Bru Na Boigne, Ireland

Dublin

I can hear seagulls from my hotel room. There are casement windows, and after I put on sunscreen I heard rain and took a peak out the window. Raining steadily. What a waste of sunscreen.

On the drive back from Knowth, I just saw five beehive cabins of stone…but they looked really small and like they were built recently, not a thousand years ago. Touristy, I guess.
One hour drive from Dublin to Knowth (I enjoyed the scenery from the bus, like old churches with round towers and very old graveyards).

Bru na Boigne

On the way to Bru na Boigne, we passed, just outside Dublin, an old church with a round tower and a beautiful cemetery. I particularly noticed a white marble effigy with a darker stone surrounding it, as a platform and roof with many columns surrounding the white figure. There was a small mausoleum by it. It occurred to me that Tim Burton should use this scene in a film. Really, he’d have a great time filming in Ireland. Maybe I should send him an e-mail. Mmm, maybe not.

Being at Knowth, drizzle and all, was like being home at last. Neolithic passage graves that predate the pyramids, actually some of them are more than just graves. More like temples, same as Newgrange (which we drove right past—I saw it up on a hill on my left! I was so tempted to yell, “Stop the bus!” and pull out my camera—of course, I figured I’d get postcards at the visitors center that would be better pictures than I’d take).

At the Bru na Boigne visitors center, we had a little time in the shop, where I grabbed a whole bunch of books about Newgrange, Knowth, one on Dowth (the other passage grave at Bru na Boigne, and the least popular since it hasn’t been restored), and Neolithic Ireland in general. I also got a book on Sheela-na-gigs, and a clay necklace with Newgrange swirleys on it.
After the tour, we went back to the visitors center and had lunch. I had a rich piece of chocolate cake. And of course tea.

We also went into a big round room where we watched a film about Newgrange and then went through a door into a tunnel and room that are a recreation of the main chamber of Newgrange, where we got to witness a simulation of what happens on Winter Solstice at Newgrange, when the sunlight goes through the little window over the front door. That was sublime.

Back in Dublin

Dublin: Museum of Ireland—gold torques and such, Tara brooch
Trinity College: Book of Kells and library
Walk with Linda to Hard Rock Café and wool mill—the latter turned out to be closed, but down the street was an African art shop—statues and boxes and beads, oh my, and I had to dash in and bought a purple and white stone cat.

No trouble understanding tour guides—and they’re experts in the field, archeologists. Kieran, the tour guide at the Museum, was a cute Irish boy with curly black hair, big black eyes and long lashes.

Jackdaw—birds that I thought were part crow/ part pigeon (lots of them were at Trinity College, and a guard at the doorway to the Book of Kells explained what they are).

Evening—going to a concert (after dinner at the Eliza Lodge). Pretty eighteenth century building (most of the buildings in Dublin seem to be 18th century), concert in an auditorium where we sat in the balcony, the performers mostly looked like they were about twenty years old. One set of bagpipes, plenty of fiddles and drums and an accordion. Afterward, we went into a basement area, where there was more music and dance in front of a fireplace and we had tea. It was a much more intimate setting.