From Waterford to Killarney, via spooky ghost estates

The waterside town of Waterford offered us a lot of water, in the form of rain, and quite a few pleasant waterside pics:

 We started to see the first of many houses with thatched roofs ...

 And some tiny houses that were less than a car-width wide.

Maybe this little orange house was even smaller ...

 So many beautiful churches with great looking bells and crosses.

 Jack and I were both very taken with the masses of beautifully made dry stone walls and, of course, the gorgeous cows behind the walls.

Couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to live in a place called "Kill" or be killed in place with a name like this.

 Never got tired of seeing thatched houses, hedges and stone walls.

I have started a collection of shop names with typical Irish names ...

Then we found this sweet little village named Stradbally that was characterised by it's thatched cottages - old and new. The strangest thing about this village was a circle of gorgeous thatched cottages that were completely empty. We found out from the local store that these cottages were built in "the good times", about 10 years ago when money was flowing, but none of them ever sold because "the bad times" hit. Such a shame as they are all just about finished, lovely landscaped gardens now becoming overgrown, and what we'd imagine to be a fantastic community atmosphere if only people were living in them.

  

We drove along the scenic Copper Coast from Stradbally towards Dungarvan.

The coastal town of Dungarven offered us another lovely old church with ruins and a cemetery by the sea. The ruins were of an old abbey of the Hermit Augustines which dated back to 1290.

On the way from Dungarven to Killarney, we noticed more and more signs in Irish (Gaelic Irish), and some more spectacular coastal scenery, with many, many hedges too!

Found the sweet little town of Youghal (pronounced "yawl"), where Moby Dick was filmed in 1954. 

Plenty of shops with Irish surnames ...

Like many of these small villages throughout Ireland, there were plenty of ruins scattered throughout the modern buildings.

 One of our favourite sights in the city of Cork:

We arrived at the Crystal Springs B&B in Killarney where we stayed the next two nights.