Menlo Castle

One of the sights that was high on my list for Ireland was a castle. Jenn mentioned she had heard of some of her classmates visiting castle ruins nearby, but didn't know exactly where it was. I looked up some general directions online, and Andy and I decided to go on a little excursion to find it while Jenn went to class.



I had seen several of these speed limit signs, but hadn't gotten a picture yet. Since we were walking by one along the way, I thought I would snap a photo. A little different from the US.



There were few indications of the location of the castle since it is not really a tourist spot. We wandered through the tiny town of Menlo and saw what looked like an old stone entrance arch. We originally thought this road would take us to the castle, but soon realized we were going to have to do a little hiking across a cowfield (to the right in this photo) to get there. I thought the road was still pretty.



After crossing through some fields, we finally reached the castle.

The castle must have been quite the sight in its heydey, but looks pretty ghostly now. The castle was built in 1569, and was the home of the Blake family until it burned in 1910.

This hole in the wall gave us our first view of the accompanying stable building.

I thought this view of a tree along the River Corrib outside the castle was pretty.

Photographer Andy.

Climbing what used to be the main stairway in the castle.

Andy climbing the stairs.

Andy and I standing infront of the castle gives a sense of scale.

A view of the castle from the stable.

I used a tobacco colored filter to enhance the sunset look.

One last view of the castle before making the trek back.