The Burren Posted on September 13th, 2009 by Kait Peterson

They kept us very busy during orientation and the week following.  So far we’ve done a bus tour of the Burren, and  the Connemara.  Which was a lot of fun, the beaches which make up a part of the Connemara are beautiful, and because it was briefly sunny when we were there it looked more like a beach that belonged in the Caribbean.   We got to see a couple of “fairy rings”, also thought to be strongholds, or what remains of them.  We also saw the only fjord in Ireland, which was pretty cool.  For an evening we learned Ceili dancing, which seems to be a cross between square dancing, and the waltz.

Part of the collection of buildings that makes up our school is a castle, Newtown castle which apparently is unusual because it’s round with a square base.  Everything about the castle is thought about for defense.  There is a shoot of sorts to drop rocks, and boiling hot liquids on you if you try to open the door, plenty of places to shoot arrows from, and  the square base helps prevent ladders from being propped against it and helps to aim stones at the heads of attackers.  We are taking a trip to Galway and Dublin soon so  that should be pretty sweet.