First we went to Russborough House in Wicklow, about 30 miles south of Dublin. This was the largest private home in Ireland. It is 700' long. It was built in 1740 by the architect, Richard Castle. I'll aways remember that because of the TV show, Castle (one of my favorites). It has been lived in by only 3 families, from 1740 to 2005. That is amazing to me, only 3 families in 275 years. It opened as a museum in 1978, with the stipulation that no one would see the family quarters as long as they lived there.
It is amazing the architecture and workmanship back in those days. Everything was so ornate. We saw this everywhere we went.
I enlarged this picture to point out the small table to the right of the fireplace. This could lie flat or upright like it is in the picture. It would adjust to different heights. The makeup that people wore (even men) was mainly made up of wax. If you stood too close to the fire, the makeup would drip off your face. They would adjust the table height so that it would protect their face from the fire.
Notice how elaborate the floor designs were.
One thing I didn't get a picture of were the beds. They were very short. The reason for this is everyone slept in a sitting position. They had such elaborate hairdo's that people didn't want them to get messed up. Sounds uncomfortable to me.
We did so much that day that I couldn't put it all in one post.
On to Guinness.........
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