The Ham Nomads

17 Jun 2014. <IE> Donore, Co. Louth —

An early start. We got moving and went out to the Brú na Bóinne Vistor Centre, parking outside it before the gates opened. We were starting our breakfast when the man came to open the gates, so we adjourned to the car park for our meal. The Centre itself opens at 9.00am, but we were advised to get there early because it is a VERY busy site. Looking back, that advice was not wrong! This centre is

The shuttles are not
immune from Irish
traffic jams!!

the gateway to two of the most important neolithic sites in Europe, Newgrange and Knowth. In the centre, all was efficiency, and people were assigned to tours as they arrived, even before they had paid for their tickets. When she realised were were English Heritage members, the greeter took us aside and signed us in, as we didn't need to pass by the cashier. The Visitor Centre is a wonderful museum in its own right, with displays of the history of the life and society of neolithic peoples. It also has models of areas of the tombs that are closed to the public. All access to the tombs is by guided tour, and they aren't even at the visitor centre — there is a constant stream of shuttle buses ferrying people out to, and back from, the two sites, which are each a couple of kilometres away.

Knowth Tomb

We went out first to the Knowth tomb. Mindblowing! This tomb is about 5,300 years old — it precedes the pyramids of Giza by about 1000 years! As such, it is quite possibly the oldest building still standing in the world! (There is also evidence of earlier rectangular houses dated to about 4000 BC.) The main tomb is a huge dual passage tomb, with one passage and chamber entered from the east, and the other from the west. It covers 0.6 hectare and is 95m across at its widest point. The passages themselves are closed to the public, but the displays there are very good. And on top of this there are at least 16 smaller satellite tombs surrounding the main one, at least two of which show signs of antedating the large tomb (as the structure of the main tomb goes around the smaller tombs, and not the other way).

The main tomb's passages show astronomical alignment, and there are numerous carved images, abstract in form, both within the tomb and on the kerbstones that surround it. Apparently these two sites (Knouth and Newgrange) account for 60% of all the neolithic art in Ireland, and 45% of all the neolithic art in Europe! We had an hour at the tomb, and were allowed to wander about at will, even onto the top of the tomb - everywhere but into the actual passages, which are too sensitive to allow any traffic in them.

A smaller undisturbed tomb
in a field near Newgrange

A word about the conservation/reconstruction of this site. The passages in the tomb are as found, as are the kerbstones around the periphery of the main tomb (Site 1). OPW have constructed a cantilevered sill above the ring of kerbstones (whereas originally the stones of the cairn would have simply been piled on top) to protect these stones. The site is closed in the winter months, the kerbstones (in situ) are packed in hay and sealed with plastic wrapping to protect then from the ravages of the Irish winter! And the extensive archaeology done on the site has revealed successive later habitations on top of the tomb - iron age, early Christian, and Norman. These have all been recorded, stripped back, and the site left in as neolithic a state as possible.

Newgrange

Newgrange entrance

Newgrange passage

Anyway, our time up at Knouth, we boarded the shuttle and were conveyed, via the visitor centre to pick up a few more people, to Newgrange. This site is absolutely stunning. It has been reconstructed, according to the interpretation of one eminent archaeologist, to look much as it did in its prime. You may not agree with his interpretation, but you can do nothing but marvel at the overall effect of the place. This site has no extant satellite tombs, but the outline of one that was excavated fairly recently has been left so you can see where it was. But in this one the passage and chamber have been strengthened and protected, so the public is allowed in in groups of about 20. The inner chamber is phenomenal. It is cruciform, with an end chamber and one to each side as you reach the end of the passage. And the chamber area is covered by a coppice roof. The whole thing is built of dry-wall stone (some of the stones quite huge), and after 5300 years it is still watertight!! No photos allowed inside, unfortunately, but the experience was overwhelming. They raffle tickets off for visitors to come in the week surrounding the winter solstice, when the light from the rising sun penetrates to the inner chamber!

Battle of the Boyne
Visitor Centre

Battle of the Boyne
Cannon

We returned after nearly four hours of mindblowing neolithic communion to have a lunch of coffee and scones before departing to another of Ireland's most historic sites — the battlefield of the Battle of the Boyne, where William of Orange (William III) broke the back of James II's attempt to regain power in 1690. The visitor centre tells the story of the battle, in dioramas, wall displays, a wonderful model of the battlefield with a laser animation to illustrate a detailed verbal description of the action of the battle, and a short movie at the end which brings it all together. After that, you are let loose to walk the battlefield with guide maps and marked trails, with boards about the battlefield detailing the action and the time of day at which it happened. If you come away not understanding the action, your mind must have been off with the birds! We walked all five trails on the field — it took us about 90 minutes — and we really got a feel of the terrain and the action. One thing walking the field clarified for us was that, after William had sent a dawn feint of about 12,000 men, one third of his army, to James's left, which was answered by James sending 16,000 men, two thirds of his army, to cover it, William's remaining troops were able to ford the Boyne at low tide. This seemed rather unbelievable until we walked the area they would have forded — it's fairly heavy woodland, which would had hidden William's movement from the opposition, making the move feasible.

View over part of the battlefield,
from the high ground, where James had his troops, northwards
to the woods marking the Boyne where the Williamites crossed.
The field would not have been nicely mowed, as today!

Anyway, a full and exhausting day! We were glad to adjourn to the van, find a place to stay, have dinner and settle down.

Distance driven — today, 11 miles ( 17 km ); to date, 2,667 miles ( 4,292 km )