Newgrange and Monasterboice

Newgrange

Another day trip we took from Dublin was out to Newgrange and Monasterboice.  Newgrange is amazing.  It is a passage tomb built in 3500BC and it predates the Hill of Tara.  This place was built by neolithic people, we are talking stone age farmers that hadn't even invented the wheel.  And what they built at newgrange is astounding.  It is built into the hillside, though in fact the passage
tomb was constructed first and then the hillside built around it.  On the winter solstice, ie the European winter, the first rays of the sun

What would have been the entrance to to tomb.  That first stone was about a metre high, which is pretty high compared to neolithic people

rising over the horizon travel straight down the passage and strike the ground in the middle of the tomb.  You then have about 15 minutes

The entrance now, can't have thousands of people clambering over that impressive entrance stone

as the sun rises where the tomb is completely lit up.  There are actually 5 days in the year where this happens, the days either side of

More stone structures outside the tomb

the solstice as well, and they hold a lottery with 100 tickets for you to be in the tomb the morning of one of those days.  Apparently 12,000 people apply for those 100 tickets.  Our guide had actually been there on the winter solstice and I think she was a but of a closet druid from some of the things she was saying.

The central chamber, at the end of

More carved stones around the side of the hill

the passage is about 6m high, the roof is formed of slabs of rock overlapping each other spiraling upwards, and even now 5000 years later, it is still watertight.  You can't take any photos inside, but it really is an experience to go inside something that old, and learn that these massive stones were brought from places 80 kilometres away by people who hadn't even invented the wheel.  Nobody really knows what the neolithic people used this place for, and what it meant to them, but it has been a focal point for people ever since then. 

More stone rings added later

Outside the tomb on the hillside there are a number of other standing stone structures and wooden posts which have been added over the years.  It was first "re-discovered" in 1699 and so there is some quite old graffiti inside the tomb itself.  Though those people also thought there would be gold inside and so smashed some of the massive rocks inside.  It was then "re-discovered" again in the 1960's when it was then restored to what we see now.  All the white stones facing the outside had been scattered and it was quite an effort to recreate what they thought it would have been like.

I really recommend a visit, it's not often that you get to stand in somewhere that old, to put it in context it's about a thousand years older than the oldest Egyptian pyramid.


I have to also

Larger standing stones and the entrance to the tomb

mention one of the total freaks we saw there, obviously somewhere so special is going to attract the masses.  There was one awesome camera wielding tourist.  For him exposure, depth of field, composition means nothing.  I think he was going either for the thousand monkeys approach, in that you take enough photos some of them will turn out ok, or the immersion feeling, in that anyone viewing his photos would be able to basically view his every head turn and step via his photos. 

Another, much smaller tomb, in the adjacent field

Funny stones

More carvings

One last view of Newgrange

The round tower and Muiredach's Cross

After Newgrange it was off to Monasterboice which is another famous site in Ireland, this one deals with a more modern religion than the one at Newgrange.  The monastery there was first founded in the 5th century and it is now enclosed within a lovely, peaceful graveyard, which is still used today.  There is one of the famous Irish round towers there, which I'll talk about in a later post, but the most famous things are the 10th century high crosses.

The crosses in Ireland have a very distinctive shape, consisting of the standard cross but then with a circle joining the arms.  You see these all over the place, and the vast majority are simply copies of, probably, crosses like the ones at Monasterboice.  I think the idea was that they were like the bible in pictures, for the, many, illiterate locals.  The most stunning cross here is the Muiredach's cross, which is 5.5m high.  It actually consists of three blocks of sandstone which fit together with sockets and dowels (or tenons).

One of the high crosses, with some wearing of the sculptures

An interesting point about these crosses is that they have been fairly degraded recently, perhaps partly from the greater number of tourists visiting (which inevitably leads to touching) as well as the unusually cold winters Ireland has been receiving.  According to the tour guide Ireland never receives snow, and that is a solid never, no snow and never below zero degrees. 

But last winter they had about 3 months of solid snow and temperatures of -10 degrees.  In this weather Muiredach's cross was damaged, water got in, froze, expanded and caused a massive crack to appear.  The tour guide, who has been taking people out here for many years, is convinced that in 10 years time these crosses won't be standing anymore.

It's an interesting conundrum, because I'm sure the British Museum would love to have them in it's collection, as would the Irish History Museum in Dublin, but the locals are refusing to let them go.  But should they really stay there if in a decade's time no-one will be able to see them.  Replicas have been taken of the crosses, and it is these replicas which are in the museums, but should it really be the other way around?  Is it fair to deny future generations of humanity access to our shared history, as well as perhaps further knowledge which could be gained with future technologies? 

Obviously the locals want to keep the originals, as they feel some sort of claim over them, as they happen to be in "their" graveyard.  As well as the increased tourist dollars which come from keeping them there.  It just seems a shame to think that soon they will have been worn away to nothing, because the current custodians refuse to let them go.  I suppose on the other hand do these crosses lose some of their meaning if they are taken away from their surroundings and kept in a sterile museum?  The people of the village would certainly lose their connection they currently have with them if that was the case.

Looking up the tower

Lovely sculpture on the crosses

A peaceful cemetry