A bit of information about the castle and it's restoration:
We'd just gotten off the plane & made our way to the castle, so we really weren't up for a proper tour - although there was one just starting when we got there. However, we quickly gave these folks the slip & explored a bit on our own.
The very cool thing about Bunratty is that it is fully restored, so every room is full of period furniture & everything is laid out like it would be in a working castle. What we quickly realized was that for such a seemingly large edifice, the individual rooms were mostly small & the stairways were insanely tiny and narrow.
This is the part of the kitchen area, and then you have some of the dry storage. Those are dried herbs & a dead bunny drying by the fire, in case you can't make that out. 
The common areas were naturally much more spacious - and there were some extraordinarily large fireplaces. The photos really don't do them justice.
These are the stairs on the battlements, which obviously were barred to tourists - imagine running up those in the dead of night to ward off an attack!
As we wandered through the village areas, we got to see lots of animals - geese, ducks, deer, goats, pigs, donkey... again, we live in NYC - this really was cool for us.
So, there is a little black goat hanging out in the field with the deer family. And another little goat hanging out with a little herd of sheep there in the shadows (only saw sheep in shadows - and only laying down. Very odd.) What is it, I wonder, with goats and getting themselves adopted? (And anyone viewing this who remembers Gumdrop and Misty will know why Sarah finds this so interesting.)
Trust us, Eeyore's got nuthin' on this guy.
Heehee - Irish Bacon? Babe in Ireland?
And we couldn't forget our fair fowl friends: 
Including David (alright, it's foul in that case) looking thrilled at the obligatory tourist shot in the middle of town. By this time he had not slept in well over 24 hours and was quite ready to hit the road again and get a pint. But we weren't done yet!
These are the coolest trees! Don't they look fabulous for climbing? They were in the front yard of one of the working homes (inside there was a lady making the most amazing smelling Apple Pie!), so we thought it best not to...We eventually came to the school house in the village - which was divided by girls and boys schoolrooms. In the girls' room, there were desks and a blackboard, of course, 
but also the Irish version of the musical scales, 
and this extremely cool map of Ulster (look it up if you don't know what the Irish call Ulster, folks!) 
In the boys' classroom there was the usual stuff, as well as this blackboard which told the history of this replicated school house.
but also the Irish version of the musical scales, 
and this extremely cool map of Ulster (look it up if you don't know what the Irish call Ulster, folks!) 
In the boys' classroom there was the usual stuff, as well as this blackboard which told the history of this replicated school house.
As you can see from the photo above, each of the houses in the recreated village was furnished, and even had peat fires burning in the fireplaces. The effect was like in Williamsburg, VA - where you feel as though you've come to visit just as those living there have popped out for a bit.
This was a girl's room from up at the manor house.
Church of Bunratty - open for business. And last, but certainly worth waiting for, the laziest damn ducks ever!! Yep, ducks in a boat!
