Slane Abbey

Ireland abounds with abbeys and monasteries!  Everywhere we go, there are abbey and monastery ruins to see, yet I never tire of seeing them.  They are like rainbows!

The story is that St. Patrick lit an Easter fire on the Hill of Slane, before the Druids could light the fire for their feast day on the Hill of Tara.  Seeing the light of the fire on the Hill of Slane, they warned the High King that if St. Patrick's fire was not put out immediately, it would burn forever in Ireland.  The rest is, of course, Irish history...

I think we look pretty good for having toured for many hours already!

This kind of tree intrigues  me.  It looks like a pine tree, but the trunk is kind of like a palm tree, and the branches aren't just regular pine needles.  The photo doesn't do it justice, but I have seen a few of these around and so far have been unable to identify them.

Statue of the Man of the Hill aka St. Patrick.

Kells

After all the hiking around Loughcrew, it was time to find a village with a pub.  Fortunately, in Ireland, that's easy to do!  We hopped in the car, successfully maneuvered down the road without having to reverse, and headed to Kells for lunch and more touring.

We parked in the town and found a nice pub connected to the Headfort Arms Hotel, called the Kelltic Pub.  It was full of character!  We sat at the bar, had a nice lunch and tried a new stout from the Bru Brewery of Trim.  The stout was called Bru Dubh and it was delicious!  Now we are planning to schedule a tour of the brewery, which was just opened in 2013.

Steve in front of the St. Vincent de Paul offices in Kells.

I love seeing the medieval towers in these charming towns!

Kells is famous as the monastic village which housed the Book of Kells, though it was not actually written in Kells.  In 807 AD  the Columban monks left Iona in western Scotland because of Viking attacks and moved their monastic headquarters to Kells.  The illustrated copy of the gospels was made about the time they came to Ireland. 

This plaque is on the Churchyard wall and the wall marks the boundary of the original monastery that was rebuilt in 1714.  The picture below represents the monastery grounds around 1000 AD.

The original Church no longer stands.  The west porch of the great stone Church housed the sacred vessels and the Book of Kells.  The Book was stolen in 1007 AD, and was found 2 months later without it's lavish cover.  Below is the symbol of St. John in the Book of Kells.

There were at least 5 High Crosses in Kells.  The oldest one stands beside the Round Tower and is inscribed with words meaning "The Cross of Patrick and Columba"  It is believed this cross was erected shortly after the founding of the monastery.

The Round Tower was built in the 10th century.  It is 90 feet high and has 6 floors.  It has no internal staircase.  It required a ladder to get onto the floors, and each floor has one window.  The raised doorway made the tower stronger and more difficult to attack.  These towers are called "Cloigteach" or bell towers.  They were used for lookouts and for protection from Viking attacks.  There are five windows at the top that allowed them to view all the five ancient roads leading into the town of Kells. 

There are two other high crosses in the graveyard.  Below is a photo of one taken at some time between 1888 and 1914. 

 

Below is my shot of the same High Cross!

And this High Cross is missing many parts...

The original Church was in ruins in 1655 and was used as a horse barracks by Cromwell's army.  The present Church and Spire were built in 1778 in the same spot.

I thought it was neat to see the old photo of the town and the Spire.

Loughcrew

This is another Passage Tomb, like Knowth and Newgrange.  The drive to the lot is a long winding road that I am sure only fits one car.  There is a road leading to and another one leading from, but they are not one-ways, so you may have to back up as necessary if you meet another car on the road, until you can safely pass each other.  It caused me a bit of anxiety, but at least I wasn't driving!

Loughcrew is in County Meath.  It is the highest point in the County.  I am thinking I should do a blog dedicated to hitting all the highest points in every county in Ireland!  It would be like doing the 7 summits, only not because, of course, the highest points in Ireland do not go anywhere near as high as the 7 summits.  Having said that, I was at the highest point in County Westmeath - which is in the Beech Forest where we walked the dogs.  If I ever get to Cairn Hill, I will have been to the highest point in county Longford!  That will be three down, and only 29 more to go, as there are apparently 32 counties in the Republic of Ireland.

Well, I digress...

This was the lot where we parked.  In the off season, you can pick up a key to unlock the gate and tour the mounds.  Even from the parking lot, it was a lovely view.

Loughcrew has the remains of 25 mounds that cover a fairly wide expanse.  There are two main cairns, T and H.  We will have to go back to walk to H.

It is quite a climb to the top of the main tomb, Cairn T.  The mound and passage tomb is very well intact.  We were able to walk into the passage and view the engravings on the stones in the back chambers.  There was a tour guide, as 2 people sit on chairs at the entrance and guide visitors in and give you lots of information.  It does not cost anything to tour Loughcrew and enter the passage tomb.  At the end of the short tunnel, there are three chambers and she showed us using a flashlight, how the sun would light up the chamber on the Autumn and Spring Equinox. The carvings on the stone have several circles that look sort of like suns.  As the sun rises on the Equinox, it lights up each circular picture as it goes.  It would be really cool to see and there is no lottery.  We just have to call to find out the exact day (as there is a range of 3 days around the time of the Equinox) and then we can just go and hopefully get in to watch the sun light up the Chamber, if it is, in fact, a sunny spell in Ireland that day...  It would be really interesting to see it.  We will shoot for the Autumn Equinox in September I believe.

Views from the hilltop.

Well, it wouldn't be Ireland if there weren't sheep.  And yes, on the walk up the hill you must watch your step...

It is a rather steep hill.  There are worn paths that go up the hill at an angle.  It probably takes about 20 minutes to get to the top.  There were a few people who seemed to be deciding not to climb the hill.  It is worth it though. 

This picture below is The Hag's Chair.  Yes, I sat in it.  Yes, we have a picture on Steve's camera.  I will post it when we download the camera to the computer.

These clogs are what NOT to wear when touring Loughcrew.  Steve's feet kept going sideways and it was making me laugh!  He kindly paused so I could take a picture too!

This picture shows the location of the various mounds in Loughcrew.  Cairn T is the main mound in Carnbane East.  I also thought it was funny that in posting the sign, they went right into the diagram with the bolt!  Why?!

Again with the bolt screwed into the picture!  Really?!

Such incredible views!  We will have to return to see the other cairns.  We will come prepared for a lot of hiking!

Abbeylara Revisited

From the roadside memorial, we headed north to Abbeylara, which I had already seen with Amy P, but Steve had not yet been there.  It was a warm, lovely day and I took a few more pictures.

The Clonfin Ambush

This is a roadside monument on the Ballinalee Road.  We drive by it all the time and keep saying we should stop.  Finally, Steve and I were taking a small trip together for the June Bank Holiday weekend, and we stopped.  This was on Sunday, June 1st, the day after Joel, Jewel, and Collin went back to the States.  So Steve and I packed our bags and took a jaunt North and East to the Boyne River Valley to see some new sites and to visit some that Steve had not yet seen.

The Clonfin Ambush Memorial recognizes the actions of men who were fighting for the cause of Irish Freedom in 1921.  The sign posted explains exactly what occurred at this particular spot.