Ireland day 0879. Saturday 24 February 2024- UK Guests 2 *

Ireland day 0879. Saturday 24 February 2024- UK Guests 2

Today’s summary	A day in Co. Meath exploring the Neolithic sites of Newgrange and Fourknocks along the Boyne Valley with our friends, followed by a walk along the beach at Laytown. Dinner at Old Street restaurant in Malahide in the evening
Today’s weather	Misty and cold in the morning, but bright sun in the afternoon. Almost no wind. Appx 8c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Laytown beach with Helen and Nick

Commentary

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

We had a full day out exploring the ancient monuments of the Boyne Valley and County Meath with our friends. The day started cold and misty and looking very un-promising. But it slowly brightened and by late afternoon, it was beautifully sunny.

Our first port of call was the Brú na Bóinne visitor centre, where (of course) we started the day with a cup of coffee and an almond croissant. We’ve been into the Newgrange monument for the official tour many times before, but it never fails to impress. A great, interesting, exploration which we followed up immediately with lunch at the Visitor Centre.

Just down the road from Newgrange is the Fourknocks passage tomb. It’s tiny in comparison with Newgrange and it’s normally closed to the public. But if you phone Mrs White at the farmhouse down the road you can get a key and have your very own private visit to a beautiful Neolithic monument. We made it our next port of call.

We had been to Fourknock a couple of years ago and it was as sublime today as it was then. We lingered inside looking at the mysterious stone carvings, then clambered up on top where the views in all directions had opened up perfectly – north to the Mournes, south to the Dublin mountains and east to the sea.

Speaking of the sea, our next visit was to Laytown (where the horse racing happens on the beach), for a late afternoon stroll north along the beach. There was no wind which made for a very pleasant leg-stretch without constantly having to seek shelter.

Time to log off now as we’re going out for dinner to the Old Street restaurant and I need to make myself look beautiful. Cheers!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Lots of frogspawn in the pond outside the front of the Brú na Bóinne visitor centre. Mr (or Mrs) frog were sittingnext to the spawn, keeping a close eve on it	Classic view of the Newgrange monument

Five thousand year old carvings inside Fourknocks passage tomb – looks just like they had been created yesterday	Lokking out onto the 21st century AD, direct from the 50th century BC

On the beach at Laytown looking north to the Mournes	What a good idea!

This carved stone (about 1metre high) just by the entrance to the Fourknocks tomb is said to the only known representation of a human face from this period in Ireland. Personally I struggle to see it