Sunday 30th May

After having a good night’s sleep, the daylight woke us up at 5:30am but we continued to doze until just after 7am. We like getting up early, but not THAT early!! It was chilly in our little house, but it wasn’t too bad. There was no central heating, just a heater for hot water and a stove in the living room to make a fire - we used the latter last night and again this morning until it was time to leave at around 8:50am. Today we were going to visit Newgrange and Knowth, and the information stated that it was best to arrive early to avoid the disappointment of not being able to go on the tours.

It was a chilly start to the day outside, but by lunchtime it was really quite nice and warm. We went to the Bru na Boinne visitors centre where we bought tickets to go on the tour of both Knowth and Newgrange. A mini-bus took us there and back to both sites, and Knowth was first. Our tour guide showed us around, explaining that the artwork on the stones has no definite explanation, just theories as to what they might be, what they may symbolise. It was the story which we - as archaeologists - are used to hearing; theories about the sun and the moon, celebrations of the equinoxes and solstices. Usually we think that when people start saying things about ritual practice, it's because they can't think of any other explanation and it just sounds good.  But in these cases it was very, very believable. The artwork could easily be seen as records of moon phases, spirals as depictions of the sun, zig-zags an illustration of the oscillating pattern of the sun or moon orbits. Personally I don’t think it’s by any mistake that the sun enters these tombs on the equinoxes or solstices. It’s just all really very believable, at least, to me anyway. The thing I’m not quite sure about is ley lines and dowsing - and yes, there were two guys wandering around the site with dowsing rods. Hmmm. I’m really not quite sure about that….! Most archaeologists would call it “pretend archaeology”.

We weren’t able to go into the main mound at Knowth, but we were able to look down one of the passages. I always like how they light these things to make the place look eerie and mystical! We finished off the tour with our guide telling us about the star find of the place - a flint mace head. And, having seen flint and knowing that this material is incredibly hard to shape, it is really quite remarkable. Whoever created this piece of flint with that much smooth decoration on it AND a large perforation used to put a handle into, must have been incredibly patient and it must have taken absolutely forever to create! Later on we saw a replica of it in the exhibition at the visitors centre - but we were really hoping that it was going to be in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin when we go. We really want to see the real thing! I’d also like to compare the real to the fake, just to see how real it looks!

After the tour ended, we were free to roam around and take as many photos as we liked. Ten minutes was just about enough really, there were large stones around the edges of the main mound which had lots of spirals, coils, half moon shapes, zig-zags. I had my jewellery designs in mind, of course! The other great thing here was that we could actually go up and touch them. I really liked this.

Back onto the minibus we got, to the visitors centre again, and our next visit was to Newgrange. We got there in the end - there were two buses going there, and it turned out that two people had either got on the wrong bus or at the wrong time. Mathew and I were split on the journey there but we were fine going back. We got to Newgrange and we had a tour guide who spoke to both bus-loads of people, and while one group roamed around outside first, the others got to go into the tomb and we switched over afterwards. Of course, we were in the group to go inside first!

Inside, the corridor was low and narrow, but once in the main chamber it was fine. There was a lot of artwork - the same spirals and zig-zags as before - only in this tomb we weren’t allowed to take photos, which is fair enough. The only new pattern we hadn’t seen before was a fern leaf, which was really quite nice! Once we were inside the tomb, our tour guide organised us so we could all see the floor and she gave us a demonstration of what it would be like in the tomb when the sun rose on the solstice. She turned out the lights and switched on another light (mimicing the sunlight) which came through gradually as she spoke, and then gradually left. It was quite a nice demonstration and left us all feeling we had experienced the magical moment these monuments had been made for!

After this, we went outside and roamed around and then awaited the bus back to the visitors centre. Going on the different theories set by different people, it was clear that whoever studied Knowth thought that the white quartz and large rounded stones were used as a pavement, while at Newgrange it had been incorporated into the outside walls of the mound. Either way, both are great places to visit, and Knowth is good to visit before Newgrange, because the latter is the best one of course!

