Ireland

Bru na Boinne – Newgrange Passage Tomb

Bru na Boinne visitor centre interprets the Neolithic sites of the Boinne Valley including the most famous site, Newgrange passage tomb. We decided to visit Newgrange on our last day in Ireland as a last minute addition to our itinerary that required an early start in Ballyshannon for our drive to Dublin Airport to fit in a guided tour.

Passage tombs are found throughout Europe, and we saw several in The Orkneys including Maeshowe where the guide told us about Newgrange, a site not then on our itinerary. Whilst the tomb is largely intact, the outer walls are reconstructed to represent what it may have looked like in Neolithic times. I am always uncomfortable with modern reconstructions but the while the patterning may be incorrect the imposing white-walled structure is certainly a fitting place for our Neolithic ancestors to start their journey into the next life.

The passage itself is as it was three thousand years ago, a long narrow entrance opens out into six metre (20 feet) high dome that has withstood the elements for thousands of years and is testament to the ingenuity of Neolithic people that their stone structures endure into the modern age. The entrance is aligned to direct sunlight into the dome around the Winter Solstice and a lucky few visitors (determined by lottery) are allowed in those days each year. For the rest of us, the tour includes a short artificial sunrise to demonstrate how the tomb looks when the sun is aligned.

A visit to Newgrange takes an hour, and can only be accessed through the Bru na Boinne visitor centre guided tour. To make the most of your visit explore the visitor interpretive displays before heading out to the tomb.

Looking beyond Newgrange

Passage Tomb Entrance

Prehistoric Pictagrams

Irish Roots in Ballyshannon

Colleen joined The Gathering, Ireland’s call to expatriates and their descendants to return to the homeland in 2013, after our Rick Steves’ tour ended and we trekked back across Ireland to Ballyshannon and her family home Cavangarden House.

The Atkinson family moved from Yorkshire to Ballyshannon during the Ulster Plantation, and William Atkinson became one of 12 Burgesses who controlled the Ballyshannon corporation under Royal Charter from King James I. The family lived and prospered in County Donegal until 1968 when the last surviving direct descendent passed on leaving Cavangarden House to a friend. The Atkinson family had strong ties to Trinity College in Dublin, and successive generations practised Law in Ireland’s Legal system participating in many landmark trials as depicted in etchings that hung in Cavangarden.

With keen interest in her heritage, Colleen discovered that Cavangarden House had become a bed and breakfast and thus a stay in the ancestral home became a central aspect for our Ireland travel plans. Agnes, the current owner, welcomed us warmly and provided Colleen with many insights into her family’s history in Ballyshannon. We walked the grounds, thumbed through books once owned by Colleen’s cousins and marvelled at the etchings depicting their prominent role in Donegal and Irish history.

We journeyed out to the local Protestant Church to visit the Atkinson family plot, and walked through fields to the tumble downed remains of Kilbarron Castle tracing Colleen’s routes in the region. It was fascinating to watch Colleen as she joined the dots of her family history in the region, and while we only scratched the surface we know a longer stay in Ireland is in our future to dig deeply into that heritage.

Atkinson Dining Room

Legal Proceedings

Atkinson Family Chapel, Cavangarden

A Titanic Memory

Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.

James Stephens

In 1912, the greatest cruise liner of its day struck an iceberg and sunk with the loss of over 1500 lives. The headline story is well-known, and popular films have retold it until fact and fiction blurred into one for many people but the truth is captured in the individual stories of survivors and the families of the lost souls.

Susie Millar shared her family story with us, her Great Grandfather brought the great engines of Titanic to life in the Belfast shipyard and boarded her bound for New York to start a new life for his two boys. Before he left, he gave each son two new pennies and implored them not to spend them until they were reunited. Susie reached into her pocket and produced the two pennies her Grandfather never got to spend.

For decades, Belfast ignored its part in the Titanic story and it great ship building heritage. James Cameron’s Titanic film epic renewed interest worldwide and Belfast embraced the story to build the stunning Titanic Quarter on the shipyards that once produced Titanic and her sister ships. The structure is symbolic of the tragedy and houses displays detailing the events but the real drama is outside. Wandering the slipway, we imagined the thousands of skilled workers that once swarmed over the great iron leviathans that carried men and women across the world; immigrants, traders, workers and wealthy travellers all sharing the high seas seeking new adventures or a better life.

