Castles, ruins and gatehouses... Pic heavy.

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thaiturkey said:
Great pics., Sumi!

I think that most of the castle-like structures are left overs from the British occupation of Ireland. Some will be military and others will have been the Irish homes of English landlords.

If you get to Cork again, you might like to take a look at the old British gunpowder works between Inniscara and Ballincollig. You might also enjoy and friendly and down to earth evening with the locals at the Inniscara Inn.

If you venture, as you say you might, to the English/Scottish border, take a look at the length of Hadrians Wall and the Roman Villa at Corstopitum.
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Thanks, TT. DH said the same about the castles. I want to research their origins and age sometime, but I don't know where to start! LOL There are so many of them. We do need to go to Cork city again sometime and if we have time I'll go check out that place. I'm planning a trip to the UK sometime in the future, but I'll have to find out if they'll give me a visa first. The Brits are very difficult at the moment and a friend of mine recently got refused a tourist visa because he used to stay in England years ago. But I'll see how things go and in the meantime explore ireland bit by bit. I haven't been out and about much after we had a near-incident with a fox, I've been chicken sitting. We got them a new run now, so I can go out again without worrying. We want to go for more long drives before school starts next week.
 
The Irish way down south may be wary of strangers until they know what they are about. Some of that may be a hang over from 'The Troubles' and some is due to the drug traffic that crosses the Atlantic. The locals at Inniscara knew everything we did for the first few days of our first trip until they were sure that we really were there for the salmon and Murphys.

UK visas can be very difficult to get and it's a constant complaint for British expats. here who want to take their wives home for a vacation. You might consider disguising yourself as an East European potato picker. That will get you into the UK easily.
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Now how would I go about doing that? LOL Our emigration to Ireland was so simple and it didn't cost a cent. Amazing compared to the UK!

We've noticed all the signs saying you must "dial this number" if you see anything suspicious. Smuggling must be huge here!
 
The UK is trying to limit illegal immigration which has been a problem in recent years. One favourite way to get into the country is to get a visitor visa and then disappear. Unfortunately, the tightening of visa rules affects the innocent as well as the guilty. However, assuming that you are an American couple and have financial means, you should have no problem other than the rigmarole of the application process itself. The Border Agency is mainly interested in seeing that you have the means to support yourself, return travel arrangements (just a written quote from the internet is acceptable from Thailand) and reason to return whence you came (such as a home, job or business).

Drug smuggling does seem to be a big problem. On my first trip, car licence plates were checked by police in Wales as we waited to drive on board the ferry for the Pembroke-Rosslare crossing. Oddly, we were never checked in subsequent years when we used the Swansea-Cork ferry. As I mentioned previously, a big proportion of the smuggled drugs are destined for the UK and Europe.

The threat of terrorism is still a concern in the Republic and you are probably aware of the worrying re-emergence of violence in the North. Perhaps the observation of foreigners is not so great now as it was during the late '90's when we made annual trips. On one occasion we accidentally caused a full security alert and may have been detained if we were still around when the Garda turned up fully armed. We had driven down a track on the southern side of Inniscara Dam to check for suitable fishing spots and walked out on the rocks looking and pointing around us. We were there for just a few minutes but the guys in the hydro plant reported us as two suspicious characters checking out the dam itself. They thought that we may be planning to blow it up, it seems! That evening in the Inniscara Bar we were asked if we had been across to the other side of the dam and, having confirmed it, were told what happened after we left. Luckily, we had been accepted as no more than English fishermen for the previous couple of years but I'm sure that the conversation in the Bar was reported to the Garda the same evening. Perhaps one of the off duty officers in the Bar was already listening.

Back to your main topic. There are some castles in Wales worth visiting. They are also left-overs from English occupation but much older. England too has some very old castle ruins that may interest you and justify the effort of getting a visa. Here are my personal favourites:

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/corfe-castle/

http://www.haddonhall.co.uk/

Here's a full list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_castles_in_England

It may be worth your while joining the National Trust before you go:

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/
 
Thank you for the links!

I was quite surprised by the visa regulations and the changes. We planned our trip for more than 2 years and every few months they'd come up with a new regulation to make it more difficult for us. What made me really mad is that they allow people with no links to Britain in and let them stay, but British citizens cannot return with their non-Brtitish wives without meeting the most ridiculous requirements. We were finally told that my husband, who is English, cannot go stay in England with me and our son, because he didn't earn an absolute fortune every month. Having money in the bank wasn't enough, he had to earn a large amount every month for 6 months at least before we could apply, pay a huge amount of money for the visas and wait months for that to be processed and then the hassle continues once we're in Britain. Ireland on the other hand was a breeze. We didn't need visas for starters. We came here, went through customs with no hassles, rented a house here, went to the local Garda station where it took about 10 minutes for them to take my details, check our wedding certificate, passports and give me permission to remain. They didn't ask for proof of funds, nothing! And it didn't cost us a cent.

