Last Day in Ireland

So today is the final day in Ireland. Tomorrow we will fly to London and then on Saturday my study abroad begins! I am excited and a little nervous but mostly exited!

So today we woke early and spent a little time shopping in Belfast before we drove back to the Republic of Ireland. We stopped at site near the River Boyne. The first site we visited was called Nowth. It is a burial mound from the Neolithic period meaning it was constructed around 3,500 B.C. It is interesting because like the other tombs, we don't know much about them. We know the Nowth has an entrance on the east and west side, suggesting that they might be sun worshipers. We know that it is water tight, not built with any kind of bonding agent and stood for hundreds of years. So they are good builders, probably better than us. We know that they decorated the stones at the base and that there was a ritualistic type entrance. The picture below has an upright stone which they believe represents fertility. There is a round basin that they think had standing water that represented life. We know that they had to physically climb over the entrance stone to get in and that cremated remains were placed inside.

Nowth, the large hill on the left. The smaller hills are satellite tombs

A tunnel that was an escape route for villagers. I crawled through it

The second site is called Newgrange. This site we were able to go inside the structure. This one only has one entrance and it uses the winter solstice to do something amazing. During the winter solstice a beam of sunshine will light the interior. At first it is just a single beam of light, a few minutes later the sun will burst in with an array of colors. This only lasts about 20 minutes before the sun becomes too high and the light then fades. It was pretty cool. Also all Neolithic structures around the world have carvings in them. Newgrange is the only one to have a triple spiral pattern.

Newgrange

The triple spiral is on the left

Gandalf stood where I am, Sarumon was on the other hill

We also briefly went to the hill Tara. This is where St. Patrick started Christianity in Ireland. We were not there in time for a tour so past that I really don't know much about it. However, at the top of the hill there are two smaller hills that appear to have rippled out of the ground. I decided that Gandalf stood in the center of the larger ripple and Sarumon stood on the other ripple. This was before Sarumon became a white wizard and evil or course. They were having a friendly match of powers. They both said the same spell and struck their staves to the ground. The ground rippled out towards each other and Gandalf's magic was stronger so he had the larger ripple. So that's my story and I am sticking to it.