traveloehrs

“Come on dad we’re almost there!” I nervously look around to see if anyone had noticed us trespassing. A few sheep stopped grazing and eyed us but as far as I could tell we were in the clear. We streaked ahead and did our best to dodge the land mines of sheep poop that dotted the field. Somehow, I was not surprised that Junebug had peer pressured me into the situation.  

I had spied the cool looking castle from the road. “Woah! Look at that!” The kids were excited to see it, and Lianne snapped some pictures as we drove past. Junebug asked if we could stop. I ripped a U-turn to head back to where I had seen an open gate further down the field because I thought we could get a closer look from there. We got out of the car and Junebug begged to go further into the field. A few steps turned into us getting way past the gate. Junebug’s interest and persistence only grew. This is far enough I told her. “Come on dad, you always tell me to explore and try new things.” Dammit, maybe my kid does listen to me but the only time it is apparent is when she turns my words back on me. She continued to pester me to run across the field to the castle. “We need to go into the castle!” Junebug implored. I began, “I don’t think we should…” and as I said that I saw the hope and enthusiasm in her eyes. This caused me to capitulate and change the ending of my sentence to…“miss an opportunity to see a castle like this close up.” She jumped for joy and her delight was contagious. Truth be told I wanted to check out the castle anyways.

We ran towards the castle hooting like hyenas along the way. I stepped in sheep poo several times and Junebug did as well, but she was too entranced with the castle to notice. We made it to the entrance and ran inside. We explored the castle and even climbed the stairs (which I thought was a terrible idea). The ruins were amazing and no one else was there to share them with us, except the sheep in the field. After an hour or so of exploring we got back on the road. We were buzzing over the cool experience. I looked at Junebug in the rearview mirror, “Thanks for convincing us to explore and try new things!”

Check out the video from Ogilby’s Castle and our Ireland videos page for more from the Emerald Isle.