The Ham Nomads

16 Jun 2014. <IE> Oldcastle, & Kells, Co. Meath; Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone; Slane, Co. Meath; Drogheda, Co. Louth —

Round Tower
and Unfinished Cross

South Cross

Woke up outside the Loughcrew Cairns. Decided to be pikers, and not make the extra trip up the hills to visit the private sites, so set our destination for Kells. When Warren was studying Medieval History, the Book of Kells (a magnificent celtic illumination of the Vulgate Gospels) was part of his studies, and one of our aims is to see the original in Trinity College, Dublin. But another of our aims was to visit the city of Kells (Ceanannus Mór), the site of the monastery where it was created. The monastery is long gone, but the round tower and several — we saw four — of the high crosses from the 12th century still survive. Had we been there just last weekend, St Columba's Church was celebrating the 1200th anniversary of the completion of the Kells Monastic City in 814 AD — all we saw of it was the lady whose roster it was grumbling (pleasantly) about all the dead flowers she had to dispose of!

We were walking the town and ran into Angela Ryan, one of the leading lights behind a group calling itself the Kells Local Heroes. They are very interested in the tourism aspects of the town. We had a long conversation during which she outlined a number of the initiatives of that group. One of the is a current fight against the park-and-pay regime for parking in the town — the shopkeepers are unanimous in their objection to it, as it is having a detrimental effect on trade. Would that all towns had such energetic advocates! We wish them good luck in their endeavours, but also suggest that all towns need such energetic and committed people simply to engage with obvious strangers to make them feel welcome and to help point them towards places of interest!

Spire of Lloyd

Anyway, we went down to the other end of town to find the fourth (and best) of the High Crosses, the Market Cross. We then drove out of town to the People's Park, overlooking the town. In that park is the 'Spire of Lloyd', a folly built in the form of a lighthouse in 1791 by the first Earl of Bective in memory of his father, Sir Thomas Taylour. It's all locked up at the moment, but in the nineteenth century was used as a viewing point for the surrounding area and the hunt.

People's Park Memorial

But just beside it is an almost empty field, with a more recent high cross in it. It is a paupers' cemetery dating from 1851, the time of the Great Famine. The cross has the inscription 'Erected to the memory of the poor interred here during the operation of the English Poor Law System 1838-1921'. It really makes one think!

We left the town, and on the way out towards Slane passed (and called in to) the Donaghmore Church (from Dromhnach Mór — the big church) and Round Tower. There's little left of the church, but the round tower (although not built until the 11th or 12th century) is a remnant of a monastery founded here in the 5th century, reputedly by St Patrick. Looked around the cemetery, and found a strange inscription on a wall plaque — 'To the memory of the unnamed Croppy of 1788 who died for Ireland and is buried here - Éire go brath'. Need to look into this a bit deeper!

We drove on, and just short of Slane came to Slane Castle. This is a private property, and has been the venue for some incredible concerts ... Queen, Hot Chilli, Madonna, Bob Dylan ... and is also a wedding venue. Did a guided tour. One wing had been burnt out about 50 years ago, and has been completely restored, copying the other identical wing. Apparently there was little or no insurance, but the present Marquis is not short of a penny!

After Slane Castle, it was getting lateish, so we decided to drop into Drogheda to get some Macca's time and to set up for the night. This Macca's had a rather paltry one hour parking rule, so had to get the blog entries up quickly and leave post haste. Found a good park just outside town and settled in for the night.

Distance driven — today, 57 miles ( 92 km ); to date, 2,656 miles ( 4,275 km )