Terry and Sooz's Travels: October 4, 2019

Lots of driving today after leaving the Midlands Park Hotel in Portlaoise. After 2 hours of driving we stopped at Molloy's Bakery in Roscommon. I didn't take any pictures so I can't show the huge amount of fresh baked goods they have from pastry to bread. I had a kind of hot dog (sausage roll) and vegetable soup which came with some fresh baked bread. Very tasty. Sooz had a quiche and hot tea. Unfortunately Sooz has come down with a cold and has been fighting it all day.

We continued on to visit the Roscommon Castle just down the street from the bakery. It seems so strange to have an ancient castle ruins in the middle of town surrounded by a walking path and city park. And these ruins were entirely open to the public for no charge; we just walked right in and gave ourselves a self-guided tour. I wish you could see the pictures because it was really cool.

After driving a little further west we wanted to visit the Sligo Gaol (prison) which is in the town of Sligo and was open from 1823-1959. After we arrived at the site we found out it is not open to the public and is being used for storage by County Sligo. It's very strange to see this nearly 200 year old building being used for storage.

About 10 miles away is the Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetary. We got there a little late so we missed the guided tour. Sooz picked up a book and we did our own tour. The main structure on site is somewhat similar to the Newgrange structure we saw several days ago except that the Carrowmore structure is 6,000 years old, 500 years older than the Newgrange structure. The Carrowmore structure was also designed to allow sunlight to light up the interior area for only 4 days a year, around the end of October. The ceremonial part that directs the sunlight is actually set on stone shims so that it is properly aligned.

From there we drove to Ballina and are staying at a B&B. Not sure what we'll do tomorrow, it depends on how Sooz is feeling. We know we want to spend a couple of days on the Dingle Peninsula. That area looks pretty interesting.