The 3:45pm flight from Aberdeen saw us arrive in Dublin for 5pm. The shuttle bus into town was wheelchair accessible and cheap, which suited us just fine. Our hotel, Jurys Inn Custom House, was round the corner from the bus station (handy) and across the road from the River Liffey (bonny). After checking in, we went for a wee walk down to O'Connell Street and over the river to the Temple Bar area which consists of cobbled streets and tourist traps, I mean shops and pubs. As it was dark and spitting of rain by this point, we retired to the hotel for our evening meal and, what else, a pint of Guinness!
Monday 2nd October 2006
We'd booked a day trip with Newgrange Tours before leaving Scotland, so on the Monday we joined the tour on O'Connell Street, first stop the Hill of Tara. Tara was the ceremonial capital of the High Kings of Ireland, although some of the archaeological remains on top of the hill date back to around 2,500 BC. The Mound of the Hostages, shown below, is thought to be the oldest monument on the site and was originally a Neolithic passage tomb.
The second photo was taken on the King's Seat and shows an ancient standing stone called the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny (on the right; the gravestone on the left is unrelated to the earlier archaeology). The coronation stone for the High Kings, the Lia Fail was said to roar three times when touched by the rightful king of Tara. Interesting to note that Scotland has it's own Stone of Destiny, which was used during the coronation of the King of Scots and is now on display in Edinburgh Castle. I like ours better. ;-)
From the photo, you get an idea of the beautiful view from the Hill of Tara, you can see for miles. We were also blessed with warm, sunny weather. I was wandering about on top of a hill in the middle of Ireland, in October, wearing a t-shirt and no jacket!
Next stop, Newgrange. We had our dinner in the Bru na Boinne visitor centre on the south bank of the River Boyne, before being transported by minibus to Newgrange, north of the river. The passage tomb at Newgrange was built about 3200 BC, and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The mound covers an area of over one acre and is surrounded by 97 kerbstones, some of which are decorated with Neolithic art. The original facade of sparkling white quartz was rebuilt using stone found at the site. Inside, a 19 metre long passageway leads to a cruciform chamber with a corbelled roof, where cremated remains were placed. The following picture shows the entrance to the tomb.
Newgrange is aligned with the rising of the sun on the Winter Solstice, when a ray of light penetrates the tomb through the roof box over the entrance, advances up the passageway and finally lights up the back wall of the chamber.
The next two pictures show the front of the tomb, and the River Boyne next to the Bru na Boinne visitor centre.
When we got back to Dublin at 4:30pm, Beth wanted a look at St Mary's Pro-Cathedral, the city's most important Catholic church. After that, over the river we went for a couple of pints of the black stuff in Oliver St John Gogarty's (the big yellow building in the next photo). Gogarty's is situated in Temple Bar, and featured some live Irish music playing a couple of tables down from us. Heuch! We then stotted across the road to the Hard Rock Cafe for our tea before walking back down the riverside to the hotel.
Tuesday 3rd October 2006
On Tuesday we visited the National Gallery. We had breakfast in the cafe there, then spent the day taking a leisurely stroll round the various galleries. We especially enjoyed the Italian School, where there were paintings by Titian, Fra Angelico, and Carravagio, and the paintings by Monet and Picasso in the Impressionists Room. At night, we went to see the film 'World Trade Centre' at a cinema on O'Connell Street before heading back to the hotel for tea.
Wednesday 4th October 2006
Lots of photos today! The first photo shows me giving 'The Linesman' a hand, a statue by Dony MacManus (1999). In the background, across the river, you can see the dome of the Custom House building. Built in 1791, set on fire by the IRA during the Irish Civil War in 1921, and subsequently rebuilt.
Off we strolled to O'Connell Street for a look at the General Post Office (below). The GPO is famous for the role it played during the Easter Rising of 1916, when Padraig Pearse and James Connolly made it their headquarters and from which they read out the Proclamation of the Republic. The Rising was suppressed after six days, and its leaders were court-martialled and executed. Nevertheless, public opinion turned decisively against the British government as a result of the executions, and within three years the Anglo-Irish War had erupted, leading to independence for Ireland after centuries of English rule.
We then wheeled across the river, through Temple Bar and had a look round Dublin Castle. Formerly the seat of British power in Ireland, it's now used by the Irish government on occasions of state. The picture shows Castle Hall, incorporating the 18th century Bedford Tower.
The oldest part of the Castle is the round Record Tower completed in 1258, which you can see at the back of the later Chapel Royal (built in 1814) in the photo below. Beth sat in the chapel while I raked and rambled round the Castle precincts.
