Ireland day 0690. Saturday 19 August 2023- Guests 02 *

Ireland day 0690. Saturday 19 August 2023- Guests 02

Today’s summary	Drove up to the Brú na Bóinne site to visit the Knowth and Newbridge burial chambers. Then went up to Hill of Slane and came back via Dowth chamber. Thai dinner in evening
Today’s weather	Bright and breezy with a brief shower in the morning and some sunny intervals. Strong south easterly wind. Appx 20c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (No GPX today)

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

We had a tour of the Boyne Valley archaeological sites with our friends who are over visiting from the UK. The day started after breakfast in the flat, at the Brú na Bóinne Neolithic site visitor centre, which is actually only 35 minutes up the motorway from here. We joined the 11:30 tour, first taking in the Knowth passage tomb, and then on to Newbridge. Both were impressive, as usual, and the weather made them look even more spectacular with a clear blue sky washed by last night’s torrential storm (there was quite a lot of wind damage to trees) and vivid emerald green.

There was just time to enjoy the picnic lunch that we had brought with us, and a cup of coffee from the café, before heading off on part 2 of the tour, up to the Hill of Slane. The 16th century monastic ruins – built on the site where St Patrick was alleged to have built a fire proclaiming the advent of Irish Christianity in the 5th century – were spectacular and looking neat and tidy today. The views were extensive in all directions, and impressive.

Part 3 of the day was a semi-impromptu visit to the un-restored, but huge, passage tomb at nearby Dowth. It was nice to be able to wander around unimpeded, and once again the views from the top were excellent.

After that, we hot-footed it back to Malahide and now we are putting up our feet before embarking on part 4 of our day – a trip to a nearby Thai restaurant. Ireland put on a good show for our guests today, and I think they were impressed.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


I always think Knowth looks like Teletubbieland, and today was no exception	Western entrance to Knowth with quartzite on the ground outside the entrance, unlike Newbridge where the stones have been inserted into the front wall – perhaps somewhat artificially

Giant kerb-stone guarding the entrance to Newbridge	Detail of the tri-spiral on the entrance stone. there are only two such Neolithic tri-spirals known in Europe – and the other is inside the Newbridge tomb chamber itself

Ruined 16th century abbey at the Hill of Slane	Churchyard looking neat and well cared fore, at Slane. Apparently there is a blessing ceremony of some sort tomorrow, so people were out and about tending to the graves today

At Dowth – beautiful blue skies and green grass and a freedom to explore that you don’t get at Knowth and Newbridge