Today started like most of the others: getting up early, eating breakfast, and getting my pack ready for the day. When I woke up, I heard it raining outside. After looking at the forecast, it was supposed to have light rain all day. I made the short walk to the bus station, which wasn't bad, and got my ticket to Trim.
As I waited, I met an older Irish woman of whom I talked to for nearly 30 minutes. She was quite interesting and friendly.
My bus was boarding, with only 3 of us, then we were off. It was a shorter ride than yesterday, maybe an hour. Unfortunately, the bus stop is quite a ways from the castle.
I walked to the castle along the roads, later to find out there was a shortcut. The castle has ruins of walls with paths that lead to other ruins. I crossed a bridge, over the Boyne River, to a series of paths that lead through a field and a few ruins. One of the ruins was a bell tower from St. Mary's church. The bell tower is all that's left.
Another path led to the city gate. All thats left is the gate. Back in the 13th century, most cities were surrounded by walls, but all that's left of the wall is the gate.
I made my way back to the castle and towards the entrance. Near the entrance is a cannon that was once used in the castle in the later years.
The admission to the castle is €4, but I paid the €7 for the tour of the keep. The keep is the main structure of the castle. Surrounding the keep is remnants of the certain wall. The main gate that we entered through was actually a restoration, but there's another gate that has not been. The other gate is pretty cool. It was equipped with doors and bridges that could be mechanically moved to prevent people from entering.
Along the curtain walls, were 10 short round towers. Some of them still stand. In one corner is the Great Hall, which was added several years after the original building of the castle in the 1100's. A small apartment building was also added for the few residents that lived in the castle. Walking along the walls was pretty cool, seeing the secret enterances and arrow slits.
We were finally able to tour the keep and met the tour guide at the bottom of the stairs. The door is actually about 10 feet off of the ground with intention of making it harder for enemies to get in. To get in the door into the castle, the guide had to unlock it. I think the lock was the coolest thing being that it was from the 1700's. Not to mention the awesome key.
The keep has been restored with new floors and some walkways. Most of the rooms looked similar but most had a different purpose. The building has a square center and 4 other square buildings coming off of it. One of them was the "septic tank". One building, however collapsed several years ago.
The lower rooms were used as a cellar for food. Some of the upper rooms were bedrooms along with a kitchen, dining room, chapel, and great hall (which was later replaced by the second one built).
The tour was pretty cool. We were able to walk to most of the rooms, including the upper rooms. We even got to use the spiral staircases, which were a little difficult to walk down. We eventually ended up on the upper most part of the castle where the guard towers were. We had a awesome view from here, though it was really windy.
The castle was used starting in the 1100's as a fortress for the city. It was owned by the lords in controll of the area. However, it was partially own by the king of that kingdom. During its lifespan, it had 3 additions onto it done by 2 different lords.
The tour lasted maybe 2 hrs, but I spent an additional hour looking at the ruins around the castle. One of the cool aspects of the castle is the fact that Braveheart was filmed here. 4 scenes were filmed including the seige on York, the execution, when Longshanks threw the guy out of the window, and one of the scenes when the French princess met with Wallace. I was fortunate enough to miss the rain in Trim.
It was a bit of walk back to the bus stop, though it was shorter because I cut through a nearby field with ruins. Fortunately, it was only an 8 minute wait for bus. I did quite a bit of walking today so I took a short nap on the way back.
After getting back, I decided to go souvenir hunting for family back home. I had planned to do it tomorrow but don't think I'll have time. On getting back to the hostel, I took a shower and headed out for dinner.
Today is Cinco de Mayo so the hostel celebrated. There was Mexican music playing, sombreros, and a piñata before turning on the football (soccer) game on the tele.
As I sat here watching, I met 2 people who are also here on there own. Heather from Toronto and a German of whom I'm not sure how to spell his name. I later met a guy from Croatia and a guy from Russia. We had a pleasant conversation for while be ogre they took off for dinner. It seems like everyone I meet tries to teach me some of their language, which is pretty cool.
Tomorrow is the last day and will be going to Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains. That is an all day tour so I should have a lot to share with you. Oh, and I almost forgot. I was supposed to represent Donnellson Fire Dept. in Ireland, so here it is.
