Trinity College

Did you know that Trinity College has another name? It does. Trinity College is also known by University of Dublin. Since there is only one campus, the names Trinity College and University of Dublin are interchangeable.

Trinity College was established in 1692 and was modelled after Oxford and Cambridge, but only has one college whereas Oxford has 38 constituent colleges and Cambridge has 31. Trinity College is the oldest school in Ireland and was set up in part to consolidate the Tudor rule over Ireland. According to Wikipedia: Trinity College “was seen as the university of the Protestant Ascendancy for much of its history. 

Although Catholics and Dissenters had been permitted to enter as early as the end of the XVIII century (1793), certain restrictions on their membership of the college remained until 1873 (professorships, fellowships and scholarships were reserved for Protestants). From 1956 to 1970, the Catholic Church in Ireland forbade its adherents from attending Trinity College without permission from their archbishop. Women were first admitted to the college as full members in January 1904.” There are different ratings for Trinity College according who is doing the rating and, for the year 2015, was rated between 78 and 170 best in the world. It is rated as the best in Ireland.

You can read more about Trinity College and its history on Wikipedia.

Trinity College library is well known and is a legal depository library for Ireland and the United Kingdom, and contains over 4.5 million volumes, significant number of manuscripts, maps, and music. One of its most famous holdings is the Book of Kells.

The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin which contains the four gospels as well as various prefatory texts and tables. It is believed that the book was created approximately 800 AD at a Columban monastery in Ireland or that a number of Columban institutions across Britain and Ireland contributed to it. It is the most complex illuminated manuscript of its time. The illustrations are composed of human, animal, and celtic knots with a good variety of colour.

Today, the manuscript is composed of 340 folios in 4 volumes. The leaves are made with calf vellum and is worth making the trip to see. The name of the book comes from the Abbey of Kells which was its home for centuries.

If you make it to Dublin, you really should go to Trinity College and see the Book of Kells for yourself. There is a cost. The price ranges between €9 and €28, depending on your circumstances. Be ready to wait in line to get into the library. As a matter of fact, I would not be surprised that there is a long line every day, all day. The line does move fairly quickly. The first part of the display gives some history about the making of the Book, with static presentations on how the ink was made, how the vellum was prepared, and what life was like when this book was being created. After going through the displays, you then go upstairs to the room where the Book of Kells is kept. It is in a locked display cabinet where no one can touch it but you can see the superior workmanship that went into it. Before seeing it, my brother believed that we would be seeing a copy, and would not believe me when I told him that we would be seeing the original book. I don’t know what the security is like for this book, but I don’t think that I would like to be the person who trips the wire, so to speak. If you are planning to take some pictures with your camera, think again. Cameras cannot be used while viewing the displays and the Book.

When you are finished looking at the Book, your way out will take you through the Old Library Hall. And, yes, it looks the same as in the pictures. When I am surrounded by that many books, I have absolutely no idea where to start.

I did discover that there have been reproductions done on the Book of Kells. There were digital photographs taken that were put on CD and sold through the College gift shop. These are no longer available. However, those digital photographs can now be seen online at:

http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/#folder_id=14&pidtopage=MS58_007v&entry_point=1

Enjoy!

Glendalough

Glendalough is in County Wicklow, on the way to Dublin from Waterford. One of the things that it is famous for is the monastic settlement established by St. Kevin that dates back to the 6^th century. This settlement was host to a total of seven churches and a tower.

St. Kevin was someone who had connections at the time period as he was descended from one of the ruling families in Leinster. He studied under three holy men in Glendalough and returned later to establish a monastery in the vicinity. He had a following and left a number of writings that scholars still study. It is believed that he died about 618 AD and the settlement continued to flourish for the following 600 years.

In the twelfth century, St. Laurence O’Toole became Abbot of Glendalough and later became Archbishop of Dublin. He was known for his sanctity and hospitality. After his appointment as Archbishop, he still continued to visit Glendalough.

In 1214, the dioceses of Glendalough and Dublin were united. Once this was done, the settlement in Glendalough began to diminish and, in 1398, was destroyed by English forces, leaving it a ruin. However, it continued to be a place of pilgrimage.

Today, there is a Visitor’s Center that gives a fair amount of information regarding this location. There are also guided tours available. The guide that we had was quite knowledgeable and the tour took about an hour. There is a lot to see, you could spend easily spend a day there as there are also a couple of trails to follow. In order to see everything, an hour or two is not enough time.

