Another beginning to the day with a run out from our Trim Castle Hotel in the very early misty morning but only 5km today.  I didn’t take the lovely Trim Castle River Walkway for fear of tripping over sheep in the dark so instead, I stuck to a few city roads and a venture out of town on a few partially lit country sidewalks.

We had two library shows today; the first a morning show in the town of Ashbourne about 30 minutes away from Trim and by the time we got there, it was pouring.  We unloaded up a few flights of stairs, had a speedy set-up only to find that the school that was supposed to attend our show had inadvertently forgotten about the outing to the library so we packed up and went to them.

Two classes of attentive seven year olds awaited us and before we knew it, we were were navigating our way (with some minor detours), for a 30 minute drive towards the town of Dunboyne (it looked less challenging to reach on the map than it actually was!).  None-the-less, we set up in record time and were tuned and ready by the time the two country schools were coming in. Another wonderful group of students and after a post-show treat to tea and sandwiches and a visit with the library staff, we were on our way back to Trim.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miraculously, the sun appeared as we began our return trip to the hotel, so after a 30 minute drive we whipped into the hotel for a quick change into ‘castle touring clothes’, and dashed across to Trim Castle for the last official tour of the day.   We had really wanted to get to doing this if we could before leaving the area tomorrow. It was a fascinating tour of the grounds and up many sets of winding stone steps up to the top viewing tower of the Trim Castle; the oldest Anglo-Norman castle in Europe. This castle was used in the filming of Braveheart, a fact that all of Trim still talks about.

After our tour (and taking advantage of  the rarity of sunshine), we went for a 5 km sunset walk along the river walkway, visiting with the sheep along the pathway, to the ruins of St. Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Once the sun had set, it chilled right down and we once again headed to Franzini O’Briens, this time for their specialty pizza. A very fine dinner and another very fine day indeed!