Johnstown Castle Co. Wexford

This is a place we went to all the way back from our Wexford drop off. One of the things we learned about Wexford town during our drop off is that although very historical, there was little in the way of "touristy" things to do in Wexford. So we ended up having plenty of time on our hands and nothing to do. Once we figured out that there was a pretty castle just outside of the town, we called a taxi and went to explore it.

Unfortunately, by this time it was late afternoon, and the castle grounds would be closing soon, so we asked the taxi driver to pick us up in an hour and headed out to see what we could.

There was an Irish agricultural museum in these buildings, but it was closing so we didn't have a chance to go in.

We got quite excited when we saw this peacock. Little did we know that there would be plenty more to follow.

We finally headed out into the gardens to explore.

There was a beautiful lake with walled keep towers.

and on the other side a glimpse of the castle itself.

Where water is; there ducks are also.

We walked along the edge of the lake to the Castle.

We were unable to learn anything about the history of the castle, but from its size and ornateness, I imagine it was built by the Engish and/or more recently.

This castle definitely wasn't designed for defensive purposes.

I found a little path that led back to this mysterious section of land. It was a large rectangle several feet lower than the rest with ramps on either side. We've no clue what it is.

Pretty trees.

Small waterfalls

Another tree... with a far more interesting story

We'd been feeling mischevious all day. That combined with the fact that we had to take pictures documenting our drop off experience made for a humorous combination. We'd been thinking up funny stories to tell everyone when we got back which weren't precisely true...

For example, Becca had twisted her ankle some weeks earlier and was, therefore, limping around on crutches. So we took this staged shot. Our "story" is Meghann climbed the tree and wouldn't get down so Becca climbed up after her to get her down, they both fell out resulting in Becca re-spraining her ankle. This never happened, of course, but it was a fairly accurate example of something that could have happened.

But we didn't stop with that. We found statues and copied their poses. 

Becca copying this lady holding a fish.

Meghann posing as this lady holding fruit in her skirt ... somehow...

And Meghann, Rylie, and I as three children... doing something.

The view of the Castle from the other side of the lake was especially spectacular.

As promised there were many more peacocks. We saw whole flocks of them. Unfortunately, they were really difficult to get a nice picture of. Most of mine turned out blurry!

The grounds were closing at 4 and our taxi driver didn't arrive at our appointed pick-up point at the time he was supposed to, because Ireland. So we walked all the way out to the gates because we didn't want to be trapped inside when the such in the next 15 minutes or so. We were getting rather worried, but then he arrived and we had a great converation with him on the way back to Wexford.