Back at the visitors centre, we had lunch in the café which came with generous side salads and was really delicious! “Tasty food and snacks” is what the brochure says and it’s not a lie! We then strolled into the shop, bought some postcards (Mathew to send, me to use for jewellery inspiration…!) and had a look at the exhibit which was really nicely laid out with colourful drapes, patterns from the tombs, dioramas and a few exhibits of replicas, such as the flint mace head I already mentioned. We forgot to enter the “solstice lottery” to win a chance to go back and experience the real thing at Newgrange! Damn! Ah well.

So, after lunch we continued. Monastaboice was our first visit, which boasted a HUGE tower (and it was really very very tall - I have no idea how it’s still standing..!), although it is missing its conical roof and the ground around it has risen over the years so its not even as tall as it used to be. Still, its very impressive. In the cemetery were other ruins (which you would think the tower would have fallen down to the same height, but no), and two very large crosses. The first was the widest and chunkiest celtic cross I have ever seen, and the workmanship on it is eroded, but fabulous. Just imagine what it would have looked like when brand new! The second cross was in front of the massive tower (built by the Irish as a response to the Viking invasions, there are apparently lots of these towers all over Ireland), and this one was similar to the first, only more taller and narrower.

Old Millefont Abbey was next up, which seemed more ruined that most Abbeys in England; barely anything remained although they did have a nice collection of architectural stone and what was left standing here was really quite nice. The only bad thing about this place was not being able to take a photo because a family tour group decided to stand in the same spot for about half an hour, right in front of the most photogenic standing ruin! But, we are used to this happening, they moved eventually and we got our photos in before the French tour group got their hands on it..!

The final trip of the day was a little bit of an adventure. The owner of the place we were renting for the week, suggested that we might like to go see a place called “Fourknocks” which was only down the road from where we were staying, in Ardcath. Earlier in the day we had seen the familiar brown tourist signs for it, and thought we’d do it at the end of our day out. So we got back to Ardcath and found the sign…but could we find this place? We kept driving round and round in what we thought were probably large circles, and we did keep seeing signs for Fourknocks, only each time we passed the “kilometres to go” were gradually doing down - as they should do - although I am sure we weren’t going in the most direct route. It didn’t help that the map of Ireland didn’t have it on there.

After a little while, we eventually found it and Mathew got out to read the sign at the path entrance. Now, we had already been told that we would have to go to the landowner’s house to collect the key and investigate the tomb ourselves. But after today we have learnt a few of things about Irish road signs and their language:

1. There are a few road signs which have been stolen, we presume for scrap metal, but we kept seeing bare posts at junctions where they should have been

2. When a road sign states something like “Kilmoon” with no distance, the name on the sign is the name of the road, not where it leads to.

3. When you see or hear directions of “at the cross turn left” - this can also mean t-junction as well as cross-road.

Now, the directions were to “turn left at the first cross down Kilmoon Road and it’s the 5th house on the right”, we went down said road (the sign just said “Kilmoon” no “road”), and found the 5th house on the right. Bit it seemed a little odd to Mathew because there were so many houses on the left. We went back to the sign and read the name of the person was “Mr.White”, and as said 5th house said “WHITE” on its wall, that must have been it. Down Kilmoon Road we went again to collect the key from the right person with a fully refundable deposit should we happen to run off with it, and back up Kilmoon Road back to Fourknocks, almost definitely totally confusing the locals having been up and down this road 4 times already!

Eventually we had the location and the key, and we took a torch from the car just incase. It was a small mound, with a little information board near the entrance, which was closed with a locked metal door. When we got inside, we discovered that the effort of finding it and the key was definitely worth it! The ceiling was false but holes had been put into it to let natural light in, in a very clever fashion to make it look like spotlights. The torch wasn’t needed, although we used it in the dark recesses, of which there were three. There was even more art work on the stones which we could touch and photograph, and there was on slab of stone which is said to have the only depiction of a possible human portrait on it. I can see a human resemblance, if a little abstract, but its there! So, after all that effort we were finally rewarded with a really good treat, and to see the artwork up close and to touch it - it’s just not the normal thing we are used to, so it was nice.

We locked up, took the key back to Mr. White on Kilmoon Road, got our deposit back, and finally got back home to Ardcath to have a nice cup of tea and a slice of Mum’s fruit loaf. Yum!