A Walk Around Waterford City

First of all, I want to apologise for not posting anything for almost a week now. I have good days and I have bad days. I have mostly good days, but when I have a bad day, it can take a couple of days to recover from it. It also doesn’t help if I stay up too late at night. When I get working in something that I am interested in, I have a tendency to give it my full concentration. Sometimes, I even forget some of the daily housekeeping that I need to do in order for things not to back up on me. Anyway, please be patient with me. I am still a work in process.

After visiting New Ross in Wexford, our trip took us to Waterford City, in County Waterford. It is situated on the River Suir not far where the River Suir and the River Barrow join before flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. The River Suir and the River Barrow are two of the Three Sisters, with the third sister being the River Nore. The River Nore joins with the River Barrow before meeting with the River Suir. This all takes place on the southeast coast of Ireland.

Waterford has a very long history. Waterford was one of the first communities established by the Vikings in 853 AD. It wasn’t 50 years before the Irish forced the Vikings out. Because of this settlement, Waterford had the distinction of being Ireland’s first city.

Approximately 250 years later, Diarmait Mac Murchada, the deposed King of Leinster, tried to take Waterford and failed. Three years later, he came back with mercenaries and Richard de Clare, the 2^nd Earl of Pembroke, and took the city after some desperate defense. King Henry II came in 1171 and declared that Waterford and Dublin were royal cities and Dublin the capital of Ireland.

Waterford went through the English political problems with two pretenders wanting to base themselves there. They also went through the Protestant Reformation but afterward remained Catholic. There were other events throughout history, but I will let you look some of it up yourselves.

Originally, we were supposed to have our walking tour after we had dinner in Wexford, but something caused it to be changed. We were hungry and tired, and would have appreciated having some time to eat and relax before going on the tour. As it was, we were waiting for quite a period of time for our guide to arrive, and, I think that all of us were getting to the point that we wanted to forego the tour.

Our guide was Jack Burtchaell and he was running late when we arrived in Waterford. He finally arrived and took us around the harbour area for an hour’s tour. This area of Wexford had a nice blend of history and modern conveniences. The oldest building was a short tour not far from the harbour. I have included a few pictures that I took while on the tour. There is even a replica of a Viking longboat in the tourist area.

One thing that I would like to mention is that one of my ancestors came to Canada and probably came either through New Ross or through Waterford to board the ship. I would like to go back to Waterford and spend some time there, a few days anyway, to get to know the city better. Maybe by that time, I will know which ports my ancestors travelled through.

New Ross and Dunbrody Famine Ship

New Ross is in County Wexford and is a port that was used during the time of the Great Famine to send emigrants from Ireland to other parts of the world including Canada and the United States. It is my belief that New Ross may also be the same port that my great-great-great-grandfather, John Jackman, came through to board the ship named Ann to sail to Canada to start a new life. I don’t know why he decided to do this but he did.

New Ross has a tourist site that is not usually seen in most Irish ports, a replica of a famine ship. The original ship had the name of Dunbrody and has been replicated well in most respects. I believe that the replica was built in the same shipyard in Quebec as the original ship.

The original ship was built to bring lumber, furs, and other natural resources from Canada to Ireland. As it was going to be sailing back to Canada with no cargo, the Dunbrody was outfitted with bunks and took famine victims with them. The bunks were removable so that they could continue to carry cargo on their way back to Ireland.

There were two types of passengers, passengers who could pay more and have a cabin and passengers who paid less, or whose landlords paid passage for them and looked after their own needs while onboard ship. Once arriving in Quebec, they often had to wait onboard before disembarking at Gross Iles for medical inspections. Most of the emigrant ships did not prepare well for their passengers, some of them running out of fresh drinking water before their turn to disembark their passengers, but the Dunbrody had a couple of captains who were humane and made sure that there was enough water for consumption as well as cleanliness. They had very little loss of passengers and their passengers wrote back to Ireland praising the two captains.

There were also some actors who helped to bring about the vision of what life was like on the famine ship while enroute to Canada. The people portrayed were real people and the program was an interactive presentation. I am sure that I have a better understanding of what happened to the people of that time. I don’t know if any of my ancestors experienced this as most of my Irish ancestors came to Canada in the early 19^th century.

New Ross is a port that is located on the River Barrow and is near the border with County Kilkenny. It is about 20 miles north east of Waterford which is another port. It is about 23 miles west north west of Wexford, the county seat for County Wexford. New Ross is the third largest community in County Wexford. The day that we were there, there was a cool breeze and it did rain while we were visiting the Dunbrody.

