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Trip Start Aug 23, 1996
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Sunday, August 19, 2007

After a nice sleep, we dived in the car and headed of towards our next destination. The drive was great and the scenery was how I imagined Ireland to be. Green everywhere. Even the sun came out. Then we crossed the border, and even the island that some call Ireland that is in the UK was as pretty as the last. Thankfully, the border came into view and we crossed back into Ireland. And a couple of hours later, we were pulling into the New Grange Visitors Centre. We were here because there were two huge burial mounds/cairns, and the only way to see them is via a tour.


Knowth

Being the geeks that we are, we grabbed the front seats of the bus. Actually, it was a good thing because we were the first ones through the gate and we were able to take photos without other punters being there. Basically, the tomb is around 5200ish years old. All around the outside are another seventeen tombs, some with entrances. On the main one, there are two entrances opposite each other. We were let partially inside one, but there wasn't much to see. Outside around the whole tomb are stone slabs with rock art. Apparently, the same art has been seen on tombs in Spain, France and England, but not to the extent of this tomb. The guide gave us her idea of what it meant, whilst a French lady gave us hers. I had a look and thought you would need to be on some pretty wicked drugs to see what they saw. I thought they were just lines engraved into the rocks !!! Realistically, you are only given an hour, and forty minutes of that was on the tour. The twenty we had, we ran to the top of it, and a quick circular tour, and then it was time to get back on the bus

New Grange

Another bus took us to what some would call the premier site. It's another huge tomb with an entrance, however the entrance way is special. For the five days of Winter Solstice, the sun shines all the way up the tunnel. Pretty impressive for something that is over 5200 years old. Once again we had to do a tour, but we only had ten minutes to run around on our own, so we tried to take as much in as possible. There is a set of standing stones around the outside and a couple of little tombs as well. The also told us that in the winter, you can see Dowth and Knowth from here, and the same from the other sites, but as we are in the middle of summer, we had no chance. There was one repetative engraving, three interlocking circles. The guide gave us a couple different stories, and that's when it hit me, they were all on drugs. How the fuck do they see these things !!! And with that, our tour of the two sites was over. If we did go back, we would catch the bus out there, but walk back. We didn't have enough time to take it in. Oh well, you learn from your mistakes !!!

Dowth

Around five minutes drive away is the last tomb. Dowth. This site hasn't been restored, so we were unable to go into the tunnels. It did feel more realistic as there were sheep running around and you were able to climb all over it. There was one slab with engravings but it was pretty hard to see it as it was fenced off. I did enjoy being here, I think it was the freedom

Hill Of Tara

Whilst driving back to Dublin, we saw some signs for The Hill Of Tara. It use to be the home of the old King's of Ireland. There were a couple of earthwork circles and a grass mound tomb kind of thing. Personally, it didn't feel very special, but it must have something because the site was inundated with people of all nationalities !!!

Looking back over the last two days, it had been loads of fun. So different to our usual Roman or WW history tours. Maybe this woman back at Bignor had been right and we needed to get a life, so now it's just a matter of finding one.

