Kitchen Bitch

We see at least one rainbow a day here in Ireland. Gorgeous.

Ireland Day 2: On the Road to Bansha Castle

We attempted to start our second day in Ireland bright and early, but rental car mishaps and directions from a confused local pushed our start time to noon. We piled into the three cars we rented and followed a kindly taxi driver to the highway. (Let’s just say we learned a lesson early on about getting around Dublin on our own.)

On our drive to Bansha Castle in Tipperary County, we stopped at Kilkenny to see the local castle and have lunch. We ate a local pub and then some of us went through the castle, while the rest of us just explored the beautiful grounds.

The Castle at Kilkenny

The grounds Kilkenny Castle

My siblings and I at the gardens in Kilkenny

We got back in the car and made our way to Bansha Castle, where we’re staying until next Sunday. The castle was just as beautiful as we hoped it’d be. I actually did a video tour of the castle, but you, my lovely readers, will have to wait until I can get that together.

Bansha Castle—our home for a week

My mom arranged for the castle’s caretakers, the Russells, to have beer, wine and dinner ready for us around 7:30 p.m., so we had time to unpack before meeting in the dining room on their side of the castle. We were so happy to have a homemade meal after all the airplane and pub food we’d eaten.

Dinner at Bansha Castle our first night staying there.

We started with smoked salmon (I forgot to take a picture), a salad, and Irish brown bread, and then Teresa served us Beef and Guinness Stew. Teresa promised to give me the recipe so I can pass it on to you.

Irish Brown Bread

Beef and Guinness Stew

We ended the meal with a very light and delicious cheesecake topped with raspberries. The Russells were already being so kind to us—we were blown away by their hospitality. We also drank a few too many bottles of wine and stayed up pretty late, so a long sleep was in order.

Homemade raspberry cheesecake

Day 3: Exploring Bansha

I managed to sleep until noon before my mom woke me up to go the grocery store. Several of us gathered groceries for the week because with the price and quality of food here, we knew we needed to cook several dinners to feed our crowd of 13.

The Roads to Bansha and Rossadrehid

Afterwards, my dad, cousin Meredith and I all decided to go out and explore the countryside surrounding Bansha. We found this beautiful spot near Bansha town.

Bansha Countryside

Next to Bansha is a small town called Rossadrehid, where there was supposed to be a lake. Although we hunted for the lake, we never did find it. But we did find some more beautiful scenery, as well as sheep farmer. The farmers had already sheared the sheep for winter and were giving them vaccines when we happened upon them. Look at those horns!

The rams at the sheep farm

These were the kinds of back roads we were trying to get lost on. We didn’t do a good job (of geting lost, that is), but we had a good time anyway.

The back roads of Bansha

We grabbed a pint at the local pub, O’Heney’s, before heading back to the house so I could start dinner. I made spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread and a salad for my hungry family. I did my best with what we had. I wasn’t too impressed, but the family seems happy and that’s all that matters.

A garden in the town of Rosendreid

After dinner we attempted to find a bar called The Foot, but the windy Irish roads are hard to navigate at night, so we simply returned to O’Heney’s for some Guinness and Jameson Irish Whiskey. Another great Irish night in the books.

The KB behind the bar at O'Henney's pub with dad and my cousin Meredith