Scenic highlights of Tipperary and Killarney

Wom at Ladies' View, originally uploaded by Racmol.

We flew into Waterford in a little propeller plane just before midday on Friday, and were treated to an envigorating landing in high winds. Waterford Airport is just a shack on the edge of a runway - it makes Dunedin Airport look serious and international.

Temo's expression when we arrived said as clear as day: "Not them again!" But we were undeterred, and settled in for a cruisy afternoon in Clonmel.

On Saturday Jeremy had to go to work, so the rest of us went to the farmers' market (very small) and then leapt in the car and drove to Cahir. Stopped in to see Cahir Castle, which was a pretty common-or-garden castle with not a great deal to see.

Drove on to Cashel for lunch and went up to see the Rock of Cashel, the ruins of an old fortification and church on top of a hill - a bit like Glastonbury Tor but with a much larger building.

Had to laugh at the Rock of Cashel's attitude to accessibility. The road up to the rock starts out on a moderate slope and then goes steeply upward, at about the same incline as the bottom half of Sutherland St. At the top end of this steep section, there is a disabled carpark. Found myself imagining the disabled person wheeling their wheelchair out of the car and then losing control...

Not to mention the fact that there are 12 stairs up to the reception and then another 10 steps or so up to the actual site. After Jules and Ruth had lugged the buggy up the first 12, Ruth asked the woman on reception if the site was accessible and she said 'Oh, yes, there's a couple of steps up from here but then everything's flat.' So they carted the buggy up the next flight of stairs, only to find that the rest of the site was covered in stairs, all over the place, and your only option for avoiding them was to climb up steep grassy slopes instead!

But anyway, the Rock of Cashel was more impressive than Cahir Castle - an amazing setting with views for miles around.

Later that afternoon we stopped in at an old pub in Fethard, where Temo had his first sample of Guinness. Didn't seem to make a good impression.