Skerries Mills

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30 KM north of Dublin, along the M1 into county Fingal, and out toward the coast is a small town of Skerries. Skerries isn’t a particularly big town, nor is there anything particularly different about it in the town center. There are pubs, shops, and the typical Irish curving town main street. What is interesting about it is that not far from the main street of town are two gorgeous “Holland style” windmills which are located, along with the mill pond, in the town’s main park.

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Opened year round and restored by the Fingal County Council, the mills are pretty spectacular on a sunny day and allow for views of the coast and off shore islands. There’s tours 7 days a week, a handful of crafts at the visitor’s shop, and they often have the two windmills (and the watermill – there’s been a watermill on the location since the days of Henry VIII) working during tours. There is a nice little cafe, plenty of ducks to feed if you choose to take a stroll around the mill pond, and a farmer’s market on Saturdays featuring organic foods.

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If you’d like more information on Skerries Mills, you can see their website at: http://www.skerriesmills.org/

If you’d like to read more about the nearby New Bridge House and gardens, please click here.

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Slane Abbey Ruins

Looking up the hill at the ruins

The Hill of Slane towers 158 metres (521ft) above the surrounding landscape. On one side of the hill is a ring structure and mound, the other the remains of a monestary which was in use between 1100 – 1750’s. The cemetery remains in use today.

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In ancient mythology, the Fir Bolg king Sláine (Slane) was said to have been buried here. In Christian history the hill became established as the place where St. Patrick lit the first paschal fire in 443 AD in direct defiance of the High King Logaire who forbid any other fires while a festival fire was burning on the Hill of Tara.

St Patrick statue at Abbey ruins

According to legend, Logaire was so impressed by Patricks devotion that, he allowed St. Patrick to continue his missionary work in Ireland. It is somewhat more certain that Patrick appointed a bishop of Slane, Saint Erc on this location around 435 AD.

Hill of Slane Abbey Panorama

On a clear day, from Slane hill you can see the mounds of New Grange and Knowth, with the town of Drogheda and the Irish Sea beyond.

View out the window

To the North the view extends as far as Slieve Gullion (well into Northern Ireland), and to the South as far as the Sugarloaf Mountain in Wicklow.

Abbey and Castle ruins hill of slane

More photos from the full set are up on flickr.

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