40 Days, 40 Churches

Day 25: St. Fachtnan's Cathedral, Kilfenora, Co. Claire, Ireland

We got a little lost on our drive out to the Cliffs of Moher, and wound up cutting through the edge of the Burren, an odd rocky bit of country. Figuring we had some time, we stopped at the Burren Center, which was OK, though many of the exhibits appeared to be at least as old as me.

Next door to the center is St. Facthnan's Cathedral, which as you can probably tell from the pictures isn't quite what it used to be. We didn't get much of a chance to look in the ruins, as there was some restoration work planned and most of the place was blocked off by scaffolding. It's a pretty impressive site nonetheless, and the standing crosses are pretty impressive, too. You'll notice in a couple of pictures a cross that's surrounded by a low pipe fence. That's to keep the cows away, apparently, as the field in which it stands was, when we were there, home to about 20 cows. Needless to say, we trod carefully when going to get a closer look.