Titanic Centre – Belfast

Remembering the Iceberg

The Troubles

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

Edmund Burke

The history of English oppression and Ireland’s struggle for independence is a key theme of any tour of the country but it comes into sharper focus once you cross the border into Northern Ireland. Despite a decade of peace, the old hatreds and prejudices are clearly visible in places like Bogside in Derry or the Shankill and Falls Roads areas of Belfast. I did not feel welcomed in these areas by the local community, and it seemed intrusive to thrust even our small tour group into this area of raw tension and passion.

Of course to understand Irish history, you must come to grips with these areas and the sectarian violence that forged their hatreds into steely resistance but the wounds are still raw and it seems wrong to turn their suffering into a tourist photo opportunity. Go by all means but step lightly into the community because its their home not our tourist destination.

Giant’s Causeway – A Link to Scotland?

An Irish giant challenged his Scottish counterpart to a fight but soon realises he is outmatched by the bigger Scottish giant. The Irish giant dons baby clothes, and when the Scottish behemoth sees this massive ‘baby’ he flees in terror smashing the causeway that connected their countries behind him.

Like many tales there may be an element of truth to this fable, a few weeks before we arrived on the Antrim Coast, Colleen and I sailed to Staffa Island to see Fingal’s Cave. As you can see in these two photos, the basalt formations of the Giant’s Causeway are replicated on Staffa, and the Causeway points in its general direction north of the Antrim Coast. Were they once connected by a basalt land bridge?

I’m not sure but the possibility brought together two disparate parts of our travels through the United Kingdom in an unexpected and delightfully silly way through the Irish fable.

Giant’s Causeway

Staffa Island – The Other End?

Giant’s Boot

Making a St Bridget’s Cross

Friendship’s a noble name, ’tis love refined.

Susannah Centlivre

After visiting the Cliffs of Moher, we took a moment solitude at the Well of St Bridget. The well is crowded with devotions and gratitude for the Saint’s intervention for the pilgrims who worship at this holy sight.

A few days latter, Barry showed us how to construct a simple St Bridget’s Cross from the reeds that abound in the bogs near Leenane. Both stops had special meaning for Colleen whose middle name is shared with the Saint, her Grandmother and our daughter.

St Bridget’s Well

St Bridget

Collecting reeds to make a St Bridget’s Cross

Constructing a St Bridget’s Cross

The Hawk has Landed – Ireland School of Falconry

As we strolled through the beautiful gardens of Ashford Castle, I noticed the signs to pointing to the Ireland’s School of Falconry and thought that would be a cool activity. No sooner had the thought crossed my mind, we reached the school gates and Barry announced that we would all be experiencing the thrill of falconry.

Awesome!

Birds of prey are inherently lazy, only expending their energy in flight when they need to hunt so each bird has a flying weight. Over that prime weight, the bird will resist flying but if weight drops too low a bird may perish especially in cold weather. Their handlers weight each bird daily and ensure they remain within a tight boundary of their flying weight, easy right? Well, the flying weight changes constantly as birds mature so the handlers are always adapting the flying weight to ensure the birds are at their best.

The School has several different species but the majority of students will work with a Harris Hawk, the only social bird of prey on the world. Unlike other birds of prey who are solitary hunters, Harris Hawks hunt as a team similar to lions and this makes them ideal to work with groups of people.

Maya, a young female hawk, became our companion for the morning walk and each member of the group had at least one opportunity to fly her as we strolled the Ashford Castle grounds. The birds are trained to come to the raised black leather glove and expect the small reward of meat held in your palm, if you look carefully at the photos Maya’s head is focussed on the palm as she lands on the glove.

Maya is amazingly gentle as she lands on your outstretched hand, and sits quietly while waiting for you to send her airborne again. Unlike a parrot or other domestic birds, the hawk never pecks or scratches you and even if she steps off the leather glove her talons never break the skin. A truly magical experience that our whole group will remember as a highlight of a truly wonderful tour.

This is not a regular part of the Rick Steves’ 14 Day Best of Ireland tour but I cannot imagine a better addition to an already great itinerary.

Rick, please make it so.

The Great Hunger

The safest road to hell is the gradual one–the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

C.S. Lewis

In 1845, the Irish potato crop failed and the country entered a period of unending hardship and famine that they call the Great Hunger. Travelling through western Ireland, we saw hills scarred by abandoned potato farrows that once produced the staple diet for the Irish people. Productive land that never again produced a sustainable potato crop and is now turned over to sheep and cattle, and remains devoid of the families that once lived here.

