Dublin and Newgrange

Newgrange
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Angie and I set off for Dublin from Bristol airport, arriving in Ireland just 40 minutes later. It had taken longer than that to drive to the airport! Our hotel was situated in the Temple Bar area of the city, Dublin’s cultural quarter offering a vast array of traditional pubs, restaurants and cafes. We were especially impressed with the breakfast raspberry scones in The Queen of Tarts and the extensive beer menu at the Porter House where we also enjoyed a traditional Irish music session. We met up with our old friend Keith who took us for some great pub grub – Guinness hot pot seemed to be the dish of the day! Keith steered us around Temple Bar and found us some more great live music to end the evening. We were also treated to a drunken rendition of what sounded suspiciously like Danny Boy outside our hotel window at 2AM - obviously laid on by a local especially for the tourists!

Newgrange chamber entrance
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Unsurprisingly Newgrange is one of the fairy mounds of Celtic legend.

Dublin has many sights and attractions but the only piece of architecture I felt compelled to photograph was this giant sewing needle on O’Connell Street. It’s 400 feet high and it glows at night. Apparently it was built on the site of the former Nelson’s Pillar, destroyed by an IRA bomb in 1966.

The Dublin Spire
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The prehistoric passage tomb of Newgrange is located in the Boyne Valley, less than an hour from Dublin and was too good an opportunity to miss. We were also able to stop off at the Hill of Tara along the way, with its earthen structures including an Iron age hillfort and neolithic passage tomb, it was well worth a visit. The Hill of Tara is said to be the seat of the ancient Kings of Ireland and the sacred dwelling place of the Gods. Apparently on a clear day, half the counties of Ireland can be seen from the summit of Tara.

The Parliament hotel
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The chamber at Newgrange dates back to 3200 BC, older than the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge and yet it is still fabulously intact. It lay hidden and protected under a grassy mound for 4000 years, until 1699 when it was rediscovered during removal of material to use as building stone. Famously, the chamber and passageway are illuminated once a year by the winter solstice sunrise - an alignment many passage tombs were built with. However, Newgrange is unique because it has an additional roofbox – an opening directly above the tomb entrance through which the beam of light enters allowing the precise solar alignment to occur. There is little chance of gaining access to Newgrange at Winter Solstice (they operate a lottery system) but this phenomenon is demonstrated to visitors as they huddle inside the chamber tomb. The lights are switched off and a beam is directed through the roofbox, along the passage and into the chamber. However, this demonstration depends on the passageway being unobstructed by disorderly children running around unsupervised and oblivious to the sense of sacred presence inside what is after all the final resting place for our ancestors! Grrr!

There are three recesses in the chamber, each housing a great stone basin where the cremated remains of the dead were laid. Fine examples of megalithic art can be seen both inside and outside of the tomb in the form of engraved motifs including the tri-spiral design on the famous entrance stone. Unsurprisingly, according to Irish mythology Newgrange is one of the fairy mounds or sidhes of Celtic legend.