Malcolm & Eileen Paris, Ireland

On our last full day in Dublin, we hiked a few miles on the Howth Cliff Trail, which is on the bluffs overlooking the Irish Sea. The beautiful weather continued, offering the opportunity for many sun-bright pictures (I neglected to wear my new shorts, however).

A few malty beverages in Dublin - 4 Guinness, 1 Carlsberg

We finished our time in Dublin by visiting Trinity College and the Book of Kells. This included a short tour of the campus (it seemed small, for having a reported 21,000 students?). The Book itself, as some of you may know, is shown open to one page, and every few days that page is turned. The rest of the museum (actually the old library there) has a lot of exhibits about this and other early books, and also features the oldest surviving harp in Ireland (late middle ages). No pictures are allowed of the Book of Kells, but no such restrictions on the harp. Or on the skeleton of Megaloceros gigantues - the giant Irish Deer, the largest mammal ever to roam ancient Ireland.

Of the Book of Kells, I must say that I was more enamored with the illuminations and other documents and artwork at the Chester Beatty Library, which I wrote about last week. But, the Book of Kells is the big hit, so we had to see it (again...we did see it about 30 years ago...).

The house we rented for three nights is known as Rossnaree House, built in 1850, with some parts from the 1700s. It's filled with antiques and artwork, and is in an incredible location on beautiful grounds overlooking the Boyne River Valley. We rented it with the hope that a larger group of extended family members would join us - we didn't get the large group, but we do have our older daughter Kelsey, and Eileen's brother James along with his partner Joe. The house is a three-story mansion, pretty creaky and eccentric, but with a lot of character. There are four peacocks on the grounds, along with a very shy dog and a friendly cat. From the house you can see the famous passage tombs (mounds) Newgrange and Knowth. Remarkably, the weather continues to shine!

Rossnaree House

Sunrise over the Boyne River Valley, from our bedroom window

Sunset from nearby fields

The brown mound on the hill is Newgrange, from Rossanee House

Several friendly peacocks (well, 2 hens and 2 cocks) are on the
grounds, and have clearly been fed by visitors before...

There's a "ramparts walk" nearby on the Boyne River, close the the town of Slane, and we took a nice hike taking us along the river and past Slane Castle (which apparently hosts some major rock/pop concerts).

Nearby are the ruins of Mellifont Abbey, much of which was built in the middle ages (and some parts as early as 1157). Of particular interest to me was the Lavabo, where the monks washed their hands, and presumably other body parts. Perhaps those of others?

Newgrange and Knowth - 5,000 years old and pre-dating the pyramids in Egypt - were spectacular, with so much neolithic art (in this case carving shapes on the rocks), and of course the remarkable winter solstice calculations that light up the interior at sunrise on that one day of the year. The visitor center was one of the best I've seen, and really enhanced the experience. We were able to actually enter the passage at Newgrange, but photos are prohibited inside the tomb (I snuck a little video, but nothing worth posting...). The interior shot below is from one of the exhibits.

Rossanee House FROM Newgrange!

After Newgrange/Knowth, we made the short drive to Hill of Slane, to see another old ruined abbey, and cemetery (which has old as well as 20th century graves). I just find these ruins so fascinating! And hardly anyone else was there.

Dunmore East - after a lovely drive from the Newgrange area, we arrived in this little seaside resort town, kind of a very small Capitola, let’s say. A few restaurants, shops, pubs, and hotels, and a beach. We’re in a nice vrbo home rental, and it’s will be our base of operations for 9 days while on the southeast coast, not far from Waterford.

Friday, we visited the House of Waterford Crystal for a tour. I was concerned that it would be too touristy but it was really quite interesting and fun! I think it’s probably a bit staged for visitors (they have a “sister” factory in Slovakia which I think does a lot of the bulk production) but it was cool seeing the process, from the glass blowing/molding to the final etching and quality control. The showroom is also really fantastic, lots and lots of high-end lead crystal stuff.

After that we went to the Waterford Treasures: Medieval Museum. Again, expectations were just a bit low, because we know that the Cluny Museum in Paris (which we love!) is the absolute epitome of medieval museums. However, this museum focused on the City of Waterford's history, through the medieval lens and it really, really worked! Lots of very interesting stuff (Waterford had a monopoly on imported wine coming into Ireland, for example). So this was also a lovely, surprisingly fun activity.

One of the Waterford Cloth of Gold Vestments, the only full set of medieval vestments
to survive in northern Europe, late 1500s, concealed to protect them from destruction
by Cromwell's troops, and lost for over 120 years