Cashel

Cashel is a market town on the busy Cork-Dublin road, with a lengthy history as a center of royal and religious power. From roughly AD 370 until AD 1101, it was the seat of the Kings of Munster, and it was probably at one time a center of Druidic worship. Here, according to legend, St. Patrick arrived in about AD 432 and baptized King Aengus, who became Ireland's first Christian ruler. One of the many legends associated with this event is that St. Patrick plucked a shamrock to explain the mystery of the Trinity, thus giving a new emblem to Christian Ireland. By car, Cashel is on the busy N8/M8 road between Dublin and Cork. The road has recently been upgraded to a motorway for nearly the entire length of the trip, but at the time of writing one 20-mi section still needs to be completed. Dublin is 162 km (100 mi) or 2 hours northeast of Cashel on the N8/M8 and N7/M7. Cork City is 97 km (60 mi) or 1 hour 11 minutes south of Cashel on the N8/M8 and the N74.