OMG, they Kilkenny

The name Kilkenny kept reminding us of South Park and we would find ourselves randomly saying the line. They bus ride from Dublin passed through some of the greenest countryside we have ever seen. It is extremely rural, we were even delayed by a parade of over a hundred tractors coming the other way.

Our hotel was quite a ways outside of the main town. There were no buses that went along that route, so we hoofed it in and out of town for 45 minutes each way. The hotel was very nice and there was a Irish Breakfast buffet each morning to fuel our long journey into town.

Kilkenny like so many old towns sits along a river. This one was very picturesque and in the second photo you can see part of Kilkenny Castle.

Irish people must love to gamble, because even in this small town, we counted no less than ten different bookies. Ladbrokes is the big chain in the UK, but there were many smaller outfits everywhere we went and there were probably more.

Many times we passed by the Rothe House, but didn’t visit. It is a well preserved example of a 17^th century Merchant’s townhouse with three interconnected buildings.

One of the smaller churches in the city is the Black Abbey. The church was founded in 1225 and has a lot of its original feature inside. Although it is now L-shaped after one wing of the church was dismantled. In the entrance courtyard of the church are these 13^th century stone coffins that were unearthed during a restoration project.

We joined a walking tour of the city and got some great info to many parts of the city that we had already been (it’s a pretty small place). We met two great couples who were visiting from Gainesville, Florida. They were really nice and we ended up meeting up with them again later in the day. Pictured above is Butter Slip, an alleyway connecting two of the main streets of the city where butter used to be sold. Below, is the Kyteler Inn that was home to Dame Alice Kyteler who was charged as a witch after four of her husbands died mysteriously. She was a wealthy lady and paid off the church, her son also was freed from any charges, but her poor maid was not so lucky.

Kilkenny Castle was built in 1195 and expanded upon by Strongbow. You are able to see the original foundations and visit many of the rooms in the Castle. The Butler family, who’s job it was to pour the wine for the Royal Family, which is an important job if you fear getting poisoned, lived in the castle for 500 years. Most of the original furniture is gone because it was auctioned away, but some of it has made its way back either through donations, being willed, or purchases when they come on sale. There are several rooms with exterior windows where you can see how thick the walls are. There is an impressive which long room on the top floor with a nice collection of paintings and an original wooden roof.

The castle sits on a large plot of land along the river and there is a huge expanse of grass at the back. Originally, there was another side of the castle that created an interior courtyard, but Cromwell destroyed it, giving it its current three sided look.

We met up again with our new friends from Florida at the Smithwick’s brewery tour. This was different from the Guinness tour in several ways. One, we actually got to see the brewing process in action. Two, we had to brave the weather going from one building to the next. Thankfully we were provided with these lovely large umbrellas. Lastly, Smithwick’s has the over 700 year old St. Francis Abbey on its property.

The best part of every brewery tour is the pint at the end. Smithwick’s is a delicious red beer and our guide spent his time pouring a little beer at a time into each glass until they were all full.

Our last stop was visiting the St. Canice’s Cathedral. It has been a continuous place of worship for over 800 years. St. Kieran’s chair (below) was moved to the cathedral in 1120 and the ancient stone below the seat dates back to 400. It is used when the bishop of Ossory is enthroned.

We ended our visit of Kilkenny by climbing the church tower and taking in the wonderful view of the city.

Newgrange & the Hill of Tara

We took a daytrip from Dublin to see some of the rural, ancient treasures in the area. For this trip, we took a guided bus tour from Dublin. This was the only guided bus tour we took all year (the rest of the daytrips we did on our own using public transportation). But we heard that this particular tour was excellent (there was a limit at 20 people), and the locations we went to are impossible to reach by public transport. So guided tour it was.

The guided tour was indeed excellent, so I’ll mention the name here: Mary Gibbons tour. Mary herself guides the tour, and she seems to be a bit of a history buff.

Hill of Tara

First, we stopped at the Hill of Tara – just looks like an open green space now, but this has been a historically significant hotspot for many millennia. There are ruins from many periods of history, starting with the stone age (5,000 years ago), and including iron age ruins, Roman ruins (2,000 years ago), and medieval artifacts. It has been a seat of kings and coronation ground for many centuries (142 kings crowned there) – it lost some of its significance in 600 AD (after St. Patrick’s time, when Christianity spread through Ireland and the pagan rituals were lost). Tara fell into complete oblivion in 1169 after the Norman invasion.

