Archaeology Day!

Today we took an all day field trip to visit several famous archaeological sites in Ireland. Naturally, this was my favorite day in Ireland so far :)

First, we visited the Hill of Tara, an ancient ring fort with many archaeological finds. First up was the Mound of Savages, a passage tomb dating back to 3000 BC. They used to let you climb into it, but now have bars over the door. Still, I was able to go up and touch it, which was pretty cool. Archaeologists have found tons of cremated remains within the tomb, and interestingly, a skeleton buried on top of the tomb (this unburned burial suggests he was a foreigner to the area).

Mound of the Captives

View from the Hill of Tara (also, it's sunny!!)

Next on Tara we were able to see the stone of destiny. Legend has it that when a local king wanted to be high king of all Ireland, he would have to find two wild horses and hook them up to his chariot and drive it past the stone of destiny. If the gods favored him for high king, the stone would cry out when he rode past, signaling the gods' okay.

The stone of destiny

Hugging the stone of destiny

For our next stop of the day, we traveled to Trim Castle, located in the heart of Co. Meath. This was also the site and castle they used to film most of Braveheart, so it was pretty cool to see it in real life. The castle itself was built in the 1170s, and has been remodeled several times. It's original owner was in constant fear of being attacked and his castle burned, so he designed Trim Castle to be completely attacker-proof. Through many ingenious ideas such as a collapsable wooden enclosure for archers that doubled as a flaming missile, "murder holes" to pour hot oil through, four foot wide stone walls, and three reinforced doors to get into the castle, Trim was never taken by force.

Trim Castle

The castle keep (aka main part of the castle)

A wall!

Leaving Trim, we made our way to our final (and coolest in my opinion) stop of the day. Our bus driver had gotten a little lost by this point, so we were all pretty confused when he told us that we had arrived at our destination: Loughcrew. After climbing up a ton of stairs and the side of a mountain, we arrived at the top. Let me just tell you, it was worth the climb! From the top of Loughcrew, on a clear day you can see more than 18 counties! (There are 32 total) On the top of this hill, the main focal point is another passage tomb, this time built around 3800 BC. That's almost 6000 years ago!! And this one, they let you climb into and take as many pictures as you want! This was the coolest experience for me, being able to stand in a tomb built almost 4000 years before Jesus, and actually touch some of the stone carvings in the back of the tomb. Similar to Stonehenge and Tara, the tomb is aligned with the east, so on the equinoxes, the sun shines directly into the tomb and illuminates the carvings on the rocks. It was an amazing experience and a great day!

The passage tomb at Loughcrew

Standing in a tomb

Some of the wall carvings