This was our last morning at Carrickfergus. While the nights had been a little noisy (right next to a major road and young guys racing around and doing burnouts in the carpark until about 10pm) it was great to wake up outside an impressive castle. We never did the tour inside Carrickfergus Castle as the open hours didn't work for us (offseason it was open 10am - 4pm meaning that if we wanted to see the castle we couldn't do anything until 10am and we wanted to be out and exploring by then).
This day our plan was to head back into Southern Ireland and camp near Dublin via an old tomb called Newgrange.
But first, here's our collection of pictures from the three days and two nights:
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| Entry into the castle |
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| Tower by the entrance |
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| Carrickfergus Castle |
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| Lit up for night |
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| Sunrise over the castle |
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| Sunrise |
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| Statue of King William III - to mark where he landed in 1690 |
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| View of the castle from the harbour wall |
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| King William III Pier with the abandoned control tower |
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| Abandoned Control Tower |
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| View from the end of the pier - you can see Samson and Goliath in the distance |
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| The boys tried to 'disarm Carrickfergus's laser weapons' using the tower |
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| Until they caught a 'spy' who was turning them back on again |
After the spy had been dealt with and the lasers disabled, we were able to head off and our destination was Newgrange (
Brú na Bóinne) a prehistoric tomb on the River Boyne just outside of Dublin
Carbon dating of bones and artifacts inside the tomb date it to 3200 BC which makes it older than Stonehenge and Pyramids of Giza. The area near the River Boyne is home to many of these 'passage' tombs, mounds of stone that have been overgrown with grass and in some cases trees.
Newgrange was discovered in 1699 by a farmer who was digging on his land to collect stone for building. The entrance was discovered an a local historian took interest in the site. The outside of the site partially collapsed over time and was marked for conservation in 1890. The white stone outside has been replaced from the original stones of the monument - the only non-original part is the black stone packing around the entrance and the wooden steps.
To access Newgrange we needed to go to the Brú na Bóinne centre and take a bus to the site, you can't get access to the site by arriving at Newgrange itself.
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| On the bank of the River Boyne on the way to Newgrange |
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| Newgrange |
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| Wall of Newgrange |
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| Close up of the wall |
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| Another Passage Tomb in the distance from Newgrange |
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| Entry to the tomb |
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| The carved entrance monolith |
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| The roofbox |
One of the interesting features of the Newgrange tomb is the Roofbox. On the Winter solstice for several minutes after 9am the sun aligns with this roofbox which aligns with the floor of the main room of the tomb, flooding the otherwise dark interior with light. As the light enters it forms a spike across the ground that eventually comes to a point at the offering basin at the end of the tomb before then beginning to recede. It is believed that this basin may have been used for placing human remains as the light could be seen as the hand of God reaching into take the soul of the deceased.
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| Standing Stones around the entrance |
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| Entrance monolith |
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| One of the monoliths making the base of the monument |
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| Entrance |
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| Us at Newgrange |
Our next location was initially picked as a bit of a joke - The Hill of Tara, since my sisters name is Tara we though it would be cool to get some photos of signs and I also bought this book, which probably would have been handy growing up:
All joking aside, which is unusual for me, The Hill of Tara is an important area of Ireland, being a prehistoric burial site, the oldest passage tomb and prehistoric land monuments. It was associated with the Kingship in the medieval times and described as W.B Yeats as 'The most consecrated spot in Ireland'.
Tara is named from the Old Irish Temair, which comes from Tem meaning to 'cut' or 'set apart' - i.e. a place set apart for special or sacred purposes.
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| Information about the Hill of Tara |
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| Map of the Hill of Tara |
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| Key for the map |
The Hill of Tara has several features, of which we only saw a few - due to the bad weather and mud.
The most famous is the Mound of Hostages, the oldest known passage tomb (in the style of Newgrange), dating from 3500BC:
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| Information |
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| Approaching the Mound of Hostages |
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| It doesn't look like much from this side |
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| The entrance - like Newgrange this was constructed to align with the sun - this time for Autumn and Spring |
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| Through the gate |
The next location was the Forrad - the Royal Seat:
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| Forrad |
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| Heading to Forrad |
At the centre of Forrad stands the Lia Fail standing stone which has been associated with inauguation of Kings of Tara.
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| Lia Fail |
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| Mounds leading up to Forrad |
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| Memorial stone on Forrad for the Battle of Tara Hill in 1798 - the burial site for about 400 dead rebel forces in the Irish rebellion |
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| Lia Fail and the 1798 Memorial on Forrad |
Next was Teach Cormac (Cormac's House), a ring barrow that is believed to have been a hill fort for Cormac Mac Airt, a High King of Ireland.
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| Teach Cormac |
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| Teach Cormac |
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| Barrows between Teach Cormac and Forrad |
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| Tablet of the Provisional Government of Ireland |
A 360 degree video of the Hill of Tara:
After finishing up at the Hill of Tara we headed to our campsite - Camac Valley Caravan Park, just outside of Dublin.
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| Day 7 Drive |
Distance driven - Day 7: 195km
Total Distance: 1630km
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