Newgrange and Knowth

Ireland 2007--Newgrange & Knowth

We left Dublin on the 28th of Sept. However, trying to navigate out of a city that's centuries old with winding streets and missing signs was quite a challenge. The 15-minute drive from the car rental place to our guesthouse took an hour and a half.

The guesthouse gave us directions north on the N1 when in fact the map showed that we really wanted N2 to get to Newgrange. Part of the problem is that here you have a map that fills your lap. It's of all of Ireland. A map even of BC would mean hours of driving so our sense of size and distance were skewed.

On top of that, let's say that Dublin tourish has good maps. They list some of the more known sites. They list major roads and smaller subroutes or connector roads. However, the sites are sometimes before a town when they're shown as being in the town, or north of a place when shown to be west of a place. Some of those connector roads don't connect to anything but a playground while there are new routes not listed anywhere on the map. We had three maps and none were accurate or super helpful.

We took N1 with my sister driving and I kept trying to navigate us back to N2. What a mistake. We did end up in a subdevelopment, a schoolyard, on the M1 and back to still being on the N1 (which can disappear become the M1 and then R125 or something and then back to being the N1. All this plus navigating the many roundabouts any time there is a road leading in a different direction. We were told to turn at a cemetery by a local at one point and either she'd never been up that road in years or they moved the cemetery, bodies and all.

So, eventually with half the day gone after starting at 11 am to get the car, we made it to the Huntsman Inn somewhere around four. We stopped in because it looked cute except for the scary horse thing outside. Thatched roof and a few hundred years old, it seems it was competing as the oldest pub/tavern/restaurant. We saw several of these signs and had while in Dublin had a drink at the Stags Head and the Braven Head pubs, both the oldest for something. Though nice staff I had truly awful onion rings with soft doughy outer layer and soft, too fleshy wings. Blech.

Revitalized and coming to realize that though it's a short distance through Ireland, it's not a fast ride, we continued on. We even found Newgrange all by ourselves...but about a half hour too late to get into that day. So we drove along the road to Slain (Slane) and asked there about B&Bs. We stayed at the lovely little Roughgrange home of Irene and her husband, mere minutes from Newgrange, itself a 17th century grange (form of ranch house). We trotted off to Donore for dinner in a pub and had fairly acceptable food with a few massive potatoes.

The next morning we decided to stay a second night as we had plenty in that area to see and drove off to Newgrange. Only done by tour (not enough time as far as I was concerned) we went first to Knowth (nowth for pronunciation). This was the first of many experiences with the stones of Ireland. Knowth and Newgrange are megalithic (or neolithic depending on the info) passage tombs that date back 5-6000 years. These were Stone to Bronze age cultures. Knowth's chamber was bigger and there were several mounds of varying sizes.

There have been upgrades to the mounds as over the centuries they were farmed or even had small villages starting up on the top of the mounds. Excavation was needed to bring back the kerbstones which are made of a stone called greywacke (greywacky). I believe only one was missing. In most of the passage tombs there is an alignment to one of the solstices or an equinox. As well cremated human remains were found and in some the bodies of several people. Archaeologists know these were used for ceremonial or ritual purposes in the earliest days. Knowth and Newgrange are the oldest manmade structures in the world.

The sense of age and history is immense. I could almost see the people moving amongst these revered mounds of long ago, imagine the importance of sun and rain and the turning wheel of the seasons. This was the beginning of a growing sense of stone in Ireland, as if I was being etched, like the whorls and swirls that were set in these kerbstones of long ago to endure weather and touch, and the changing of culture and times.