A lot of work for 17 minutes of light...

Trip Start Jul 01, 2011
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Trip End Aug 18, 2011


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Flag of Ireland  , County Louth,
Saturday, July 23, 2011

The sun was shining today!!  Whoever sent the warm weather--THANK YOU!  I hope you got some relief from the heat at home.  It was a lovely day for an excursion today.  An early rise and a bus ride later, I found myself at the Newgrange Passage Tomb.  The tomb looks like a very large mound of earth surrounded by stones carved with megalithic art.  The Newgrange tombs were built 500 years before Stonehenge and 1000 years before the pyramids in Egypt.  It is amazing to think about how long this tomb has been in existance.  It is estimated that the construction of the tomb took a workforce of 300 over twenty years to build the tomb.

After watching a video and browsing through the interactive centre, we took a bus to the site of the tomb.  Approaching the tomb was incredible; I was surrounded by green pastures, houses, and cows and in the middle is this mound of grass with such an incredible purpose
Newgrange Tomb
Newgrange Tomb
.  Newgrange aligns with the sun during winter solstice and the chamber of the tomb is illuminated by the sunrise on this day.  No one is certain about the exact purpose of the tomb, but many believe there were religious rites and ceremonies that took place there.  The bodies in the tomb would receive the sun of the winter solstice.  Also, they were able to track the sun and make sure it was returning at the same time each year.  Once a year, the rising sun shines down the long passage in the tomb and into the chamber and illuminates the floor for about 17 minutes.  I was able to climb into the tomb and walk down the passage way.  The guide did a simulation and it was amazing to see what the rising sun would look like inside the tomb.  Again, no pictures allowed inside, so I'll get one from the net.   This is a major archeological site and there will only be more and more evidence found regarding the purpose of this tomb.

The second adventure of the day involved football!  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Gaelic Football is a lot like Aussie Rules, so I was in luck!  I enjoyed watching the game because I actually knew what was going on... and the fans were intense!  The first match today was between Kildare and Derry.  Kildare won (and it seemed the crowd was happy with that result!) and the vibe in the stadium was full of energy and passion!  Before hopping on the bus home, I walked through St. Stephen's Green on the way home and took a fifteen minute break to enjoy the sun that was still shining outside.  I'm hoping tomorrow is just like today.  It's a free day for me so I am going to go into the city and explore some more and I'll probably bring a few essays along with me.  Eileen gave me a great suggestion of marking in the park, so I think I just might do that in the afternoon!


Drogheda hotels Slideshow

Comments

Papa John on Jul 24, 2011 at 02:14AM

I love this prehistoric stuff; not much info on it, is there ? Just finished a book on the possible murder of King Tut; old history is fascinating; glad to see that you had a look at the evidence of early settlement in that region

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