If you ever get a chance to visit the wonderful County of Clare please do so. There are a number of beautiful places to visit and one of them is Bunratty folk park.
The folk park began in the early "60s when a farmhouse had to be demolished to make way for a new runway at Shannon International Airport. The house was taken to Bunratty and reconstructed brick by brick. Over time more and more structures were added illustrating the dwelling places of poor labourers, wealthier farmers, trades people and lords and ladies. A schoolhouse (this was Belvoir School which was my mother's first teaching post), a church, a post office, shops and a pub were added to complete the village.
At Bunratty you hear more American accents than Irish because the folk park is primarily designed for visitors. The preservationists who have created Bunratty Folk Park and other interpretive centers in Ireland are passionate about the story they have to tell, and recreations and reenactments bring history to life and stimulate the imagination in a way that books and pictures cannot.
The same goes for the castle banquet at Bunratty. It"s primarily a show for visitors, but what a show! Who could pass up a chance to dine in a beautifully furnished banquet hall, mellowed by mead and serenaded by exquisitely costumed harpers, fiddlers and singers? The food is excellent and the music is superb.
Also, sample the banquets at Knappogue Castle and Dunguaire Castle and the music night at the Bunratty Corn Barn. A visit to the Lough Gur Stone Age Cente, the Craggaunowen Bronze Age Project, and the Brian Boru Heritage Centre in Killaloe is a must.
A trip along the Atlantic coast through the area known as the Burren is also a must. It is a carboniferous limestone landscape with thousands of varieties of rare flowers, including acres and acres of wild orchids. Botanists come here from all over the world to study the unique combination of Arctic, Alpine and Mediterranean plants.
Back in 17th Century, General Edmund Ludlow wrote to his boss, English dictator Oliver Cromwell, that the geography of the Burren was interfering with his favorite pastimes: He said
"It is a country where there is not enough water to drown a man, wood enough to hang one, nor earth enough to bury him,"
And no I am not sponsored by the Irish Tourist Board I just miss it sometimes more than others and today is one of them.