New Ross looks as if it is a clean town. We were at the waterfront and did not have much of a chance to see the rest of the town. Once we were finished at the Dunbrody exhibit, we were on our way back to Waterford, for a walking tour, dinner, and a night’s rest.

Kissing the Stone of Eloquence

There is a legend in Ireland that if you kiss a certain stone, it will give you the gift of eloquence. A great number of people say that if you believe that, you are full of the blarney.

Well, enough of puns. I don’t profess to use puns very wisely.

When visiting Ireland, most people say that you must visit the site of this stone of eloquence. You really don’t have to, but if you do, you should bring back some proof that you were there. I did. I wasn’t going to, but I decided, why not. So I paid my money, got the two pictures and the pictures have me very red in the face. I’m not even sure when the pictures were taken. I just know that when my brother and I went to collect our pictures, they were ready for us.

In the past, when I thought of kissing the Blarney Stone, I thought that it was a stone at ground level and there would be no real effort to kiss it. Boy, was I wrong! The first thing that you have to do is get into the property. Yes, there is a fee for kissing the stone. Then, you have a distance to walk to get to the castle itself. For those of you who have mobility problems, it can be exhausting. Okay, now you reach the castle. It’s time to enter the castle and then climb the stairs. Did I forget to tell you that there are stairs? These are stone stairs and it’s a circular staircase. However, there are landings at each level. I have no idea how many landings there are. These are good for a short rest before continuing up. I stopped at one landing, thinking that I would never be able to make it to the top. I then learned that I only had about two more landings to go and I would be at the top. I decided that to get that far and not go the rest of the way was not appropriate. As well, until I found out how to get to the stairs going down, I would be going against the flow.

So, I arrived at the top of the castle, and took the time to catch my breath again. My brother arrived shortly after I did, and we joined the line to kiss the stone together.

When you finally get to the stone, as it is mentioned in the website,

“Once upon a time, visitors had to be held by the ankles and lowered head first over the battlements. Today, we are rather more cautious of the safety of our visitors. The Stone itself is still set in the wall below the battlements. To kiss it, one has to lean backwards (holding on to an iron railing) from the parapet walk. The prize is a real one as once kissed the stone bestows the gift of eloquence.”  http://www.blarneycastle.ie/pages/kiss-the-blarney-stone

There is actually two people there, one helps you to get into the position to kiss the stone and the other takes the pictures. When the person helping you need some help, the gentleman taking the pictures will assist. There are two pictures taken, one either getting up or getting ready to kiss the stone and the other while you are kissing the stone. Once you are finished, you follow the parapet around until you get to the staircase (once again circular) going down.

There is more to Blarney Castle than just kissing the stone. Even though I had exhausted myself, my interest was caught. I saw the sign “Poison Garden” and I had to know what that entailed. I did go through two parts of the garden before I started heading towards the exit to go find the bus or somewhere to eat or get a drink. I do want to go back to Blarney Castle. The next time, though, I will not be going to kiss the stone. I want to go wander the property to see everything that is there as I think that I saw maybe a tenth of what they had to offer.

As we were there at the end of April, there were no real shops to be able to get something to drink near the Castle itself. I actually got all the way over to Blarney Woolen Mills before I was able to get a drink. I can’t even remember if I ate something as well. I think that I did. Oh, well, if I didn’t it was because I wasn’t hungry.

One thing that I did not mention earlier was that our group divided up for this stop. Some of us when to Blarney Castle while the rest of the group went to Blarney Woolen Mills. We then all met the bus in the parking lot for the Woolen Mills.

We found that at every stop, we had to wait for some one or a couple of people before we could continue on our way. This stop was no different. 

Ring of Kerry

A few days before our trip home, we went for a long bus ride. Part of this was the Ring of Kerry that we were taken on. The scenery is beautiful, but we had been travelling for six days, with stops at various tourist places. Mind you, we did appreciate seeing what Ireland is like and what their history entailed, but, I think that we were almost at the point of information overload, or scenery overload. I, personally, was definitely at that point as I don’t usually do tours. I usually determine where I want to visit, go there, maybe do a day tour or two, but I usually get to know a little about the place before continuing on. I do have a tendency to take a lot of pictures. Some people think that about a hundred pictures is a lot. I usually take in the neighbourhood of one to two thousand pictures so that I can go home, get rid of the blurry ones, choose the ones that show what I am trying to say when I do any sort of presentation.

Substitute driver so that Austin could have a day off.

