Hill of Tara and Trim Castle

This is all still part of our very busy Saturday. After we left Newgrange we trotted up to the Hill of Tara. At one point, at a four-way intersection there were two signs at right angles, both saying Tara. Ah those funny Irish. Turns out one was for the town and one for the Hill. Hard to tell though I think we found the "brown" heritage/tourist sign at one point. Not that it point the right way either.

After stopping at a gas station (let me guess, you're lost and looking for the Hill of Tara--only about 100 people have come by) we found our way. The Hill of Tara is...well, a hill, a great big, luscious green hill, with a mound or two, with runnels around it. It's a hill (Cormac's House), a hill fort, a passage tomb (mound of the hostages) and numerous other things. I don't think we saw all of it as it was a murky wet day and wet grass makes things soggy. The Stone of Destiny shown in some of the pictures was supposedly moved in 1798 to commemorate the death of 400 Irishmen who fought the British. It's been the seat of the High Kings of Ireland from the 6-12th centuries and the stone was said to cry out when the true king touched it. (I wonder how they worked that miracle).

There is a little cemetery and church dating back only a couple of hundred years I believe. Or at least the stones we could see. But the age of the Hill of Tara goes back to neolithic times with other parts being of Roman and medieval times. Its significance is still great in Ireland.

We went on to Trim castle which was founded by Hugh de Lacy in the 12th century.Its more recent claim to fame is that it was used in filming Braveheart. But the ruins are quite fabulous. We hit it at the end of the day and didn't get the tour of the inside of the castle. I believe it's only a ruin though, no furniture. The tour would have consisted of talking about its different defenses and construction techniques as the tower has twenty sides.

There was a lovely little wedding going one with the men in coats and tails. Yeah, if I ever got married a castle would definitely be a great setting. We didn't really stick around in Trim, the town, but drove through to an abbey, shown in the next set.

Ireland 2007--Hill of Tara & Trim Castle