Northern Ireland

This past Sunday and Monday, we made an overnight trip to Northern Ireland.  We were a little nervous about it as there has been violence there within the recent past but didn't plan to spend more than two or three hours in Belfast.  Visiting the Giant's Causeway on the very northern shore of Ireland was so highly recommended to us that we just had to go see it.

Our first stop was just an hour north of Dublin at Newgrange - a pre-historic passage tomb that was built 3200 BC (not a typo - really more than 5000 years ago).  It was reused a number of times, lost and then discovered in 1699.  It was seriously excavated in the 1960's and was truly fascinating.

Like Stonehenge, the building is very carefully designed to line up with the sun rise at the time of the winter solstice (Dec 22).  At that time (and for a couple days on either side) the sun would shine in a "window" above the door of the tomb and would illuminate a chamber buried deep within the tomb. 

Very little is understood about the tomb - why it was constructed the way it was, what exactly it was used for (although there were lots of human ashes found there), but the theories and speculations were amazing.

We were not allowed to take pictures inside but there was a recreation of the inside in the visitor's center and I got a nice picture of that which gives the general idea of the insides. The passageway was very tight.  When we were inside they turned off the lights and similated what the sunrise would look like on the solstice.  The picture below is a similation of one of the three small chambers that were inside the huge mound.

The weather was the most unpleasant we have encountered (raining pretty hard and very windy) but the site was so amazing and the visitor center so interesting that we all thought it was well worth getting wet.

From there, we drove another hour into Belfast, grabbed sandwiches in the downtown mall (very modern and impressive) and then boarded the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus.  Kind of strange because no one ever hopped on or off except at the beginning/ending point.  Since it was pouring rain  and the windows were fogged, it was impossible to see out of the bus, so we didn't get to view much.  The commentary, while interesting, was confusing and mostly focused on all the violence and who was fighting with who over the history of Belfast.  There were huge murals painted on the sides of buildings - mostly depicting violence.  The only other topic of interest was the Titanic which was built there.  None of us were too enthralled with Belfast or sorry to get out of there after two hours.

We continued our drive north to small town of Portrush on the north coast.  We had booked a B&B for the night over the internet.  We found it easily, even the back entrance through the maze of alleyways to the "car park".  The proprietor, Rachel, greeted us enthusiastically and provided lots of useful information over and above the details of our rooms and breakfast.  

Since it was raining and now about 4 o'clock, we did the only reasonable thing and went to the pub to raise a pint or two.

We had a very fun dinner next to the pub - acrrss from our hotel.

The next morning, after a lovely breakfast (no blood pudding at this one), we walked around the town of Portrush which appears to be a real summer resort with lots of stuff for kids.  It certainly didn't strike us as a beach town but it had all the trappings of one.  Still a very rainy stormy day with lots of wind.








Then we started out to see our first sight: the Mussenden Temple to the west of Portrush.  It hadn't been on our original targets but the proprietor of our B&B strongly recommended visiting it, but we had a heck of a time finding it.  Neither of the GPSs in our two cars could find it, but we persevered and eventually found it.  By now it was really windy and pouring but most of us had umbrellas so off we went on the hike to get to it.  Believe it or not it was SO WORTH getting wet for.  Check out thse pictures:

This "temple" sits on the very edge of the cliff.  It was dry and completely blocked the wind, so we lingered a while inside.  We loved the location and views but didn't actually learn too much about the place - except that it was very old and mostly in ruins (except for the temple, which was built in 1785).

 

The coastline was really spectacular.  This picture shows Jon out on the ledge taking pictures.  The wind was blowing at about 40 mph, I would guess.

We then schlepted through the fields back to the car and headed for Dunluce Castle to the east. As we pulled into the parking lot we spotted the Wee Cottage Tea Room. We rushed in to get something warm to drink.  After a few minutes, we realized that I had locked Sheila in the car and she couldn't get out.)

Tea Cozies - just too cute!

Colleen went out and rescued her.  We lingered by the fire and had a fantastic spot of tea and sweets.  The lady running the tea room was a lot of fun.  She even took some pictures of us - using HER camera as well as ours.  What a fun time we had. 

The Irish people we have been meeting have been just amazing.  We are having so much fun interacting with them. 

....To be continued in the next blog entry.