The Hill of Tara, Newgrange, and our first night in Dublin

On our way to Dublin, we made two stops.

The Hill of Tara is the traditional seat of the Irish Kings.  It is where new kings take and wield power but it is also a burial site all the way back almost to neolithic times.

Lorna in front of a marker.

PJ explained that Christianity took more easily in Ireland than in other places in part because the Irish kings saw it as no threat to their rule and allowed monks to proselytize.  More importantly, however, the monks incorporated aspects of traditional spiritual beliefs, like the sacred tree, into the practice of Christianity here.

Lorna in front of a sacred tree.

After The Hill of Tara, we went to Newgrange.  This is a neolithic site that is simply mind boggling. It also appears to be a burial mound. 

It's huge.

There are two impressive aspects about thr construction of Newgrange.  First, the enormous stones used to create the site came from 80 km (~50 miles) away. It was brought here before there were domesticated animals and even before the invention of the wheel.

The second aspect is that the entrance was built in a way that on the day of the  winter solstice, the rising sun penetrates the interior in a way that it feels like it is lit from the inside.  As our guide, Frank, said, neolithic people had a greater understanding of astronomy and geometry than most people do today.

After Newgrange, we went straight to Dublin and had Persian for dinner.

After dinner, we caught an indie-folk show at a place called Whelans.  The music was great, although the second act was better than then main act.  We would have stayed longer but the cigarette smoke from the apparently outdoor smoking area was wafting into the performance space.  We left because I was beginning to wheeze.  But otherwise, we highly recommend this place for music.