Ireland Day 7: Valley of the Kings

Our last driving day

So today was our last day with Eileen, insert some hyperventilating sobs, but we had one last hurrah with her. What’s a better way to end our time with Eileen than to traverse through the Valley of the Kings?

Knowing we were going to very popular tourist spots for the day the question is which spot do you want to not have to deal with crowds? I asked my sister. I don’t want crowds at either one. Well that’s not an option, to beat the crowds that means you need to get there early and since we can’t be in two places at once we had to prioritize which place of the two we wanted to avoid the crowds.

We selected and off we went. I mean if you’re going to start anywhere this is the place to start. Hill of Tara, the seat of the High Kings and the Stone of Destiny. I mean its not the Excalibur and the challenge of removing the sword from the stone but it sounds just as neat as the Stone of Destiny is said to cry out when touched by the new king. On a clear day it is said you can see 70% of the counties of all of Ireland.

Something I have noticed and appreciate about Ireland is a lot of the tourist locations are open to the public, they have a visitor center but you don’t need to go to it, you can just visit these spectacular locations on your own time. Hill of Tara is that, you can wander about the fields on your own on your own time so you don’t need to wait until the visitor center is open.

We took a picture of the layout before we left to wander, which helped as its not apparent where you are at most times. If I would have thought about it, a drone would have been the best way to view this location (however I say this not knowing if drones are allowed – if you go do your research).

Alas, Lisa and I are not kings. The Stone did not cry, all we could hear was the mumblings of the guy behind us who was meditating with his nearby drum and 2 liter Mountain Dew you know to stay hydrated and who doesn’t need a mainline of caffeine at 7 AM.

We wandered about the fields, and decided to try to find one of the holy wells in the area, there should be about 6 or so. We went to go seek out the Tober Finn Well located to the back right most spot in the area. We wandered through the trees and high grasses, dodging some runners who enjoy the trails, but to no avail. We decided to enjoy a few of the ring formations, maybe jumping up and down to try to get more of an elevated view. My sister and I aren’t known to be the tallest of people. I’m sure it was amusing to watch us.

We decided to retreat back to the well we did see along the road, King Cormac’s or now called St. Patrick’s well. Now the waters in these wells is considered sacred. “It was believed that drinking from these holy waters or bathing in them would bestow the power of the Otherworld in the form of poetic inspiration, wisdom, or healing.” We are not about to drink this water, but we did dab a little here and there. Much like a dab of perfume behind both ears.

I’m glad we came here first and when we did, as we walked back to the car the droves of cars and buses were pulling up. Cattle call!!!

Oh and we cannot for the life of us understand why the ice cream displays are so large!

Off to our next location.

Newgrange

It must have been over 7 years or so, on a flight to somewhere I can’t remember where, I had my seat mate tell me I have to get myself to Ireland. You’ve heard of Stonehenge right? Well its older and more impressive than Stonehenge. I remember that conversation so when it came time to plan out Ireland it was time to cross this off the list.

When I mean older than Stonehenge, I mean older! Even older than the Pyramids, okay Stonehenge is probably older than the Egyptian pyramids, but these places are old. Well this place is older…

We find the winding roads to get to the location. Thwarted! You cannot just go to Newgrange. This is a place you need to go to the visitors center first, and this center is not just right next to it, it must be a 30 or so minute drive away as there isn’t a direct access line to it, if you ask me mainly due to no parking. It is only offered as a guided tour. So do not set your GPS to Newgrange, set it for Bu Na Boinne Visitors Center. You buy your ticket into a timeslot (running every hour or so), we just missed the last tour so we bought our tickets for the next one and while the visitors center had a lot to do and see we wandered outside to wait for the shuttle at the bus stop.

It was a bit of a wait but the artwork we were able to enjoy was amazing! Okay not officially artwork but different posters in each language to instruct how one should behave when visiting Newgrange. It was quite amusing to see the stereotypes of each culture adequately represented.

The shuttle doesn’t take the same route we had to take to drive from the site to the visitor center. They had a direct path access over the river and it takes maybe 5-10 minutes.

This site is dated back to around 3200 BC, for being so old it is really well preserved. I’m honestly surprised war and the elements have not taken a toll on this place. I mean I am merely a microscopic fraction of a % as old as this place and I feel like I’m getting crumbly. I mean I guess they don’t make things like they used to.

So we took a spin around the place while we waited our turn, remember we were not here at the break of the day so while the population was controlled due to the tours, they had about maybe 3 tours operating at any given time so there were some people.

It was finally our turn to pop up the steps and go inside of the passage tomb, the mound itself is about 40 feet high, 250 feet across. Going inside you ago in about 60 feet inside of a narrow passage way to get to 4 chambers. At one point in time they turned off all of the lights and it was absolutely pitch dark. There is a small opening just near the opening that at sunrise for a few mornings around winter solstice it illuminates the entire chamber. There is a lottery every year for people to win the opportunity to be in the chamber at during this event.

There is another mound nearby Knowth, but we did not visit that location so I cannot comment on that location.

Now we visited Loughcrew Cairns the day before and between this Newgrange which is quite impressive and Loughcrew Cairns I would say (and I feel bad for saying so) skip Newgrange and go visit Loughcrew Carins.

After our time at Newgrange had ended we popped back with Eileen to Trim to visit Trim Castle. Now we may recognize Trim Castle not for its Irish Past and History but from more of a Scottish flair. FREEDOM!!!! It was a filming location for Braveheart. This castle is unique in that it has 20 corners throughout the entire external architecture. We opted to take the tour inside of the castle which lead us up this external staircase where the guide had to wait for the ancient key to let us inside. It was an interesting tour and had lots of spiral staircases for us to wind up and down. You all know how much I love the stairs!

Ugh, it is so hot out today and all of the sun! Can you believe I was breaking out in a heat rash in Ireland? Okay not so much a heat rash but sometimes my skin doesn’t like the sun and I get an allergic reaction to it (no not a sunburn – although that happens too). My lily white skin prefers if I stay indoors, or maybe I need to get out more and get it accustomed to the sun, but I am a northerner and the sun and corresponding weather doesn’t allow for much opportunity to see it.

It was time to get out of the sun and say goodbye to our faithful friend Eileen. It was time to start the city portion of our trip. The past 6.5 days touring around the island was wonderful but we needed to explore and spend some time in Dublin.