Aug 7 Newgrange

This morning we wanted to get out of the house early so that we could book a tour in Newgrange, so just Kevin and I went out there to get a tour time. On the way out there we got a good view of Uncle John's house from across the Boyne. In the picture it is the white house just above the field with the little white shed in the back yard.

We were at the Newgrange interpretive centre in plenty of time to book a tour so we picked the afternoon to give us plenty of time and options.  When we got back to the house the girls set a record for slowness getting ready. We finally hit the road and went to the interpretive centre again, this time to tour through it while waiting for our Newgrange tour. We had enough time to eat lunch at the centre, and it was pretty good, but not 58 Euros good!

For the Newgrange tour we had to walk about 300 m to the bus stop, where a tour bus shuttled us the 3 or 4 km to the site.
We spent about an hour at the site, which included a bit of waiting, some reasonably knowledgeable explanations of what Newgrange is (and Knowth and Dowth), and the actual tour of the “tomb” itself, which was only about 15 minutes. We also walked around the site taking pictures of it and Knowth, which could be seen in the distance. But the fact that the tomb at Newgrange was constructed about 5000 years ago is just incredible. It is older than Stone Henge and the Egyptian pyramids. 

After Newgrange Kevin took us just a little ways out to Slane Castle, which is the site of Irelands biggest rock festival, held on the natural sloping grounds. Up to 80,000 can be seated on the grass for the open venue and the biggest acts to play Ireland have played there, including U2, Bob Dylan, Queen, Bowie, Springsteen, The Stones, Guns n' Roses, Madonna, Neil Young, etc. 

When we got back to the house we picked up the dogs and went to the beach just a few miles north of town. The tide was out so the dogs had a great run on the beach. When we got way out there we spotted some big seals sunning themselves on some rocks. The dogs were close enough to see them but they couldn't smell them as they were downwind. A few of them went into the water when we came too close anyway.

On the way back from the beach we stopped at a newly built breakwater near the town Clogherhead. There were massive concrete blocks piled up on the ocean side of the breakwater to resist the storms from the Irish Sea. 

We made our way back to the house with the dogs but Kevin had an emergency call out so he took me out to a customer's warehouse where a compressor had blown. Since it required a replacement there wasn't much he could do so he let the customer know and we drove out to his shop where he showed me around, including his prized 63 MG, which is going to be a restoration project. 

After some great home cooked burgers Kevin and I walked into town to go to the pub. The first one we went to was Clarkes Bar, which has a preservation order on both the interior and exterior of the building, so the inside is a very old, very authentic, and I think very unusual pub. It has many very tiny separated areas so that you could have a decent chat with some degree of privacy. At least that is the plan. By the time we left it was starting to get very busy and pretty loud.
The second pub we went to was Kingston's Bar, which is Kevin's “local” pub and is more of a sports bar, with sporting trivia on the walls, and 3 TVs playing sports channels. Kevin ran into a few people he knew at both pubs. It was also pretty obvious that Guinness appears to be the drink of choice in the pubs. It was a bit late by the time we got back so it was nice and quiet and straight to bed.