Anyway, I don’t remember much about what we were told about the Ring of Kerry. I found that the Wikipedia tells it in a good way and I am finding it hard to paraphrase it. So, here goes:

“The Ring of Kerry (Irish: Mórchuaird Chiarraí) is a 179-km-long circular tourist route in County Kerry, south-western Ireland. Clockwise from Killarney it follows the N71 to Kenmare, then the N70 around the Iveragh Peninsula to Killorglin – passing through Sneem, Waterville,Cahersiveen, and Glenbeigh – before returning to Killarney via the N72.

Popular points include Muckross House (near Killarney), Staigue stone fort and Derrynane House, home of Daniel O'Connell. Just south of Killarney, Ross Castle, Lough Leane, and Ladies View (a panoramic viewpoint), all located within Killarney National Park, are major attractions located along the Ring. A more complete list of major attractions along the Ring of Kerry includes: Gap of Dunloe, Bog Village,Kerry Woollen Mills, Rossbeigh Beach, Cahersiveen Heritage Centre, Derrynane House, Skellig Experience, Staigue Fort, Kenmare Lace,Moll's Gap, Ladies View, Torc Waterfall, Muckross House, The Blue Pool, Ross Castle, Ogham Stones, St Mary’s Cathedral, Muckross Abbey, Franciscan Friary, Kellegy Church, O’Connell Memorial Church, Sneem Church and Cemetery, Skellig Michael, Beehive Cells and the Stone Pillars marking an important grave.^[1]

There is also an established walking path named The Kerry Way, which takes its own route, and a signposted Ring of Kerry cycling path which uses older quieter roads where possible. The Kerry Way roughly follows the scenic driving route of the Ring of Kerry.

There are numerous variations to the route taking in St. Finian's Bay and Valentia Island which the official driving ring misses (the official cycling route takes in Valentia Island). As well as beaches, it also offers the Gap of Dunloe, Bog Village, Derrynane House, the Skellig Experience Valentia Island, Molls Gap, Torc Waterfall, Muckross House, and Ross Castle.

"The Ring" is a popular day trip and numerous bus companies offer circuits during the summer months. As the narrow roads make it difficult for tour coaches to pass, all tour buses run in an anti-clockwise (or counter-clockwise) direction, traveling via Killorglin first. Some recommend that car owners travel in the opposite direction, going first to Kenmare to avoid delays caused by tour buses. Others advise traveling counter-clockwise to avoid having to pass the buses. In 2008 satellite navigation systems were blamed for directing bus drivers in a clockwise direction around the route.”

Ring of Kerry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Kerry

Here are a couple of pictures that I took at Ladies View.

Why I Work on My Family History

I have been working on my family history since January of 2011. I had retired from the military in the previous September, and finally got to the point that I had the energy to start working on it. Backing up a bit, I had an interview with Veterans Affairs Canada in late 2010 and the interviewer asked me some questions, then insisted that I stay home on a back to work program to recover from stress. It took me to the end of January to start.

When I first started, I didn’t know very much about how to research my family. I knew that I needed help learning what to do, so I joined a couple of family history groups, the Upper Ottawa Valley Genealogy Group in Pembroke, the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa, and the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. I joined the group in Pembroke so that I could develop contacts in the local area so that I could get next to immediate assistance with how to research. The BIFHSGO was an idea to join regarding British research, and the OGS, regarding Canadian research. I have learned a great deal from all three groups and am maintaining my membership as, eventually, I will be back in Ontario.

Another thing that I like to do to increase my knowledge about the researching end of things is that I love to go to family history conferences. For the first couple of years, I was able to go to one almost every month from late March/early April until September. I hope to, someday, go to one in England called “Who do you think you are? Live.” It is a huge conference that is now held in Birmingham. I use all types of conferences as education to develop the knowledge for my own family history and to help others.

You can learn a lot about your family if you can find the records. Sometimes the Spirit will influence you to do something that you don’t normally do. I have been influenced by the Spirit to google names of some of my ancestors. It is amazing what can be found this way. 

Because I did the research of many of my ancestors, I have been able to submit their names for temple work. I was able to be present when John’s baptism and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost was done. I had a chance to talk with the young man who stood as proxy for my grandfather's brother, John, for the laying on of hands and I told him a little about John. I didn’t know at the time, but that same young man is my eighth cousin.

When a Ron who was involved with family history moved away, he told Joyce to ask me to help her with her family history. When I was starting to resolve a problem that he should have looked after, I discovered that Joyce is related to me albeit very distantly. It made a huge difference for me as I thought that I did not have any family in the upper Ottawa Valley area. I had already learned about the family connections not far from Ottawa. 

