We had a really peaceful night’s sleep in the restaurant car park in Kilmore but we were up fairly promptly (but not that early as we are on holiday) as had lots to see and do. First stop was Tintern Abbey near New Ross, County Wexford. The abbey was built in the 12th Century by William Marshall, a Norman Knight and Earl of Pembroke, who made his money jousting and through a very lucrative marriage to Eleanor de Clare. It was a daughter house to the one in Wales and was inhabited by Cistercian monks until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in the 16th Century. Then it was taken over by the Coclough family who lived in it until the 1960s! Next to the abbey was the family’s beautiful garden (now all bequeathed to the Irish State). Amazingly tranquil.