Here is the entire space – the hill affords a 360-degree view, and one can see 23 of Ireland’s 32 counties (a couple hundred miles).

There are these strange mounds where building foundations and burial mounds used to be, but are now covered by grass:

These two monuments are at the top of the hill. The one on the right is the Stone of Destiny – legend has it that all of the kinds of Ireland were crowned here, until 500 AD. It is unclear exactly how old the stone is – the Celtic legend is that “in antiquity,” a semi-divine race brought it to Ireland.

The other carved stone is from 1798 and commemorates the loss of lives in the Irish rebellion that was put down by the English military.

This is a Neolithic Burial mound (with stone structure inside) that was built about 5,400 years ago. It is aligned to let the sun’s rays in the passage on Nov 8^th and Feb 4^th. Although it is not as big or impressive as other solstice/equinox passages, it was big & accurate enough to track the alignment of the sun & changing seasons.

Newgrange

Next stop: Newgrange. It is hard to exaggerate the archaeological significance of this place. It is the oldest building in Europe. It’s the oldest astronomical observatory completely intact. It is 500 years older than the great pyramids of Egypt. It was built without mortar and it’s still standing. It’s about 5,000 years old, and it was designed such that the sun’s rays shine down the passage for 5 minutes, once a year (Winter Solstice) – down a 60-foot passage. The rays illuminate a small cove, where cremated human remains were most likely buried. The small window and gentle uphill grade of the passage were specially engineered for the alignment.

It’s just really impressive that such accurate engineering was calculated during the stone age.

One note: the burial mound itself and the interior stone structure are exactly as it was found. However, the small white rocks that form the cylindrical frame around the mound are not as they were found. The rocks were scattered around the site, and have been reconstructed according to how they were “likely” placed one day, based on the probable trajectory of their tumble. These same rocks did once form a façade of the mound, but it is questionable as to whether they were in the exact formation as they have been reconstructed. The reconstruction of these stones is controversial.

Newgrange from the side:

So, to recap, these same stones were in some arrangement on the façade of the mound, but possibly not in this precise arrangement.

Newgrange from the front:

Detail of the entrance. The rock in front was carved a few centuries after the structure was built, likely between 4,500 and 4,000 BC. Behind, the entrance doorway is partially hidden, and the small “window” above it is where the sun’s rays shine through for 5 minutes at the winter solstice.

Around the outside of the mound, these carved rocks are arranged. There are many theories about possible meanings of the carvings (religious, astronomical, agricultural, etc), but these are all speculations, since no records or explanations of these carvings exist. (oooh, mysterious)

We were allowed to enter the passage and the burial space! Unfortunately, we were not able to take pictures inside. These pictures are from the website.

This is part of the passageway, with some stone age art.

This the view up at the roof of the “room” at the end of the passage. Stone slabs placed 5,000 years ago without mortar, still standing. It's truly awe-inspiring.

Ireland is truly a special place with some intact ancient history. And the countryside is gorgeous!

Dublin, Pot O’ Gold at the end of a Rainbow

We bid farewell to Megan’s parents and the warm weather of the Costa Del Sol and said hello to brisk and breezy (both understatements) Dublin. We actually had a few nice days, but there is a reason that Ireland is such a green country. The extent of the greenness is hard to describe, but basically it is lush and green everywhere you look that is not a building, body of water, or the sky. There are many shades of green, but the deepest, richest green may only exist here.

We were very excited to be in Ireland and in hindsight it was a good decision, as we were wavering on whether or not it was worth the flights to visit for 11 days. Ireland has a very unique culture and the Gaelic language is still very prevalent. Everyone we met was very helpful and kind, and it was very refreshing to be back in an English speaking country.

Our hotel was on Dame Street, right in the middle of Temple Bar, the main nightlife district in Dublin. The room came with complimentary ear plugs to help deal with the late night revelry, which was only an issue on the weekends. This view from our window looks towards Trinity College, which is behind that clump of trees at the end of the street.

We discovered that Ireland often places their tourist information office in old historical buildings and here they have converted an old church.

We wandered around our neighborhood of Temple Bar. There was a pretty good crowd out and about enjoying the street performers, grabbing a drink or a meal at one of the many bars and restaurants. Pictured is a landmark bar in Temple Bar; the ‘Bar’ refers to a bar of land in this area, as much of the it is reclaimed land.

