Day 8, 18 May 2012

This day we retraced our steps to the north and visited the Boyne river valley again.  There was just too much to see on our first visit.  It took an hour and a half to get back up there, skirting the edge of Dublin and rocketing up on the M road at 120km/h.  Rhys got car sick on the way, Owyn had done it the day before, and barfed all over himself and the back of the car.  Happily we were not shifting house and didn’t have all of our possessions in the car because he got it everywhere.  Mama was not best pleased.  When we got to Trim Nana ran and bought him a change of clothes while I changed him and Mama tried to clean the car out.  (On the 21^st it finally is gone).

The four of us in front of the keep.

Trim is a large Norman castle built by DeLacy, who was given Munster as his fief by the king of England.  It is the best preserved Norman castle in Ireland.  The walls are still intact on one side and the cruciform keep is mostly intact, though the north tower is gone.  The only way to visit the keep is by a guided tour.  When we were in Dublin we bought OPW (Office of Public Works) cards.  The family card was 55 euro and it has gotten us in for free at every OPW site.  We have more than made up that initial 55 euro cost.

The keep of Trim Castle.  There used to be a fourth tower where the jagged walls are.

The current entrance.  This was one of three gates when the castle was operational.

The backside/inside of one of the D towers on the curtain wall.

One of the arrow slits, looking out over the river.

The inside of the keep looking down, from the third floor.

We had to wait awhile, for the visit to start, so we headed off to walk the castle grounds.  There are several D shaped towers still in good shape.  I explained how arrow slits work, to Rhys and Owyn and every time they saw one, for the rest of the day, they had to practice firing their bows out of the windows.

The interpretation for the Barbican gate.  This is noticeably better than the Boyne battlefield.

The inside of the barbican gate, taken from the top of the keep.

Outside view of the barbican gate.  There would have been a wooden palisade around the square tower.

This was the main entrance to the castle until the town grew up around it and they built the current gate.

A peek out an arrow slit at the swamp beneath the walls.

Looking through the gates into the inner bailey.

There is also a, mostly, intact Barbican gate here.  This consisted of a round tower for the gatehouse with an outlying, square, tower.  There was a whole series of bridges, doors and portcullises to draw an attacker in, then kill him.  The interpretation here was pretty good and you could actually tell something about the castle from it.  Very strange for Ireland.

One of three models of the keep.  The white exterior is how it would have looked.

 The tour was very much worth the wait.  It was very informative and very interesting.  The single fact that stuck with me the most was that castles were not left in bare stone but were whitewashed and plastered so that they were giant white blocks from a distance.  There was a lot of climbing of round stairs and ducking under low doorways.  The boys were in heaven, though the steps got them down at the end.

Happy little boys.  Owyn strikes a pose.

Part of the interior of the new gatehouse.

The exterior view of one of the D towers with the keep in the background.

Following Trim we planned to visit Tara, the ancient seat of the pre-Christian high kings of Ireland.  Happily we got a bit lost and ended up on the way to Kells.  We zipped through town and parked at a car park next to a playground, much to the joy of the boys.  We had packed a picnic lunch so we ate that and then they played.

Owyn was really happy to find a playground.

As was Rhys.

We did not want to do too much walking in Kell, since we didn’t know where things were.  We had passed a church on the way to the car park so we walked down the street to that one.  Remarkably, that was the right choice.  On the way we passed Saint Colmcille’s House, a church built to house the relics (boney remains) of Saint Columba.  The current door was not the door at the time, that spot being below ground now.  There are also persistent local rumors that there is a tunnel from the house to the church down the street.

It almost looks like it was carved out of a boulder.

I do love some of the quaint Irish customs.

Once in the church yard we found some celtic crosses from around 700AD.  The church was new but there was a Norman tower which the church was using as a garden shed; storing lawn mowers and garden tools.  There is another bell tower here, similar to the one at Glendalough, though not as tall or capped with a nice conical lid.

The current church's garden shed.

Seriously, I'm not smart enough to make this up.

Looking good for being over a thousand years old.

Same cross with the tower in the background.

Another one of the OLD crosses located here.

A nice description of what we are looking at.

The last of the old crosses in the church yard.

Owyn wandered through the cemetery making up stories about the various tomb stones.  In one case there was a little boy who was under a curse but his family found a way to lift it and he lived happily ever after.

We found our way out of Kells, after Rhys peed on a wall.  We zipped across the country and made it to Tara with no “detours”.  There was a car park at the base of the hill.  We marched up a path, passing an open archeological dig on the way.  There was a large statue of St Patrick there, as well as a church, which is now a visitor center where they show videos, but not the day when we were there.

Statue of St Patrick at Tara.

The Royal Hall.  Imagine it in all its splendor.  If you don't know what it would have looked like, tough, they aren't going to tell you.

More of the hall.  It could have been so great.

Look!  A standing stone.  I have absolutely no idea what this is because they didn't tell me.

Tara has no interpretation and no attempt to inform or teach.  If you don’t know what it is before you get there you will not know a single thing about it when you leave.   This was once the most important point in Ireland.  I found the lack of interpretation or information to be infuriating.

Great view.  There's stuff tied to the tree.  I wonder what that is all about.

Some restoration work underway.

Finally, some explanation of something.

Some real, live archaeology happening before our eyes.  Not that we have any idea what they are doing, of course.

Tara is on top of a giant down with incredible views in all directions.  I’m sure the first human to ever see it said, “I am so building my house up here”.  Today it is covered in sheep shit and grass with a stiff breeze blowing across it.  The views are still amazing but there is nothing but some mounds to show it was ever important.

We left Tara and made the drive back down to the Wicklow mountains for out last night in our first cottage.  We made a real dent in the groceries, since we had bought a lot and didn’t have room in the car for all of them.  The boys played hard and crashed hard.  We all went to sleep late and got up early the next day, loading the car and moving on.