May 21, 2012 - The Megalithic Passage Tomb at Newgrange

Our trip started off with a drive by tour of Bram Stoker's home just outside of Dublin. I was very excited to get to see where he lived given my huge vampire obsession! We continued to Howth, which looks so different on a bright sunny day! You can see a lot of the pictures are a repeat from my previous trip out there but I just couldn't help it. The sun really makes a difference to these small villages and towns. We walked around the pier and discovered a couple having picnic in the car park. I was pretty surprised since there was so much...

Aug 29, 2011 - Bru Na Boine, Ireland

The next leg of our journey was to drive from Belfast to Dublin, where we would return our rental car and head home to the USA. Along the way, we visited Brú na Bóinne - the largest and one of the most important prehistoric megalithic sites in Europe. It is a complex of Neolithic chamber tombs, standing stones, henges and other prehistoric enclosures, dating back to the Stone Age. The area consists of many different sites, with the three principal passage tombs being Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth. We started our visit at the Bru Na Boine...

May 11, 2011 - Ireland's Stonehenge, Newgrange

We’ve talked many times about going to Newgrange; but, since it’s on the north side of Dublin, an overnight stay is almost required. We hate to spend too much time away from Mom but we decided to do the trip this time. The weather hasn’t been great so we’ve spent a fair amount of time at home. The improved roads in Ireland make the trip fairly painless. The super slab is called the dual carriage-way….meaning lanes of traffic going both directions and sometimes more than 2 lanes each way. We made terrific time and Esther whipped us around...

Sep 19, 2010 - Newgrange

@@@@@@@ Background The Celts claimed that the legendary kings of Tara were buried here, but Newgrange was built around 3200 BC on a bend north of the river Boyne. Invaders left the grave untouched until it was rediscovered in AD 1699. It was built by clever people without the use of wheels to move the massive stones or metal tools to aid in carving them. Loose stones were transported to build the cairn, a huge mound meant to protect the passage tomb. When the site was excavated in the 1960s, it was discovered that the rays of the sun would...

Sep 4, 2008 - Back to the Stoneage

After breakfast we set of north west to see the prehistoric site known as Newgrange. Newgrange is actually several sites. Newgrange itself, Knowth and Douth. Each is a “Passage tomb”, so named due to the design of the large building with a narrow passage and a central room in which have been found human remains. Douth is not part of the tour and has lost most of its artifacts over the centuries. We did not visit it. We arrived at the site and were greeted by a lady who gave us stickers with the times of the tours to which we were allocated....

Jul 3, 2007 - Magic!

Today we visited Newgrange monument. This place is amazing! It dates back to 3200 BC. The structure is out of this world. Neolithic peoples were incredibly intelligent - although they forgot to leave notes on what the heck this structure is about! There are three monuments in the area - we chose to only visit one. Newgrange contains the famous spiral entrance stone. it is also the one that on the winter solstice at 9 am the sun shines directly into the chamber and lights up an entirely dark chamber. I can't describe to you what this is...

Jul 2, 2007 - Life's lessons

Well today was suppose to be a travel day combined with a trip to Newgrange. However, the hotel we checked out of kept my credit card in error and we spent about 3 hours trying to find it and then trying to convince them that they had it. In the end I gave them where we were staying in the Dublin area this night and took off down the road thinking how I can do the rest of the trip on cash, considering the bank machines only let me take out about 200 Euros a day. It will take planning! Aghhhhhhh! Anyways, we drove forever towards Dublin and...

Sep 27, 2006 - Last day of discovery in Meath County

Today we started on a three village tour by heading south along N52 to Navana stopping at a beautiful Abbey ruins along the way to take photos and read up on the history. This area of the country is very rich in Normand history and heading to Trim we found the castle of St. John where the Normands forced their invasion into Ireland. Around 1076 they began forcing the local Irish to give up there land, herds, crops and daughters and to beholden to the Normand King Henry II in England. We then ventured forward to Kells where more celtic...

Sep 23, 2006 - Travelling Band

We reluctantly leave our digs in Youghal and head to new adventure in the north. Our destination is Ardee north of Dublin. First stop is Waterford for coffee and what better place than the Crystal works as it is right on the highway. Then it's on the N7 for a few hours until Gowran where lunch is in order. We stopped a nice little home cooked meals restaurant were we all agreed that we had the best food since the start of our trip. Across the road from the restaurant is the remains of an old Abbey with a working church attached. Great...

Aug 3, 2006 - Town of Trim

Our next stop was the town of Trim. We made a brief stop here to take pictures of the Trim Castle. The castle is famous as it was used in the filming of Braveheart. Must watch the movie again to see if i recognize it in the movie. Looks like a beautiful castle. Our tour guide who was also our driver was very informative. He talked a little bit too much for me but he did have a lot of funny stories. He was a typical Irish man, fits the stereotype to a T. Really nice guy though. We then made our way through the Boyne Valley to our next...