Onwards and upwards, to Christ Church Cathedral, founded by the Vikings in 1030, rebuilt by the Normans from 1172, and restored in the 19th century. The oldest of Dublin's churches, as a Church of Ireland cathedral (ie. Protestant, a hangover from English rule) Christ Church is now a bit of an anomaly in a majority Catholic nation.
It's awfully bonny, though, as evidenced by the next two pictures. The first is a detail from one of the circular panels of floor tiles in the nave. The multi-coloured floor is mostly a Victorian restoration of the original Medieval design, but it is no less awe-inspiring for all that. The outer ring of tiles shows the cathedral's famous pilgrim foxes, or 'foxy friars'. This motif has been dated to the early 1300s, when the comical depiction of animals dressed as humans was in vogue.
The South Transept was erected between 1186 and 1200, and the arches in the following picture show the transition from rounded Romanesque to pointed Gothic styles at this time.
But enough of all that arty-farty nonsense, we're getting to the real reason for our trip to Dublin:
Yes, next stop was the Guinness Storehouse, a multi-media extravaganza dedicated to Dublin's most famous export. Situated in the middle of the St. James' Gate Brewery and seven storeys high, the Storehouse tells the story of Guinness from start (water, malted barley, yeast and hops) to glorious finish.
I say glorious because you end up on the top floor in the Gravity Bar, which is round, has a bar in the middle, and floor-to-ceiling windows round the outside for a 360-degree panoramic view of Dublin. We sat in the comfy seats next to the window and enjoyed our complimentary pint of Guinness to the full!
Thursday 5th October 2006
First stop on Thursday morning was Lemon, a trendy wee cafe where we sat outside under patio heaters and ate a breakfast of pancakes and maple syrup. Trinity College was just across the road, so we went in to have a look round the exhibition dedicated to the Book of Kells. Written around the year 800 AD and made up of the four gospels, the Book of Kells is one of the most beautifully illuminated manuscripts in the world. Probably produced by monks on the Scottish island of Iona, it was taken to the monastery at Kells in 806 AD to protect it from Viking raiders. The manuscript was transferred to Trinity College in the 17th century.
Other manuscripts are also housed in the Old Library at Trinity College. The Book of Armagh (a 9th century gospel manuscript, open at a page showing the symbols of the four evangelists) and the Book of Mulling (a late 8th century gospel manuscript, open at a portrait of St John) were on display next to the main attraction. The photo above shows St. John's portait from the Book of Mulling blown up as part of the exhibition.
After seeing the Book of Kells, we ascended into the Long Room, an impressive 65 metres in length and home to around 200,000 of the Library's oldest books. There we saw the oldest harp in Ireland, which dates from the 15th century and which is still represented on Irish coins. There was also a rare copy of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic on display, which signalled the start of the Easter Rising when it was read out by Padraig Pearse outside the General Post Office on 24 April 1916.
Our next port of call was The National Museum of Ireland - Archaeology and History. We stopped for a cuppa and a bite to eat in the cafe, then hit the displays! The museum has a big collection of prehistoric (Bronze Age) gold jewellery and exquisite examples of metalworking from the Celtic Iron Age. The 8th-9th century Ardagh Chalice and the Tara Brooch were two of the highlights we found in The Treasury. No photos, though!
Friday 6th October 2006
After breakfast on Friday I dropped Beth off at St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral then had a walk over the Liffey to Grafton Street (Dublin's main shopping precinct), St. Stephen's Green (a bonny park), and round by Leinster House (below - built after 1745 for the Duke of Leinster and now the seat of the Irish Parliament).
I popped in for a quick look round the Museum of Natural History. The museum was a laugh, it looked like it hadn't changed much since Victorian times and consisted of case after case of stuffed specimens from Ireland and around the world. I also re-visited the National Museum as I hadn't managed to see the exhibition on Viking Ireland before closing time yesterday, and there were some bonny reliquaries in the Medieval Ireland section I'd missed, too.
During my travels I came across a statue of Oscar Wilde next to the house where he lived with his family from 1855. It's adorned with many of the witticisms he was famous for and has the writer, composed of a variety of different coloured stones, sitting on a large granite boulder.
I then remembered I'd left the missus somewhere, so after retrieving her we went and sank a couple of pints in the Temple Bar (which is a pub in, you guessed it, the Temple Bar district!) listening to yet more live Irish music. Hic!
Saturday 7th October 2006
Hame! Got the 9:50am flight from Dublin to Aberdeen which gave us clear views all the way up the east coast of Ireland and across Scotland. Fit a week!