in Newtown Jerpoint in Kilkenny some 800 years ago.

In the Liturgical Calendar, today is the Feast of St Nicholas. St Nicholas (Naomh Nioclás) is believed to have been buried in Newtown Jerpoint in Kilkenny some 800 years ago.

According to local Irish legend, St Nicholas is buried in Co Kilkenny. The grave is said to be in the ruined Church of St Nicholas, Jerpoint. The church is all that remains of the medieval village, Newtown Jerpoint, that fell to ruin by the 17th century. The village was surrounded by the Cistercian Jerpoint Abbey, founded in 1183. Located on 1,880 acres, the abbey had its own gardens, watermills,…

[m1male2]

‪Cistercian abbey of Jerpoint (Kilkenny, Ireland)was built in 1180 and has interesting stone bas-reliefs in the tombs of the bishops of the abbey. The original cloisters of the 15th century have barely reached us, conserving small remains among which the bishops' sculptures stand out.‬

[lynnebarbara]

[daenerysbeauty]

jerpoint abbey, a twelfth century cistercian abbey now in ruins

[irisharchaeology]

An impressive early 16th century tomb at Jerpoint Abbey, Co. Kilkenny. It marks the final resting place of Robert Walsh (died 1501) and his wife Katherine Poer (Power). The tomb was the work of Rory O’Tunney, a master sculpture from Callan, Co. Kilkenny

[kelseyisabroad]

Ireland, Day 3: A Pilgrimage for Grandpa Vince

Phew!

Friends, I want you to know that I wrote variations of this post THREE TIMES, and it just would NOT upload. So... I guess I now know exactly what I plan to say? BLAH!

But ANYWAYS!

Wednesday was a spectacular day. For one thing, we picked up our rental car and sped out of Dublin to see the Irish countryside.

For another... our first destination was County Tipperary, aka the ancestral home of the noble Ryan family!

(*Ahem*... that's me, folks!)

This morning, we woke up and had a bit of hotel breakfast (featuring a HONEYCOMB that you could cut chunks out of and CHEW ON... man, bees are amazing) before hitting the road in our rental car.

First stop of the day was a lunch prep: we found the cute little town of Gowran on our route south and stumbled into their adorable deli, where we picked up salami and bread and cheese for lunch.

And of course, I strong-armed Bobby’s parents into posing for me outside the store. They’re so patient! 😜

We also came across some beautiful ruins in that town, and took a tour of the site before moving on. The church was called Saint Mary's, and had functioned as a place of worship since the 3rd century.

From there, we rolled on down tiny roads to what we hoped to see next: Kilfane Gardens, described to me by a native Kilkenny resident as a "magical fairy garden." Unfortunately, I hadn't looked up the site properly beforehand, and we arrived to find it's only open in July and August. So next time, Kilfane!

Instead, we soldiered on to Jerpoint Abbey, another beautiful ruin, and found a picnic table on which to eat lunch.

We toured the ruins...

... and then made our way to nearby Thomastown on the River Nore. (The SCENERY HERE!!!)

After that, it was on to the reason for the trek to the Midlands! COUNTY TIPPERARY!!

My late grandpa Vince, this photo's for you.

Our first stop in Tipperary (or as my guidebook says, Tipp) was the famous Rock of Cashel, a ruined castle atop this hill, with the most spectacular view of the Vale of Tipperary.

We met some sheep on the way, of course.

And we pretended we were Irish royalty in the main focus room, St Patrick's Cathedral. (Fun story: this is supposedly where St Patrick first plucked a three leaf clover to describe the connection to the Trinity. The More You Know!)

After a lovely walk back to the car, we drove on some barely-single-lane roads to get to our hotel, a lovely B&B located in the Glen of Aherlow.

IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL HERE. The Galtee Mountains are breathtaking.

We spent some time getting acquainted with the grounds, and soon it was time for dinner! We ate on-site (I had some cod and ALL THE POTATOES, OBVIOUSLY) and suddenly I blinked, and it was nearly 10PM!

What a day, today was. I'll be thinking about The Rock of Cashel for a very long time, I'm sure.

Now, it's time for sleep, because tomorrow WE GO TO TIPPERARY TOWN!

[paulasamuels]

Day 10 of Travel A-Z, Part Deux: "J" is for Jerpoint Cistercian Abbey in County Kilkenny, Ireland. Despite being over 800 years old, this place has some remarkably well preserved architectural features, including stone carvings. Beautiful place for quiet contemplation.