On the 3rd day of my parents visit they went to see the Irish National Heritage Park and the Irish Agricultural Museum and Johnstown Castle. They told me they enjoyed the visits. I won't go into detail on the places. If you have not read my blogs on them check them out here http://www.turfnet.com/blog/17/entry-642-irish-national-heritage-park-sod-work-graiguenamanagh/  and http://www.turfnet.com/blog/17/entry-648-agriculture-a-history-of-time/. While they were on visits at work I was fertilizing the putting course. I will talk later about the work put into the putting course for the summer so far. New to the tank was a seaweed based organic product to help increase microorganism activity.

After work we went to Kilkenny Castle. The castle was built by William Marshal, the 4th Earl of Pembroke during the early 1200s. Eventually the Castle became the home of the powerful Butler family for almost 600 years. James Butler bought the castle in 1391 and the Butler's kept ownership until 1967. That was when Arthur Butler presented the castle to the people of Kilkenny for only 50 pounds. By that time the castle had very little inside since the family sold almost all of the contents in a 10 day auction in 1935. The castle itself is magnificent. Comprised of 4 floors; a medieval foundation level, ground floor, 1st floor and 2nd floor, the castle has many rooms of all sizes. For me the best room was the picture gallery wing because the portraits were amazing and it made me think about how hard it must have been to paint the murals on the ceiling. The grounds were impressive as well and the gardens skillfully laid out.

Tomorrow I begins the 4 day journey we took from Northern Ireland down to Cork.