Ireland 2019
July 5 — Brú an Bóinne, Trim, and Kinnitty

View on top of the Knowth Mound in Brú an Bóinne

We woke up in Belfast to a similarly delicious breakfast as all the stay has provided. Then we got in the car and headed south. Our first stop was at Brú an Bóinne where we saw the amazing earth mounds. In particularly, we saw Knowth. These mounts are prehistoric passage tombs. They were built over 5000 years ago. They had a lot of cool designs on the foundation rocks. They were simple geometric patterns and they don’t know what they mean...doesn’t that drive you crazy. I hate not knowing what symbols mean. It had to have meant something or they wouldn’t have repeated them, especially without tools to do it easily. It’s fascinating. Also, fascinating was where you could see the layers of modern reconstruction. We were able to go inside and that was interesting but there was this movie that gave you a 3D representation of the tunnels and the inner chamber. It made me dizzy as hell. I can’t take those 3D reconstructions. I think we all wished we could have walked them. The best part was the view from on top of the mounds...amazing. You could see why they stayed in use for so long.

Then we went to Slane, Ireland for lunch. The bridge leading into Slane was awesome, very Romanesque, think the aquaducts. We dined at George’s Delicatessen. Dad and I had a delicious spicy (not really) chicken sandwich and Nancy had Caesar salad. It was very very good. And it was clearly a good local spot because almost all the patrons seemed to be local. The chef was very persnickety and was a bit rude to the staff.

Dad and Nancy on the bridge to the Knowth Mounds

Knowth Mound — Brú an Bóinne

Next, we drove to Trim to see Trim Castle, one of the most complete Norman Castles in Ireland. We didn’t get to go into the main building (the keep) but we did get to tour the grounds and it was outstanding. It is seriously cool to see something this old. It’s fun to be in/around buildings like this and think about what they must have been like when they were first built. I still can’t quite wrap my head around how thick the walls were. Amazing.

Lastly, we drove to Kinnitty Castle for our dinner and to spend the night in a real castle. I had steak for dinner and I could see the jealousy in Nancy’s eyes. The castle is so neat, all the stone work and wood work are really cool. The little garden in the back is so cute. It would be a lovely spot to get married. The only bad thing were the flies. There are two beautiful horses on the grounds and Nancy and I went to say hi but the flies overtook us and we had to flee back to the castle. Oh, and no air conditioning, I didn’t sleep at all because of how hot I was.

Nancy thought today was too much driving but also more like the expected view of Ireland with all the back road driving.