Boyne Valley

So today was a day. We took a tour of the Boyne Valley, about an hour or so north of Dublin. I did not catch our tour guide's name, but he worked for Hilltop Treks, and he was excellent. Knowledgeable and enthusiastic without being overbearing. Our first stop was at Fourknocks Passage Tomb, a Neolithic burial mound at least 5,000 years old. That makes it about 500 years older than Stonehenge or the Pyramids of Giza. The pagans who built the mound were wise enough to align the doorway so that at the summer solstice, the rays of the rising sun would fill the chamber. It went untouched for millennia, then was excavated in the 1940s. Inside, they found cremated human remains and various stone tools, weapons, and artwork. Today the roof of the dome has been rebuilt and a modern lock and door have been added, and otherwise it is the same as when the archaeologists found it.

Our next stop was the Hill of Tara, ceremonial home to the High Kings of Ireland for thousands of years. This is the place the O'Haras in Gone With The Wind were thinking about when they named their plantation. Here is the gift shop. I just thought it was a cute building.

Here, at the Hill of Tara, our guide shows a burial mound similar to Fourknocks. This one contained bodies of young men who had not been cremated, and showed no outward signs of trauma. They believe these men were poisoned as a form of human sacrifice.

Archeologists believe that this stone, about four feet tall, was a fertility symbol. Heaven only knows how much midnight oil was burned to reach that conclusion. Legend says that if a High King knocks on it three times, the stone will cry out. I can confirm for all of you that I am not, sadly, a High King.

It's hard to show what the terrain of the hill is like from ground level. Google will show you a number of images taken from the air. But those who built it dug a series of ditches to form concentric circles. The hill is high enough that on a clear day (which this most certainly was not), you can see the mountains of east Galway on the opposite coast, nearly 100 miles away. I don't know how to say this without sounding corny, but it's an enchanting, haunting place.

A tribute to Daniel O'Connell, a 19th-century lawyer who led peaceful mass protests against English occupation, inspiring others like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Christians, as is their wont, waltzed on in and acted like they owned the place. The church of St. Patrick was founded by THAT St. Patrick some time in the Fifth Century. The current building was erected in the 1820s. It hosts the Hill of Tara's visitor's center, but services are also still held here, and the surrounding graveyard is still in use. 

This would be St. Patrick.

My snack from the gift shop. The soda was just odd, but the chips (sorry, "crisps") were excellent.

From there it was on to the village of Trim. The houses in the neighborhood are colorful and compact.

The real star here, however, was Trim Castle, built in the 12th Century, the largest Norman castle in Ireland. Scenes from Braveheart were filmed here, because the climate, topography, and ruins were similar to what you'd find in Scotland, and as our guide explained, "we were cheaper." 

A still-active church seen through a hole in the castle's walls.

Bridget poses in the Barbican gate. A drawbridge was lowered here across the moat, with multiple spots for archers and other soldiers to ward off attacks from invaders who attempted to cross said drawbridge.

Here you see narrow slits for archers in a corner of the castle bordering the River Boyne.

The central keep, the heart of the castle.

In the background here you see the ruins of a monastery, separate and distinct from the castle.

Bridget hiding in a tunnel. This space was also used to repel invaders daring to cross the river.

This is now the front gate of the castle's complex. I find it breathtakingly beautiful.

It's Vinny!

It's Bridget!

It's us!

Our final visit was to to Monasterboice, an early Christian settlement in County Louth. This is Muiredach's High Cross, built in the 9th or 10th Century. This side tells the tale of the Old Testament, with the New Testament engraved on the other side. (I didn't plan it this way, but it's virtually the same angle of the photo of the cross on Wikipedia.) So here we have artwork dating back more than a thousand years. Meanwhile, it's in the center of a graveyard that is still in use to this day. We found one grave for someone who died in 2013. Our tour guide dubbed it a "living graveyard," an oxymoron so powerful that it dizzied me.

Our guide noted that this viewpoint showed a round tower, a high cross, and Monastic ruins, and was thus one of the most popular photo ops in Ireland. So I took one. 

There is nothing particularly significant about these headstones aside from the fact that they look really cool lined up next to each other. 

Our night ended with dinner at our hotel, the Jurys Inn Christchurch in Dublin. We need to thank Brent Davis, Linda O'Connell and Paul & Anne Fontaine for our stay here. Thank you also to Lynne & John Lindberg for our dinner (including an absurdly delicious bananas brulee) and Barbara Miller for the drinks.

We need to thank Don & Kim Nachbaur for their substantial gift of Euros which have funded snacks, some transportation, and other small items throughout this trip. We also need to thank everyone who blessed us with gifts no particular experience in mind. You are the ones who paid for our tour today. We forgot that list at home, but rest assured that full, proper Thank Yous will be sent as soon as possible. For now, please know that we are truly grateful for your generosity.

Tomorrow is our bus tour of Dublin, as we finally have the opportunity to explore the city itself in depth.