Today I went to the prehistoric sites of Newgrange and Knowth, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of 'Brú na Bóinne - Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne'. I made my way there individually, though I'd booked a tour for the site itself, as this is mandatory (no individual visits allowed).
I made my way there today via a train to the town of Drogheda (passing through Gormanston on the way - it was on the same line) and then a taxi from there to the visitor centre, as the bus from Drogheda in the morning wouldn't arrive in time for the start of my tour. The taxi driver was lovely, and on finding out where I was from, said that he'd been a BT engineer around the south coast of England for a number of years in the 1980s, and remembered the Great Storm of 1987 and the sheer volume of utility poles which were blown over or otherwise damaged and which he had to help fix!
I was very early for my tour, so I had plenty of time to look round the visitor centre's exhibition first, which was excellent despite the lack of artefacts. It was very well presented, as well as informative, putting the site into context with information about life in Neolithic times, how and why the passage tombs were constructed, the megalithic art found at Newgrange and especially Knowth, and timelines of when the sites within the Brú na Bóinne complex were built and what happened to them in subsequent centuries, up to the excavations which started in the 1960s and have continued up to the present day. There was also an impressive immersive installation gallery where I appeared to be within a forest, with floor-to-ceiling pictures of the forest interior, silhouettes of deer and wild boar darting through the trees, a forest soundtrack and a shimmering light pattern on the floor like the sun shining through water.
I also took my time wandering over the bridge across the River Boyne to the place where the bus to the site itself was going to leave from. I spotted some fish, and as I gazed out over the river I got a real sense of how prehistoric the scene was; if a Neolithic man in a log canoe had appeared, I would only have been half-surprised!
The first site we stopped at was Knowth. Entrance inside the passage tomb here isn't allowed, but we were shown round the outside and on top of the main mound, and walked by several smaller mounds too.
Round the outside of the main mound are great stones with abstract carvings - one of the greatest concentrations of megalithic art in the world; apparently around 70% of the world's megalithic art is to be found in the Boyne Valley, and the majority of that is at Knowth.
There was also some remains of a tiny 16th-17th century house. On top of the main mound we had wonderful views over the Boyne Valley and beyond; we could see Newgrange in the distance on one side, the Wicklow Mountains some 70-80 km away in a different direction, and the Hill of Slane, with ruins atop, in another. The latter is where St Patrick is said to have first lit a Paschal fire in 433 A.D., in defiance of the pagan High King of the time, who had forbidden any fires while the festival fire was burning at the Hill of Tara 16 km away.
We went to Newgrange next. We didn't have as long here, though there was just enough time to walk round the outside first before going in. I spent a bit too long walking round without realising it until I got back to the entrance and realised the rest of the group had already been taken inside! Luckily I caught up with them quite quickly so I didn't miss much.
I admired the megalithic carvings, roof and side-chambers in particular, one of which included a chiselled granite basin stone. It was mind-blowing to be inside, knowing that what we could see there was what people 4000-5000 years ago would have seen - the guide told us that unlike the outside and the front, which were reconstructed (as when discovered, the stone which had been on top had slid off 1000s of years beforehand), the interior construction was almost entirely intact from how it was in 1699, when the tomb was discovered and entered for the first time in 4000 years. There is some graffiti from the 19th century, however, carved by Victorians who visited the monument before the Ancient Monuments Protection Act came into being; also, electric lighting was installed in the 1950s. The tour ended with the guide re-enacting what happens at sunrise at the winter solstice; in total darkness, a beam of light then appears, entering the inner chamber.
Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside.
I managed to get a bus back to Drogheda, a cheaper option than another taxi, then an uneventful train journey back to Dublin. On my walk back to the hostel I diverted slightly to the haunting Famine Memorial on the riverfront - emaciated figures standing in a staggered group, giving a real sense of the utter desolation and horror of the Great Famine and what drove so many to make their way to Dublin to emigrate to places like Canada and the USA.
This featured blog entry was written by 3Traveller from the blog Teaching and Travelling Abroad.
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