Throughout the Great Hunger, the poor died in their thousands and many thousands more chose to immigrate to Australia, Canada and the United States to seek a better life for their families. Even on these voyages of hope, sickness spread rapidly in the cramped and stagnant living conditions and these deaths led many people to call their vessels coffin ships. A bronze sculpture in Murrisk gives graphic voice to their suffering, skeletons flying from the tall masks a reminder that famine still exists in our ever richer world.

In the Doo Lough Valley, 600 starving Irish tenant farmers walked 12 miles to Delphi Lodge seeking food from their landlord. Angry at the interruption to his fine meal, he sent them home and over 200 perished on the return march some literally blown into the bog by the strong icy wind. How an educated and enlightened gentry looked out on deprivation and suffering without pity or remorse for their tenants and fellow humanity is unimaginable to me. Yet similar conditions exist throughout the world in our own enlightened times.

History always repeats if we let it.

Doo Lough – Great Famine Memorial

Coffin Ship Memorial

Ballyshannon Work House

Aran Islands – Inishmore

The snot green sea. The scrotum tightening sea.

James Joyce

A perfect autumn day, a picturesque island and good friends – is there any better advertisement for an Irish vacation than the pristine beaches and ancient monuments of the Aran Islands?

Pascal delivered us to the ferry terminal, and a short boat trip latter we disembarked on to Inishmore for an island tour. By bike, by horse drawn carriage or by rust encrusted van we set out of from Kilronan ferry terminal to circumnavigate the island, first stop Dun Aenghus. The stone fort sits precariously on the cliff edge, the sea having claimed almost half of the original structure over the centuries but it remains an imposing feature on the island landscape.

At the foot of the trial we lunched on the ‘best tomato soup’ (according to Barry), and found it to be a very pleasing lunch for a warm autumn day. Local shops sell the famous Aran Jumpers made from the local wool, the skill of these knitters is obvious and the intricate textured patterns remind me of the fisherman who relied on these thick woollen jumpers to keep them warm against the freezing Atlantic gales.

After lunch we headed off to complete our sprint around Inishmore, the island hosted a rich monastic life from 500 to 900 A.D. during the Age of Saints and Scholars including Columba who founded the monastery on Iona that would produce the Book of Kells. In a tiny corner of the Seven Churches, a few graves are marked as the Romans, a testament to the Inishmore scholars these men travelled from Rome to study the Holy texts in this lonely outpost of Christianity.

Before returning to Kilronan, we stopped at the pristine waters of Kilmurvey Beach (Trá Chill Mhuirbhigh), one of five Blue Flag beaches in County Galway. The Blue Flag is awarded to beaches and marinas that meet a specific set of criteria including:
• Environmental Information and Education
• Water Quality
• Safety and Services
• Environmental Management

A few hardy souls dipped their toes in the cold Atlantic water but most of us were satisfied with a stroll along the beach with thoughts of summer on our minds.

Yugi’s Island

Yugi roams Inishmore, patrolling his domain as the tourists flow across his home like fleas over a dog. His owner is a Japanese Inishmore resident but clearly Yugi is in charge here. We saw him at every stop from the ferry terminal to Dun Aenghus to the beach, clearly he knew all the shortcuts because he often got there first.

Overlooking his Kingdom of Inishmore

Hans & Cathryn – Inishmore

Colleen, Claudia and Robyn

Climbing to Dun Aenghus

Prestine Beach – Inishmore

Inishmore

The Abundance of The Burren

Ireland invokes a vision of rolling green fields and rich farming land, yet its landscape yields unexpected surprises like the rocky expanse of The Burren. It reminded me of Australia, a seemingly desolate and savage landscape that hides a richly diverse and productive ecosystem. Created out of the geological chaos of the Ice Age, and the acidic mixture of limestone and rain that drilled holes into the surface to harbour the meagre Burren soils to support the greatest diversity of plants in Ireland. Arctic and Mediterranean wild flowers bloom together in The Burren, and drench the grey landscape in colour throughout June and July.

Poulnabrone Dolmen is an ancient portal tomb originally mistaken for a Druid’s altar because the cairn of tones that once surrounded it have been carried away to build cottages and fences. Like similar tombs, the tomb is orientated to the Sun’s annual cycle of life. The effort expended by people to build this edifice to their gods and ancestors drew me into the sacredness of the landscape. Successive generations have worked with the Burren’s natural gifts to create an abundant environment within which they survived and thrived into the modern era.

Poulnabrone Dolmen

Mary, our guide on The Burren.

Jets over The Burren

Poulnabrone Dolmen

Fossilised Coral on The Burren

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Yugi’s Island

Share this:

Share this: