Abroad in Wales

Eire - Day Two

On our second day in Ireland, we decied to quit the city and see the countryside.  We booked a guided tour with a local agency to see the local Celtic ruins.  Let me tell you, Ireland is even more beautiful up close.

What a wonderful view so early in the morning!

 This was the burial mound for a petty king of Eire and his family.  This structure is over 5,000 years old and out dates the pyramids!

 This is inside the burial mound at Fourknocks.

 Ruins of the washhouse at Mellifont Abbey.  The abbey was created in hopes of spreading a stricter form of Catholicism in Ireland.

The main cross in a local cemetary.  The markings on it depict stories from the Bible.  This side was mostly Old Testament.

 The ruins at the Hill of Slane.  On this hill, St. Patrick lit a fire to gain the attention of the High King.  When the King at Tara sent his soldiers to kill St. Patrick,  the saint fell to his knees in prayer, the earth shook, and three soldiers fell down dead.  The King, impressed, granted St. Patrick permission to convert the peoples of Eire.

 Another wonderful sky, this time at Tara.

 One of the mounds at Tara.  Tara was the seat of the High King of Eire and from the hill he could see twenty-six of the counties.  This mound was originally a burial mound.  But later, the kings used it for more nefarious purposes.  Now known as the Mound of Hostages, because kings would kidnap a family member of an insubordinate petty king and hold them hostage until the petty king gave in to demands.  Many hostages died of starvation in this mound.

 The church at Tara.  Which is a little ironic, as seeing as its a pagan site.  But a beautiful site, none the less.

And so ended our tour.  Unfortunately, we didn't see any faeries.  Or maybe that's a good thing, as many of the sites are rumored to have the bad kind.   

Posted at 08:12AM Nov 22, 2007 by Jill S Brink in General  |  Comments[0]