Ireland day 1171. Thursday 12 December 2024- Hill Of Tara

Today’s summary	Revisited the Hill of Tara for the first time since October 2021. A worthwhile experience, and good to get a leg-stretch in open countryside. But OPW could have done more to make the visit even more interesting. Stopped off in Swords to do shopping at Tesco on the way back then more Kerrigan’s and TV in the evening.
Today’s weather	Murky grey and overcast but dry all day. Almost no wind, Appx 7c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The orange line shows where we walked – recording device not switched on for the first half of the walk) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Hill of Tara

Commentary

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

A few days after we first arrived in Ireland at the end of September 2021, we paid a visit to the Hill of Tara. We were living in County Meath at the time, and it was relatively close by. I remember that we had quite enjoyed it, and as it is one of Ireland’s premier Neolithic sites, had always intended to pay a return visit at some point. But we had never quite got round to it. Today, though, we did.

First, after the regulation cups of tea and some breakfast, we did some domestic chores and so didn’t finally get away until early afternoon. Then, once we had driven the 40km to Tara we discovered that there was a café right next to the site – which had been closed when we came last time, because of the pandemic. So before we could go any further, we had to drop in for some late-lunch refreshments.

After our brief sojourn, we walked up to the Hill proper. It’s run by the OPW but unlike most of the other things they manage, this one actually isn’t as good as it could be. As the place where Kings of Ireland were crowned, and which has a history stretching many thousands of years, its obviously a very special spot. Today, it’s free access (which is a good thing) but on the downside it’s a bit over-run by dog-walkers (and their attendant mess) and, as you can wander all over the ancient ruins, they are getting a bit eroded in places.

On the other hand, it’s set in a big open site of fields and trees and you can wander at will. In places, you almost feel like you are in the UK countryside, which is a rare thing here in Ireland with its strict limits on public access to the countryside. Overall, it feels like a bit of a three stars out of five type of place. Interesting, but it could be much better.

After having had our fill of ancient ruins, we drove back down the M3, M50 and M1, and stopped off in Tesco Swords to do some more pre-Christmas shopping. Eventually we escaped, having been relieved of most of the contents of our wallets, it seemed.

We were back in the flat just after six pm. which meant it was time for a nice glass of Malbec, another pretty decent Kerrigan’s stir fry, and some more of our favourite TV shows on Netflix. All in all, a nice low key kind of a day

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


First things first. Last night’s bread actually turned out OK!	Maguires of Tara café. It wasn’t open last time we came three years ago and it was a a very average type of a place for a coffee and pastry

Some of the history of the Hill, with an aerial photograph. To be honest, it’s very hard to get a feel for the place from the ground – it would definitely be better appreciated from overhead, with low-angle lighting	Former church in the grounds of the Hill – now an OPW visitor centre, but only open for a couple of months in the summer and looking very closed up for now

Some of the hills and hummocks on the Hill, which I think can only really be distinguished from above	Hill of Slane just visible, with the ruined Abbey, 20km away to the north

The Stone of Destiny – where kings of Ireland were crowned