Dublin, Day Two

Or the tomb builders....

Well I guess I did drink a bit too much last night, cause I woke up with a bit of a headache. Tamsin and I went into the city centre to grab some breakfast which helped a lot! We then decided to head about an hour north of the city to a place called Newgrange where there were these funky tombs around 5000 years old.

The drive out was nice, although there was a major match on that day between Dublin and someone else, so it was busy. But we eventually made it. We decided to get tickets to look at Knowth and Newgrange, two of the tombs available to view.

So we jumped on a bus bound for Knowth. When we arrived it really did look like just a big hill. It was pretty cool. The mound was absolutely huge, about 1.5 acres in size, and had been home to various groups of people, such as the original builders (of which little is known), Celts, early Christians and Normans. It was pretty impressive. Basically there were two entrances, one on the east side and one on the west. Both these entrances led to tombs in the centre of the mound and they think there was some form of solar alignment as well. So that at certain times of day, month or year when the sun is in a particular position it will illuminate the corridors and tombs! Pretty spectacular. Unfortunately the corridors were too damaged for us to go inside, but it was impressive walking around it and seeing the megalithic art left by the builders.

We then got on the bus to head back to the visitors centre before boarding another bus bound for Newgrange. This tomb was smaller, but more impressive. When the tombs were rediscovered in the sixties, there was a heap of quartz found around both tombs. One professor thought this was used to create a courtyard, so that is how it was restored at Knowth. Another professor thought it actually formed part of the outer wall of the tomb and restored it like that at Newgrange. This made Newgrange look a lot grander and impressive.

Also, at Newgrange you could actually enter the one corridor and walk down to the tomb. Also the entrance, corridor and tombs aligns with the winter (summer in Oz) solstice so that for approximately five days each year around December 21st for fifteen minutes around 9am the tomb is illuminated by the sun! Something that would be impressive to see.

After the tour we jumped back in the car and headed back towards Dublin. My flight was due to leave around 9pm, so we decided to grab some dinner at Howth before heading out to the airport. Unfortunately the traffic was so bad we had to give it a miss and head straight to the airport and eat there. Nonetheless it was a fantastic weekend. Dublin is a great place that I am going to have to head back to.




St. Patricks Cathedral.



Temple Bar Pub in Temple Bar.



Main Tomb and Knowth.



One of the mini Knowth Tombs.



Time for a break....



Some of the Megalithic Art.



A river somewhere....



Megalithic art at Newgrange.



More art.



The impressive Newgrange entrance.



Me!