Kinvara

Just over the northern border of Clare, Kinvara in County Galway is our resting place to explore the Burran region. Apparently there is also golf there. It will have been a long drive from Blarney in County Cork, through Counties Limerick and Clare (although only a 45 minute drive from Shannon International Airport if you went direct without stopping. Who would do that?) 

On the way we'll visit Killofin, recently discovered home of my convict ancestor Mary Madigan. It is a village on the Shannon Estuary, and we might just take the ferry from Limerick to Clare to see it. We'll head up the west coast of County Clare past the Cliffs of Moher, looking to see the Aran Islands, and plenty of villages including Ballyvaghan where a nest of McGuiness' lived in the 19th Century. As yet I have not linked them to us.

My son not looking at the Cliffs of Moher, 2008

Kinvara 

We will do the medieval banquet at nearby Dunguaire Castle, and see Poulnabrone again. Hoping to get a bright picture like the one below, as it was very overcast when we were there in 2008.

Poulnabrone

Situated on the high Burren limestone plateau, Poulnabrone Dolmen is on of Ireland's most iconic archaeological monumens and is the second-most visited location in the Burran after the Cliffs of Moher. It is the oldest dated megalithic monument in Ireland. 

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According to FamilyTreeDNA estimates, Peter (and his siblings) are related to the YDNA of 3 Poulabrone bodies, with an estimated common ancestor 4100 BCE. We do not share a maternal haplogroup.

So lots of real family history to experience here. Many of the Lady Judge's pronouncements are made at Poulnabrone in Cora Harrison's excellent series of medieval Burren murder mysteries. Although now recognised as tombs, perhaps in medieval times it was seen more as a unique, flat area, where a large group of people could gather.