Last week, I shared some highlights of our time in Dublin. This week, I’ll conclude the Ireland pictorial with some of the sights we saw on our way to Galway and back.

Our first stop as we left Dublin was the Kilbeggan Distillery, about an hour or two west of Dublin in the Midlands Region. This spot began producing whiskey back in 1757, and was in operation for two hundred years. It shut down in the mid-twentieth century, but was later refurbished and re-opened as a “boutique” distillery in 2007. What captured my imagination at Kilbeggan was an ancient steam engine, from the late nineteenth century. It still works, and gets powered up roughly once a year for special occasions. I imagined if I was ever in a post-apocalyptic, agrarian, Ireland — I’d want to find this engine. What for, I’m not sure. . .but that’s where some great story may be waiting to be told.

I didn’t get a picture of the engine, but you can see it on YouTube by clicking here. Here are some pictures I did capture:

Well, that’s it for Ireland! Back to our regularly-scheduled programming next week.