Thursday 17^th July                      SKERRIES  -  TARA  -  SLANE  -  BRU NA BOINE

Well, today has been a massive tour through Ireland’s pre-history. We’ve been back 5 and a half thousand years in a day and walked in the footsteps of our Irish ancestors. And can I just say that the aforementioned walking has been plentiful and tiring – we are all fairly much exhausted tonight!

Our first stop this morning was the legendary Hill of Tara, in the Boyne Valley (significantly greener than that of the Queensland Boyne.) It took just under an hour to drive there, and when we arrived, we had a look at the lovely gift shop there, then had morning tea in Maguire’s before heading to the visitor centre in the old church on the hill. We found that there was a tour at 11, which we decided to take. Experience has shown us with prehistoric sites that you really do need a guide, otherwise you’re just wandering around lumps and bumps and standing stones. The tour started with a video, which was excellent for explaining the background, and showing us the aerial view of the site. Then we put on our wet weather gear (it was very overcast) and headed out.

                                                              Tara Visitor Centre

                                                                  St Paddy

                                            There were two adorable donkeys in the field!

Tara has been a centre for meetings and assemblies, and for many centuries was the place where Ireland’s kings were crowned. According to the legends, the Stone of Destiny there would let out a mighty roar when touched by the rightful king (I’m not quite sure how they managed that….) Our guide, Steven, was great at explaining it all. The site began with a passage tomb in the late stone age, then the Irish kings appropriated it, and even St Patrick visited it, so it became part of Christian tradition too. We really enjoyed the tour and having it all explained to make sense of such a complex site. We were lucky in that the rain never really set in, but it was decidedly damp and chilly for a while.

                                                                         Shamrocks!

                                                               Carvings in this passage tomb

     Proof positive that none of us is the true High King (or Queen), as the stone remained silent.                                                                  Sad, but probably not surprising!

                                         Tara is a huge and complex site.

By now it was lunch time, and we had made bookings for a tour at Bru Na Boine, the Newgrange centre, at 3pm, so we headed in that direction. While driving through Slane, a Google search showed food ahead, so we found a park and went to investigate Conyngham’s Hotel, which is one of the prettiest pubs I’ve seen. Unfortunately, it turned out there was a wedding there (we wondered why everyone was dressed to the nines for a pub lunch!) so we went up the road to Silly Sid’s. Obviously in an old hotel building, it was open for business and gave us a lovely lunch.

                                                                      Silly Sid's of Slane

We made it to Bru Na Boine in good time, and booked in for our tour. They bussed us from the visitor centre first to the prehistoric site at Knowth, which has a huge mound containing 2 tombs, and 19 satellite smaller tombs. By now the rain was really threatening again, but our guide whipped us around with an eye to the weather. We got to go up on top of the huge mound – rainy, very windy, but wonderful views! After this, we went across the road to the centre there to watch a video about the site. Then it was back on the bus, and off to Newgrange.

                                                            Boyne River

                                                    Passage tomb opening at Knowth

                                                    View from the top of the great mound

                                          It was good to see the site in a bird's eye view

Newgrange is a truly amazing site – it’s a Neolithic passage tomb, so five and a half thousand years old. It was excavated and the outside walls rebuilt in the 1960s, but the interior has not been altered at all (apart from the graffiti by morons over the centuries until the government assumed control and locked it up.) It’s on a rise above the Boyne River, so it dominates the skyline. We got to go inside, which was a wonderful experience to see how well built it was. Sadly we couldn’t take any photos to show you, but if you ever get to Ireland, it is worth the trip.

                                              With our tour guide at the entrance to Newgrange

                                                View back down the Boyne Valley

Newgrange

By now, it was nearly 6pm, so we were glad to get the bus back to the Visitor Centre and head off. Our original plan had been to have dinner somewhere on the way home, but we were all fairly shattered, so we stopped at Tesco’s on the way home to pick up a very easy tea – soup for Lex and Jo, and ready cooked spag bol for me. We will all sleep well tonight!