Heavenly Father blessed me for my diligence in family history and helping others with it.

I can promise you that if you work on your family history, you will receive blessings. You will be led to the information that you need to complete temple work for these people. I have prayed to Heavenly Father to help me find certain information and, I have found that, if the time is right, you will find it.

I have also learned that these are not just names and place-names. The people whose names you find were living people. Without them, you would not be here. They made it possible for you to have a life here in Newfoundland. Yes, you may have problems of your own, but the problems may be there to help you to develop into the person that Heavenly Father wants you to be. Your ancestors were chosen by Heavenly Father with extreme care. He knows you better than you know yourself. Your ancestors have given you the physical traits that you need for your life. They did their best for you and all of their descendants. They may have slipped up, but we all know that no one in this life is perfect.

About a month and a half ago, there was a trip to the Halifax Temple. My husband and I did not go on that particular trip as we had a wedding in Ontario to go to and went to the Toronto Temple while we were there. During our visit to the Temple, we were able to seal fourteen couples for time and all eternity, ten sons and eighteen daughters to their parents. This was the first time that we have been able to do sealings as we had to wait for some of the ordinances to be completed. This does not entail just my side of the family. It was almost equally divided between Gordon’s and my families.

I came to the realization a couple of years ago that these people are waiting for us to do the temple work for them. We cannot do the work for our family unless we know who our family members are. And, when we do the work, they are very excited about it. Some of them have been waiting for hundreds of years. When I did the work for my grandfather’s sister, she was so excited that her emotions almost overcame me and I almost could not finish what I needed to do. I had to ask her to back off a bit so that I could complete it. She did and I finished it.

I do not have things like this happen all the time when I go to the Temple. However, I can say that I am happy for my ancestors whose work that I completed and know that I will see them on the other side when I get there. Because there is so much work to be done in my family and because I and my son, Stephen, are the only active members of the Church in at least one of my lines, I cannot do all the work myself. I came to the realization that I will always have more work to accomplish than I am capable of doing. So, the next best thing is to reserve the temple work and choose what I can get done, then share the rest with the Temple. This way, the work shared should be completed within two years.

So, you may possibly be thinking, “How can I have experiences like this?” I can give you an answer that you may not like. It is not called family history work and temple work for a reason. You will have to make a sacrifice if you are not interested in doing these things. You will have to sacrifice time and make the effort to work on your family history. For those of you in or close to a chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, there are people working in family history as consultants. 

One thing that you will find is that researching for ancestors may not be anywhere near as hard as it used to be. You will find that you may be able to do most of your research online. However, there will be times, when you will have to use the older methods such as sending to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City for microfilms and waiting for them to come in. You may find that you will still have to send letters but most of them can be sent by email. The recipients usually respond quickly. There are also paid websites that you can get free access to in your own homes. These include Ancestry, Find My Past, My Heritage, and one or two more. There are paid websites that you can access free of charge through the Family History Center which has a portal to about twelve or thirteen family history sites.

When you travel, you can visit places such as archives who have genealogical consultants who can give you personalized direction. They won’t do the research for you but they will suggest what you should do. I actually think that even though you can gather a lot from online websites, you should go to visit the places that your ancestors lived in, even if you don’t know the exact location. I went to Ireland in April on a family history trip that included some things for family members to do while we were researching. We only did research for four days, but we came away with information about how to continue our work. The rest of the time, we saw the land that our ancestors came from. We learned about the Great Famine and we saw some of the conditions of that time and of the time of troubles in Northern Ireland and saw some of the progression that our “cousins” across the water made over time. Every one of the researchers were of Irish descent along with some of the family members.

When I retired from the military, I did something that I had waited for over thirty years to do. I went and visited England. While I was there, I visited the farm that my fourth-great-grandparents, Joseph Armstrong and Mary Scott, owned in northern England. I felt so happy that I found it, I was crying. I almost felt like I had returned home, but this was only partly returned home as the other part was Ireland. I knew that I had to visit Ireland, too. Well, I did that with my brother in April. Two places that we visited was Galway City, which I strongly believe that our ancestors, John Robert Sanderson and Margaret Nesbitt, with their little family came through in 1830, and the other place was the harbour for Wexford City, which I believe our ancestor, John Jackman, came through in 1820. Nothing beats walking the land that your ancestors walked.

