The trails are absolutely beautiful

First stop of the day was to head up to the parking lot for Torc Waterfall. From there, several trails lead in various directions. Most of them seemed pretty quiet, but there were quite a few people on the short waterfall trail. 

You can stay overnight at the waterfall parking lot, but there is no cellular access.

The trails are absolutely beautiful though. Very green, and with lots of rhododendrons and foxglove flowers.

Ruth, admiring the rhododendrons.

A bit of a view of the lake.

Me, at Torc Waterfall.

So we're standing there admiring the falls, and there are quite a few other people there. I noticed a guy had a cap with a Canadian flag on it, and another lady who's camera strap had Canada written on it. So I asked where they were from, and she said "Ottawa", which of course is our home town. So we have a little conversation, and it turns our they are actually from the village of Manotick which is where we will be house sitting in September. Small world sometimes.

We aren't really seeing (hearing, actually) many Canadians, although admittedly we are sometimes hard to distinguish from Americans. When we are doing tours, the guide will often ask where people are from, and there are a lot of American's visiting.

We set off on another trail up to a viewpoint...

Really beautiful forest trails.

Ruth, coming up the trail.

And NO bugs. Not a single one. I don't think we've seen a mosquito since we got here.

Another view of the lake.

Ruth and the flowers.

Foxgloves.

Me!

Another viewpoint.

We headed back down to Max, and drove over to the side of the lake to the parking lot for Ross Castle. This is another OPW site where we could use our English Heritage cards to avoid paying the €5 per person tour fee.

Ross Castle is a fully restored tower house. There were as many as 2,000 tower houses built throughout Ireland between 1450 and 1650. They are often called castles, although that's not really very accurate.

Ross Castle.

Lough Leane.

The part of the castle that faces the lake.

The castle was totally restored, and it was done using only tools and construction techniques that would have been available at the time of original construction. 

There are no nails or staples in the wooden roof structure. 

View from the top floor.

Ross Castle.

We had a fair amount of rain overnight, and it looks like we're in for some overcast skies the next couple of days. Still, the temperature is nice, with a high of 21C (70F) and a low of 14C (57F).

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