Ireland is famous for its natural beauties and we intended to see them despite the rain and wind! We headed to the northern coast of Northern Ireland to Giant's Causeway. The natural formations in this area are extremely unique and breathtaking, particulary combined with the continual crashing of waves.
Our next stop was Dunluce Castle. Also situated on the coast, the castle represents less of a fortress and more of a comfortable home. Dunluce is now in a state of ruin, but a beautiful ruin none the less. We love castles and found this one particularly beautiful.
We intended to spend the night in a bed and breakfast in County Donegal, so once the light started fading we set off on a two hour drive across the countryside. We stayed in a very homey bed and breakfast in Killybegs, a small out of the way town. Our hostess was extremely kind and friendly. We has a lovely room and our hostess cooked us a full Irish breakfast in the morning.
Our first stop on the 24th was Slieve League. These cliffs are famous for their beauty and height, known to be the tallest sea cliffs in Europe. Our route took us along a scenic coastal road in Northwestern Ireland. The road was narrow, but the view was spectacular. Fortunately we ran into few other people, as it was the off-season for tourists. In fact, we saw far more sheep than people in the countryside! Slieve League was beautiful and worth the trip up the steep windy road.
David lived for a few month in Northern Ireland with his parents and sister when he was 17. He lived in a town called Enniskillen, and we decided to pay his old home a little visit while we were in the area.
While driving through the countryside we saw a sign for Drumskinny, an ancient stone circle site. We decided to visit Drumskinny since it was only a few miles out of our way. It was literally in the middle of nowhere, in someone's cow pasture actually. It was fenced off so that the cows couldn't get to it, but other than that only a single sign was present to indicate we were in the right location. This is part of Ireland's charm - there are hundreds of historic sites all over the country in out of the way places. We could have spent several more days just exploring the countryside and seeing what we could find. It was fun to see Enniskillen and to do a bit of exploring. We found David's old house, walked around the town center, and visited Enniskillen Castle.
That night we stayed in another bed and breakfast right across the street from Newgrange. It was also a nice place but not quite as homey as the last place. We got up early on the 25th, had our breakfast and headed over to Newgrange, a famous and very large tunnel burial mound. Newgrange was built five hundred years before the pyramids in Egypt. The day was particulary windy and rainy, but nothing could spoil our fun. We toured the Newgrange visitors center and then took a tour out to the tomb. It was beautiful and really an amazing achievement that people from that time period managed to build it. The tomb is made up of hundreds of extremely large rocks as well as thousands of smaller ones. The people who built Newgrange had to transport the large rocks from great distances without the use of wheels or animals.
The truly amazing thing about Newgrange is its perfect alignment with the movement of the sun. At the winter solstice, the light of the rising sun shoots through a special opening in Newgrange and entersthe main chamber, illuminating it for about 15 minutes. The event is supposed to be spectacular and only 100 people are allowed to see it each year. Over 30,000 people enter the drawing to see it each year.
Next we headed in to Dublin to see some of the city. We started at Trinity College, the location of the famous Book of Kells, along with many other ancient manuscripts. The campus was beautiful and we particularly enjoyed seeing the college's old library. The bookcases in this library were stacked from ceiling to floor with thousands of old books. Dublina was our next stop. This was a rather fun recreation of a medieval fair with a musuem and viking exhibit.
Right next door was Christ Church Cathedral, one of the most famous cathedrals in Ireland.
Our time in Ireland was coming to an end, but we decided we did not want to spend the money for a hotel that night as our flight home left early the following morning. We decided to kill a few hours by getting some Chinese food and going to see a movie. We spent several less than restful hours in the airport that night, but it was worth it for our incredibly fun trip to Ireland!
We took a ton of pictures, so we won't be offended if you don't look through them all.