But at the end of the day things worked out well for us. I'm glad we came here instead. Ireland is amazing, the people are lovely, the country's lovely and the weather is better than in England
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Tell me about it! There are wives of Brits. here who have been refused visas after being given one in previous years. We use an agency to do all of the work for us and I'm sure that some of the fee is used to grease a palm or two in the company that vet the applications for the Consulate. I'm surprised that it's as tough for yourselves. As for refusing your English husband permission to travel with you, I don't understand that. How could they refuse him? Perhaps there are visa agents in Ireland you could have a word with.

Ireland's weather is milder than the British mainland because of the Gulf stream. It's darned wet, though! The people, as you say, are lovely. So is the stout and the sea-fresh salmon. Sadly, Ireland is on the economically disabled list nowadays thanks to the Eurozone nonsense.

You mentioned Blarney Castle earlier. It's commercialised so don't expect it to be like the other ruins you have seen. My fishing companion and I had a laugh in the linen shop there over something typically Irish. I was choosing a shirt to buy and asked about the sizes. The assistant said, 'We have only two sizes; extra large, large, medium and small'. We fell over laughing but the explanation was that the sizes are extra large/large and medium/small. Still amusing but more logical than the way we read the answer the first time.

I hope you make it to England with your camera.
 
Sorry you misunderstood. He can go to England, he has a British passport. What I meant was he can't take us with him, we are apparently not welcome, unless he brings enough money with to look after us. Though I don't understand their logic. What's the difference between earning lots monthly and having lots in the bank?

I would like to see the famous Blarney castle, though I hope it won't be as disappointing as Kilkenny castle. It's lovely on the outside, but once you go in... Rather hang on to your Euros and skip the inside. I prefer castles to look and feel ancient. Stone walls and small windows... Not OTT decorating and "pretty pretty" as DH described it.

I must say I agree on the beer and the fish here. The fish here is great, fresh and plentiful, but the red meat leaves a lot to be desired. We bought mince at the supermarket once. Lets just say not even the neighbour's dog was impressed!
 
Ah, I see. The family was refused visas.

The reason is an odd one. The Immigration people insist that there is a sponsor. It can be spouse, fiance or someone in England who can show means to support the visitor. No minimum amount is indicated. They look for income and bank balance. I don't know of any examples over here where the sponsor hasn't had money in the UK so that might be a requirement and why you had a problem. I would have thought they would accept an assurance from your husband that he would make sure he had sufficient funds available during the trip and that the non-British members of the family had travel insurance that included medical expenses.

The restriction on visitor visas is a constant source of complaint amongst the married British expats. here and a disgrace when you look at some of the people who are allowed to migrate to the country. Britain is obliged by the EU to allow in any EU citizen to work or live off the State welfare system. There are also radical Muslim clerics preaching hate for Britain living there. One famous one resisted deportation to the US on terrorism charges for years thanks to the Courts of the UK and EU.

If you still wish to get a visa, see if there's a good visa agent who can help. How about these people:

http://www.globalvisas.ie/

Sorry to go off your topic but I hope it helps.
 
thaiturkey said:
Ah, I see. The family was refused visas.

The reason is an odd one. The Immigration people insist that there is a sponsor. It can be spouse, fiance or someone in England who can show means to support the visitor. No minimum amount is indicated. They look for income and bank balance. I don't know of any examples over here where the sponsor hasn't had money in the UK so that might be a requirement and why you had a problem. I would have thought they would accept an assurance from your husband that he would make sure he had sufficient funds available during the trip and that the non-British members of the family had travel insurance that included medical expenses.

The restriction on visitor visas is a constant source of complaint amongst the married British expats. here and a disgrace when you look at some of the people who are allowed to migrate to the country. Britain is obliged by the EU to allow in any EU citizen to work or live off the State welfare system. There are also radical Muslim clerics preaching hate for Britain living there. One famous one resisted deportation to the US on terrorism charges for years thanks to the Courts of the UK and EU.

If you still wish to get a visa, see if there's a good visa agent who can help. How about these people:

http://www.globalvisas.ie/

Sorry to go off your topic but I hope it helps.
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Thanks, TT.
 
More pics! Found a 15th century (or older) church ruin today. Part of it was rebuild in the 19th century.




















 

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