St. John's Castle
Probably within a half mile from my apartment is King John's castle, from the 12th century (who hasn't seen one of those, right?). So on Saturday, Sven and I went to pay a visit to the infamous king's castle. It had a lot of history behind it, in strategic location on the River Shannon and having changed hands many times between Normans, English, and Irish. It was cool to read about all that and see the remains of the original castle walls actual ruins from 11th and 12th Limerick dwellings (just don't ask me to recount all the history behind it).
One thing of note: to attack the castle, English invaders dug mines under the castle walls. Then, to weaken the walls, they would put flammable material in the mines, and set the whole thing on fire. In response to this, "countermines" were built on the inside as a means by which they could prevent this underground attack, so a lot of fighting was done under the castle.
Among other things, the corner towers of the castle offered great views of the city and surrounding landscape, which is where the above picture was taken.
One thing of note: to attack the castle, English invaders dug mines under the castle walls. Then, to weaken the walls, they would put flammable material in the mines, and set the whole thing on fire. In response to this, "countermines" were built on the inside as a means by which they could prevent this underground attack, so a lot of fighting was done under the castle.
Among other things, the corner towers of the castle offered great views of the city and surrounding landscape, which is where the above picture was taken.
posted by craichead at 2/06/2005 10:20:00 AM
1 Comments:
Saw the picture of you over the river - where was the hat?? I hope you wore it to the pub.
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