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Dunguaire Castle
In July and August 2005, I spent two weeks in Ireland. Most of it was with a tour group via a public radio station, before I stayed at a Dublin hostel for three days.
The medieval banquet last night was a delight.
Dunguaire Castle looks small compared to what I think of as a medieval castle, Caernarvon in Wales. So much for my limited experience with castles. Of cousre, I also saw castles on continental Europe, but they weren’t British or Irish. This is an Irish tower house.
Aaaand it turns out I misspelled the name of the castle: it’s actually spelled “Dunguaire.” I also wrote that it dates back to the seventh century, but no, it was built in 1520. Wow, so wrong. However, the family that built it is believed to have lived there since the sixth century.
We gathered into a room on the ground floor. Costumed performers served us mead, which we drank out of quaint pottery mugs. We drank while listening to a harpist, and the actors (two woman and one man, in addition to the woman harpist) introduced themselves as their characters and gave some historic background about the castle.