You can also involve your family with your research. I did a talk in Petawawa shortly before coming to Newfoundland about putting the fun into family history. I am going to give some of that now:

In the September 2014 issue of the Ensign, there is an article “Put the Family into Family History”. In this article, Sally Johnson Odekirk describes a number of ways to help your family become interested in family history. She had some of the same ideas that I would like to suggest.

You can have a competition with other families to see how many names that you can have prepared for temple work by the time the next temple trip happens.

You can have a competition with family members by giving each member that is old enough a different branch to work on to see how many names you can have prepared for the temple within a certain period of time.

You can assign each family member the name of an ancestor to see how much information that they can find within a certain period of time and have them introduce that ancestor at a family home evening.

Along with finding the information about the ancestor, find out what was happening in the world at that time. Was it during war time? If so, which war and what part did your ancestor play?

Along with the younger children, try doing some role playing about parts of the lives of some of your ancestors.

Take a family trip to a place where some of your ancestors lived. Walk around the community; take a tour of the local church that your ancestors would have attended; visit the cemetery that your ancestors are buried in. If you visit a cemetery, call ahead to find out what section, row and plot that your ancestors now reside in. It will make it easier to find them.

During family home evenings, tell the stories about your ancestors that you know. Your children want to know about them.

Plan or attend family reunions and find out what other members of the family know. They may not have all the correct facts, but they can give you some good leads.

If your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents are still living, have them write their life histories. Have them write about the family members that they knew. Also, have them write out the stories that they were told about the family. If they are not willing to write them out, ask if you can record them telling you these things. If they don’t agree to the recordings, ask if you can write them down so that when they are gone, you can still tell the stories for them. Then when you get home, digitize these things and keep them for you and future generations.

Sort out your family pictures, get them digitized, and share them with your family and extended family.

Family history is not about just collection the names and the facts. It’s about identifying your ancestors, praying about them, getting to know who they were, doing their Temple work for them and teaching your descendants about them.

I personally have found over 7,000 people. I can’t wait to meet them and the rest that I find while here in this world. I know that Heavenly Father loves us and wants to bless us. We will have rich blessings if we help our ancestors by finding who they were and taking their names to the Temple. We will be blessed to be able to find the information necessary for this work if we will just try. Heavenly Father is waiting for us to do this sacred work. Our ancestors are waiting for us to do this sacred work. We have already been commanded to do this sacred work. I cannot force you to do it. All I can do is to try to encourage you to do it.

Ross Castle

Ross Castle sits in Killarney National Park on the edge of Lough Leane which is Killarney’s lower lake. It is believed that Ross Castle was built in the 15^th century by O’Donoghue Mór and is the ancestral home of the O’Donoghue Clan. Ownership changed hands during the Second Desmond Rebellion to the MacCarthy Mór in the 1580s. The castle and its lands were leased to Sir Valentine Browne, whose descendants include the Earls of Kenmare.

During the Irish Confederate War, the castle was one of the last to be surrendered to Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads. There was a prophecy that the castle could not be taken until a warship could sail on the lake. Well, it was believed that it would never happen, but it did. General Ludlow accepted the surrender of the castle.

After the wars were over, the Brownes were able to prove that the heir was too young to participate in the rebellion and the castle and land was returned to them. One hundred years later saw a mansion built on the land near the castle, but also saw the exile of the Brownes due to a relationship that was too close to James II. The castle then became a military barracks and continued with that purpose until the 19^th century. The Brownes returned to the area, but did not return to the castle, instead building Kenmare House in Killarney.

There is still a legend that “O'Donoghue leaped or was sucked out of the window of the grand chamber at the top of the castle and disappeared into the waters of the lake along with his horse, his table and his library. It is said that O'Donoghue now lives in a great palace at the bottom of the lake where he keeps a close eye on everything that he sees.” (Wikipedia) If this is so, he must be amazed at the change in clothing over the years, and the change in customs, habits, and technology.

Castle Ross was built to be a defensive structure, to protect the people in the area in time of need, and to assure the people that they will be protected. The castle has an iron gate that can be lowered while the front door is closed, the exterior doors were two ply with the layers at 90° angles to each other. There was at least one murder hole, and slits for arrows, and later guns. There are other defensive measures. The tower was five stories high and can be quite formidable to the attacker.

Castle Ross is now run by the Office of Public Works and run tours seasonally. Tours for more than 10 people have to be prebooked. The following is the contact information for Ross Castle:

Telephone No: +353 64 6635851 Fax: +353 64 6635852 Email: rosscastle@opw.ie