The next day we took a tour of Trinity College, which was founded in 1592 on order by Queen Elizabeth I. It is very small in comparison with many American universities. Our tour guide was great and gave us a lot of good information about the college and insight into what it is like to be a student there.

This sculpture was the same one we saw in the Vatican and apparently there is also one at UC Berkeley. Behind it is a really nice looking, old building of the university that is a small library specific to certain subjects. Trinity College has several libraries, including a copyright library, which means that they store a copy of every single book that is published in the country.

This is the outside of the Old Library. Originally there was no ground floor, you could pass through to the other side under the archways. The Book of Kells, along with The Book of Armagh, the Book of Durrow, and several other old illuminated manuscripts, is exhibited inside the library. The Book of Kells was created by Celtic monks on the island of Iona around the year 800 and it was stored in the Abbey of Kells where it gets its name. The book contains the Four Gospels of the new testament written in Latin. It was amazing to see how well preserved this old texts were and the art work is simply amazing. On the top floor, there is The Long Room, which is a 65meter long hall filled with 200,000 of the library’s oldest books, busts of former chancellors, and the Brian Boru's Harp that dates back to the 15^th century.

We crossed over this bridge to check out the North side of the Liffey River. The northern side is the newer part and has a large shopping district.

This crazy structure in the middle of a major thoroughfare O’Connell Street is the Spire of Dublin (or the Monument of Light) that seemingly sprouts out of nowhere. It was built in 1999 on the site where Nelson’s Pillar stood before it was bombed by the IRA. The steel structure is almost 400 feet tall and has a beacon of light at the tip.

Along the river is this memorial to the Great Famine where about 1 million people died and another million emigrated. The population of Ireland still has not recovered to previous levels.

Dublin is famous for its Georgian architecture, especially the Georgian Doors. Here are just several examples, but they are everywhere.

This is St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was founded in 1191 and is the largest church in Ireland. Jonathan Swift was Dean of the Cathedral and is buried here.

This is Christ Church Cathedral, is a medieval church founded in 1028. There are some ruins of the original church in the courtyard and a nice looking bridge that connects it to a museum across the street.

We visited St. Audoen’s Church, mostly because it was free and there was a bathroom. It is the only surviving parish church of medieval Dublin. This stone has some sort of mystical significance, but mystically we forget what it is.

This is Vince looking very pleased to be at St. James Gate Brewery, the birthplace of Guinness. The Guinness Storehouse is the name of their museum that has 7 floors of interesting exhibits.

The interior atrium is shaped like a giant Guinness pint glass. In the floor of the Atrium is the original 9000-year lease agreement Arthur Guinness signed. He wanted this brewery because it had access to very clean water, which is necessary for a quality beer.

The tour is self-guided, but there was a lot of great information about the history of the company and the beer making process. Pictured is a giant pit of barley, and indoor waterfall, and an enormous kettle.

Two of our other favorite exhibits included an old video showing the barrel making process by coopers employed at the factory. It was a highly skilled and well paid job in those days. Another exhibit displayed many of the imaginative ad campaigns they had.

At the end of the tour we were treated to a pint of Guinness at their rooftop bar that seems to be the tallest building in Dublin. The Guinness that we get I America is brewed at this brewery, so the difference in the taste is just that it is so fresh here. We also drank in the wonderful views of the brewery and the city.

This is the atrium to the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology part of a group that comprises the National Museum of Ireland. No pictures were allowed, but there was an excellent collection of archeological findings in Ireland. The most impressive collection they have is of prehistoric gold artifacts that were mainly found in hordes that were buried and left. There all sort of interesting pieces from small earrings and rings, to huge plated necklaces and arm bands. Other cool exhibits were bog bodies, bodies that were preserved by bogs, and artifacts of the Vikings who raided and conquered the island.

We made our way to the Dublin Castle complex. It’s a small area with a few government related buildings. We wandered into the Chester Beatty Library (atrium pictured below, again no pictures), which has one of the largest collection of old religious books. It was kind of like the continuation of the Book of Kells exhibit, but in addition to Christian literature, they also had Muslim and Far East religious texts. The books and scripts varied greatly in style and subject matter, and many included some impressive illustrations and miniature drawings.