Day 13: A Monday Holiday Outing

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Day 13
Pierce and Niamh have taken the day off to serve as our tour guides. I am so very excited because this is the day we will go to Newgrange. There is so much to see and do here in the Valley of the Boyne, but I have particularly looked forward to visiting the passage tombs of Newgrange.

We arrive a little later than anticipated: it was yet another late evening with Niamh’s parents, although Conor, our “Drinking Consultant” has not re-appeared. The other members of the family reunion have gone their separate ways, and the boys are in school today, so we are off on an adult outing. Niamh tells us stories of school trips to Newgrange and playing on the mounds of the passage tombs and crawling through the ditches. Today, it is quite different. The site is carefully protected and access is controlled by scheduled tours that arrive by bus. We have two tours scheduled: first to Newgrange and then on to Knowth.

Our guide, who turns out to be the bartender from the pub we visited Friday night, tells us that Newgrange is a Megalithic Passage Tomb which covers over an acre of space. It was built around 3200 BC, pre-dating the Great Pyramid of Giza, Stonehenge, and the Mycenaean culture of ancient Greece. As the original white quartz and granite facing had tumbled down over the years, what we veiw is a recreation of the facade using the original material as much as possible with a hope that it reflects the original style . The interior passage, which actually ascends from the entryway although it feels as if you are going down into the earth, leads to a cruciform chamber about 27% of the way into the mound. Above, once in the chamber, there is a corbelled roof of carefully fitted, thank goodness, levered rocks. It is most famous for the shaft of light that enters the chamber and illuminates it for 15 minutes or so on the sunrise of the winter solstice. Around the tomb are wonderfully carved kerbstones of a local slate-like stone called greywacke. There are also standing stones around the mound, but it is thought that these were added much later.

And then, it is time to enter the passage: it is dark, cool, low, and close-sometimes we are squeezed by pillars of rock on either side as we make our way in. Once inside, the vault of the roof is truly spectacular—although a little scary….what if?? Each of the small chambers contains a stone basin. In one chamber is one of the site’s most famous carvings: the tri-spiral, or triskele that imitates that on the entrance stone. Then it is time to turn out the dim lights for a recreation of how the light enters the tomb through the roof box on sunrise at Winter Solstice. We wait is total darkness and then slowly, the beam of light enters the passage and illuminates the far chamber. It is goose-pimply spectacular.

We have a bit of time to wander about after the tour and before we catch the bus back to the Bru na Boinne Visitor Centre for a bit of refreshment while we wait for our tour of Knowth.

Knowth was built after Newgrange, but has a longer history of human activity, having been used as a place to live, a burial site, and long after its use for ceremonial activities, as a settlement and housed an early Christian church. During the conquest of Meath, the Norman invaders used Knowth as their military base. The site is made up of The Great Mound and at least 18 smaller Satellite Mounds, at least two of which were built before the Great Mound. Around the Great Mound are 127 kerbstones, and like Newgrange, most of them are richly carved. On the eastern side, there is a reconstruction of a Timber Circle, which was originally built around 2500 BC. A room within the mound has been reconstructed to allow a view into the eastern passage. Unlike Newgrange, one can take photos inside and it is not as claustrophobic. It also allows a view of the Early Christian Era defense ditch—the same ditches that Naimh played in on school trips, which brings us right up to the present day.

It is time to say goodbye to the Collins family. They have been wonderful hosts, but as I tell them, “After three days, fish and house guests start to stink.” So with big hugs, handshakes, and sadness, it is time for us to head out to Trim, County Meath, where we check in to Cranmoor House, and have a lovely dinner at The Dunderry Lodge and Restaurant.

We already miss Niamh, Pierce, Ronan, Nial, Daragh, Mary, Noel, and yes, even Conor.

Good night.

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Photos

The River Boyne
The River Boyne surrounds the site of Bru na Boinne on three sides.