New Grange Passage Tomb

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Up in the Boyne Valley, about an hour North of where I live in Dublin, is a place that has been inhabited for thousands of years. It’s known as the Boyne Valley. It’s mostly small farming communities filled with sheep and horses, and encompasses parts of two counties – Meath and Louth. I’ve already posted about the Hill of Tara, which is located here, and also the Hill of Slane. Anther of the historic places that are located in this valley are even older than those. They are a set of 3 ancient mounds that are collectively known as Passage tombs – New Grange, Knowth, and Dowth (pronounced know-th and dough-th). Dowth isn’t open to the public, and Knowth is only opened during the summer months.

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The New Grange Passage Tomb, however, is open year round and has become one of my favorite places to take friends and family when they come to visit in Ireland. The passage grave dates to 3000 B.C. – meaning it predates both Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. For most people who come to visit, they’ve never seen or experienced something so ancient – and so well constructed that it’s still dry inside. (Yes, you can go inside as part of the tour – but it is a tight squeeze!).

Mom & Chuck
(Mom and Step Dad at New Grange back in May 2011)

New Grange is the largest of all the tombs, and sits overlooking a bend in the Boyne River. The tomb covers an area of about one acre and consists of a man-made beehive shape with and turf on top. The on the front 1/2 the edge of the tomb is made up of sparkling white quartz which was brought in from about 80 km away in the Wicklow Mountains. The whole mound sits within a circle consisting nearly 100 large granite kerb stones, some of which are carved with Neolithic artwork in the form of geometric designs.

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Over the entrance to the tomb is something called a roof box. By design, at sunrise on the winter solstice (around December 22nd) every year, when the sun shines (Sometimes it doesn’t happen – this is Ireland after all!) it goes through the hole over the door and along the entry passage lighting the beehive shaped burial chamber for a few minutes. This shaft of sunlight lights up the carvings within the chamber. At all other times of the year the tomb remains dark inside.

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The interior of New Grange consists of a long entryway leading to a cross-shaped chamber at the heart of the mound. This burial chamber has a beehive shaped roof which rises steeply to a high-point of close to 20 feet. There are three internal coves off of the beehive. These recesses have a large center stone bottom, which was carved into a basin shape and archaeologists believe they would have held the cremated remains of those who had died. During excavation of the tomb, the remains of five people were found.

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In 1962, restoration work on the tomb began under the supervision of Professor Michael J O’Kelly. The structure was taken apart piece by piece and then reconstructed. This work continued until 1975. Since then, the outside of the mound has been put back together, including a stone dwelling, large free standing stones, and smaller standing stones, and a ceremonial ring.

ring of stones

For more pictures from New Grange, you’re welcome to see my flickr set.

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Dunseverick castle ruins

Dunseverick castle ruins
This way to Dunsverick Castle

Last April, I took a beautiful day trip excursion to the Giant’s Causeway with my friend Jacqui and her long time friend, Liz to see the coast of Northern Ireland. I happened to have a map with us (let’s just say we had an adventure in getting there because the GPS ran out of battery) and we ended up taking the scenic route on the way up. One there, we saw the Giant’s Causeway, and decided to pause for the other very close by sites. I would have to say that the most unimpressive site was the castle ruins at Dunsverick Castle.

Dunseverick castle ruins

Basically, this castle was built originally sometime around 1525 BC. Surrounded by the ocean on three sides,Dunseverick was a key ancient site in Ireland, one of the royal roads from Tara, seat of the Kings of Ireland ended here. The site was originally founded by Sobairce, one of the Kings who built a fortress here to rule the ancient Kingdom of Dariada, the location is named after him – Dunsobairce (Fortress of Sobairce) now Dunseverick. Around 500 AD, St. Patrick visited the location, and around 900 AD, the Vikings are said to have raided the fortress extensively. Sometime around the 1500’s AD, a small fortress with round tower was built on the spit of land, and these are the remains that are there today. (There are also sheep, who apparently are great climbers down one steep drop and up to the top of that spit of land…)

Dunseverick castle ruins
All that remains of a once impressive fortress… time and tide wait for no man…

You can see more photos on the Giant’s Causeway flickr set here.

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Lutherstadt-Wittenberg

I’m back processing a few old pictures (and some more recent ones) in between trying to do school work and work overtime at my job. Now that the weather in Ireland has reverted to the chill of fall, let’s see if I can get some new stuff posted and viewable from my busy life. 🙂

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This is more from my day trip to Lutherstadt-Wittenberg, Germany back in 2009 with the Toytown Photo group. It took place on September 19, 2009 – two years ago today.

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The Town Hall

Population about 50,000, this town sits along the beautiful Elbe river. This is the famed town of Martin Luther, where he wrote and posted his edicts on the church doors as part of the Protestant revolution. When in Germany, this town is one of the “must see’s” because of its place in history and the role it played as a part of “enlightenment”.

Wittenberg town square merge

The church towers are for the city church, where Martin Luther preached his then controversial message.

The main pilgrimage point in town is actually the Schloss kirche, upon which Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis on the door of the church back on October 31, 1517. The original door no longer exists, but today, the door is metal with a cast plate of the thesis itself.

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For more pictures, you can check out the three flickr sets below:

Lutherstadt-Wittenberg

St. Marien Lutherstadt (City Church)

Schloss Kirche Wittenberg

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