Leaving for Loughcrew

Wednesday 7th May

A slow relaxing morning. A lie in ‘til 10am! Gloriously sunny day yet again. We are so lucky. Amazingly, Tina’s bad blisters had been miracurously healed by walking barefoot around Knowth yesterday, so walking can go back on the agenda! We had only just realized that the campsite we were supposed to be heading off to was shut until June. I tried to ring but there was no answer. Luckily, they rung me back and gave me the code to the gate and said we could use the site anyway. Then the campsite owner, Joanne, gave us permission to take loads of food that had been left by her hostel guests which was brilliant as we have been really astounded at how expensive food is in Ireland. We left at 1pm onto our next stage of the journey – to Loughcrew. Located 40 km from Newgrange. Loughcrew, known as Sliabh na Caillí or the Mountains of the Witch, stretches over three hills with each one being capped with a group of cairns. Over 30 sites remain, with possibly over double that originally built forming the largest complex of passage graves in Ireland. They are probably older than Newgrange, dating back 3000–4000BC, and many containing astronomical symbolism like that at Brú na Bóinne. The drive was easy and straightforward. One road all the way via Kells and a turning off. We passed through beautiful countryside and enjoyed listening to Martha Tilsdon. We sorted out our camping spot. The sun was shining like a summers day. Linda put up her tent and we sorted the van. Crackers and Brie, juice and fizzy water. The high life.

We decided to go and check out the route to Loughcrew as we are now off the OS maps we have.
After being given good instructions, we wove our way around the country roads and ended up at Loughcrew.
What a beautiful place. An old man sat at the bottom of the hill – a jolly Irish man in his nineties.
He asked us whether we had the key to get into the passageway
which we didn’t but we were eager to walk up anyway so off we went.

Absolutely gorgeous.
Green grass, yellow gorse, ancient stones, henges, amazing views, fresh air and bird song.
Peaceful, inspiring and uplifting. It’s so nice to get away from the hustle and bustle.
Newgrange is near a town and Dublin and it’s really busy. Here, it’s peaceful countryside.
When we reached the top, we were blown away.

Right at the top of the hill, there is a large cairn (T) with a passageway aligned to the equinoxes.
It has craved stones in the entrance. Then there are a number of smaller mounds with stone passageways.
The views are amazing and we’re not being guided around with time limits.
Tomorrow, we’ll sit up here and draw, weather permitting. How exciting.
I love how these cairns haven’t been preserved and are let to deteriate naturally. There is an amazing energy there.
You can see so many ancient stones, cairns and henges. You can clearly see the hills all around and the cairns on them. Blown away. We’ll find the key tomorrow and go inside.

We walked down stopping to sit on the bench and take in the views.
I stopped to ask at the first house where we might find the key.
If it hadn’t been for the old man we would never have known that a key was available.
A very friendly lady gave me clear instructions which we shall follow tomorrow morning.
We retraced our tracks home successfully.
Tina made a delicious dinner and I took photos of the crescent moon whilst Linda pointed out Mars and Saturn.
The stove was lit and hot water bottles made!!!
Let’s hope for good weather tomorrow.
Should be as we had a red sky tonight.

 

Loughcrew

Thursday 8th May
Today, we spent the day at Loughcrew. First, we went on a search for the key to open the tomb passage. We went to the coffee shop but it didn’t open until later so we went in search of anyone to ask and came across the gardens which had loads of amazing yew trees and a beautiful old church and cemetery. We spent some time here and then asked one of the gardeners who directed us to the main house. Unfortunately, someone had already taken the key so we’d have to come back later. We went back to the car park and went on a full on walk up the rolling hills to Loughcrew West. I’ve done drawings of my favorite three cairns. It is incredibly windy up there. Sometimes it was a battle just to say upright! It was lovely to sit and sketch and be in such an amazing place. We are again blessed with dry and sunny weather. Good thing really as we couldn’t have spent much time up there otherwise. There was lots of haze so the view was limited. On a clear day you’d be able to see for miles and miles. This time, both Tina and Linda both fell asleep despite the wind. I don’t know what it is about all these sites but Tina is falling asleep at all of them!!! We all caught the sun as you forget how hot it is in the wind. It’s great to walk on the land and get right into walking up hill. Fantastic. After a couple of hours we walked back down. We’d had enough of the wind and as soon as you come down from the summit, the wind drops and the jumpers come off!

We had some lunch and then went again in search of the key. However, a German group had booked having the key so again we were turned away. We were advised to go up with the Germans which is what we did. So, finally, we got to go into the main cairn passageway and chamber. It was definitely worth going up Loughcrew East again just to go in. Amazing stone carvings on lots of the stones. The passage is aligned to the equinoxes and to the Hill of Slane and Millmount which are on the equinox axis. The weather started to look a bit iffy and had become very close so I didn’t get to do anymore sketching and we decided to leave. We went and checked out a restaurant for my birthday dinner, went to Oldcastle for some milk and wine and then went back to the campsite, exhausted by another brilliant day.

 

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