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001 Small Cairn at Knowth 001 Small Cairn at Knowth 002 3 Small Cairns at Knowth 002 3 Small Cairns at Knowth 003 Lucy at Knowth 003 Lucy at Knowth 004 David at Knowth 004 David at Knowth
005 Small Cairn at Knowth 005 Small Cairn at Knowth 006 Entrance to a Cairn at Knowth 006 Entrance to a Cairn at Knowth 007 Old Cairn at Knowth 007 Old Cairn at Knowth 008 Rock Art at Knowth 008 Rock Art at Knowth
009 Rock Art at Knowth 009 Rock Art at Knowth 010 Rock Art at Knowth 010 Rock Art at Knowth 011 Rock Art at Knowth 011 Rock Art at Knowth 012 Rock Art at Knowth 012 Rock Art at Knowth
013 Rock Art at Knowth 013 Rock Art at Knowth 014 Entrance into Knowth 014 Entrance into Knowth 015 Entrance Stone at Knowth 015 Entrance Stone at Knowth 016 Side View of Knowth 016 Side View of Knowth
017 Cairn at Knowth 017 Cairn at Knowth 018 Rock Art at Knowth 018 Rock Art at Knowth 019 Two Cairns at Knowth 019 Two Cairns at Knowth 020 Rock Art at Knowth 020 Rock Art at Knowth
021 Two Cairns at Knowth 021 Two Cairns at Knowth 022 Tunnel at Knowth 022 Tunnel at Knowth 023 Tunnel at Knowth 023 Tunnel at Knowth 024 Tunnel at Knowth 024 Tunnel at Knowth
025 David on Top of the Cairn at Knowth 025 David on Top of the Cairn at Knowth 026 Lucy on Top of the Cairn at Knowth 026 Lucy on Top of the Cairn at Knowth 027 New Grange in the Distance 027 New Grange in the Distance 028 David on Top of a Cairn at Knowth 028 David on Top of a Cairn at Knowth
029 Main Cairn of Knowth 029 Main Cairn of Knowth 030 Lucy on Top of a Cairn at Knowth 030 Lucy on Top of a Cairn at Knowth 031 Lucy in Front of a Cairn at Knowth 031 Lucy in Front of a Cairn at Knowth 032 Cairn at New Grange 032 Cairn at New Grange
033 Little Cairn at New Grange 033 Little Cairn at New Grange 034 Entrance Stone at New Grange 034 Entrance Stone at New Grange 035 Entrance Way at New Grange 035 Entrance Way at New Grange 036 Rock Art at New Grange 036 Rock Art at New Grange
037 Side View of New Grange 037 Side View of New Grange 038 New Grange Cairn 038 New Grange Cairn 039 Lucy at New Grange 039 Lucy at New Grange 040 David at New Grange 040 David at New Grange
041 Standing Stone at New Grange 041 Standing Stone at New Grange 042 Side View of New Grange 042 Side View of New Grange 043 Side View of New Grange 043 Side View of New Grange 044 Standing Stones at New Grange 044 Standing Stones at New Grange
045 New Grange Cairn 045 New Grange Cairn 046 New Grange Cairn 046 New Grange Cairn 047 Dowth Cairn 047 Dowth Cairn 048 Entrance Way at Dowth 048 Entrance Way at Dowth
049 Tunnel at Dowth 049 Tunnel at Dowth 050 Entrance Way at Dowth 050 Entrance Way at Dowth 051 Dowth Cairn 051 Dowth Cairn 052 Dowth Cairn 052 Dowth Cairn
053 Tree at Dowth 053 Tree at Dowth 054 David on Top of the Dowth Cairn 054 David on Top of the Dowth Cairn 055 New Grange Cairn in the Distance 055 New Grange Cairn in the Distance 056 Lucy on Top of the Dowth Cairn 056 Lucy on Top of the Dowth Cairn
057 On Top of the Dowth Cairn 057 On Top of the Dowth Cairn 058 Dowth Cairn 058 Dowth Cairn 059 Dowth Cairn 059 Dowth Cairn 060 David at the Hill Of Tara 060 David at the Hill Of Tara
061 Hill Of Tara 061 Hill Of Tara 062 Celtic Cross at the Hill Of Tara 062 Celtic Cross at the Hill Of Tara 063 Hill Of Tara 063 Hill Of Tara 064 Hill Of Tara 064 Hill Of Tara
065 Lucy at the Hill Of Tara 065 Lucy at the Hill Of Tara 066 Hill Of Tara 066 Hill Of Tara 067 Statue at the Hill Of Tara 067 Statue at the Hill Of Tara
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Comments

thistlemoon
thistlemoon on Sep 2, 2007 at 05:06PM

awesome!
hey David! This really brings me back to the time I spent in Ireland. My ex-husband was Irish and we spent our honeymoon driving aroudn the countryside and spent a lot of time in these parts. One of the coolest places we went to was the Cat Stone in Westmeath. We spent a couple of days in this wonderful B&B run by a German couple on an organic farm. It really was the best part of the trip! You guys should go there if you get the chance. It was pretty magical and I bet you will feel like you are on drugs if you go there!

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