day 02

Day 02

Another rainy day (now they are six or seven in a row, quite depressing) and I went to the train station quite close to my B&B to get the guided tour to Brú na Bóinne, the valley of the river Boyne, where stands Newgrange, Knowth, Dowth and other 40 pre historical mounds, cursus and other landmarks.

As there were not many people into the tour, I just decided spare my money and go by myself to the place, first to Drogheda and from there to Donore. As Newgrange is very known, there is a bus line that literally takes you inside the park. Newgrange is a National Monument, and there is no access to it unless through the park or if you live there. There is a strange mixture of private and archeological sites. As I mentioned before, Newgrange is not the only place of interest there, but is the most known.

NEWGRANGE

The area is still not totally excavated, and several small mounds are just kept closed until there are proper ways to dig it. There are around 37 around the area, which is way too much for a single place. The other concentration like that can only be found in Stonehenge or Avebury, which are major sites. So we must consider Brú na Bóinne a major site too. Unfortunately there is no access to most of the mounds, and even to Newgrange and Knowth – the two sites possible to visit- it is only possible with a guided tour. So that is, in the end I could not escape my guided tour. They probably have reasons for that: the site is precious, and although is considered World Heritage Site by Unesco, not always been like this. Marks of graffitti are all around Newgrange, especially from the 19^th century, when the site was kept unprotected.

Rocky Art at Newgrange

From the beginning, the story goes like that, the Neolithic people of the place, at 3.000 BC (this is some centuries before the Great Piramids and Stonehenge), that people that were some of the first farmers in Ireland, those guys which lived around 28 to 35 years old, and that were a bit too short because of their life conditions, and they had a very hard life, these guys with no metal tools, only stones, no horses, only men, again, these guys constructed an amazing very impressive mark in the landscape. For this, they brought stones from far, probably by the river (Ireland was mostly forest right then), each weighting several tons, after finding it in a spot, working it and transporting by human power and then boats. The finality of all that was to create a place for their dead, a ceremonial place where they could lay their bodies and make ceremonies for them and for the gods. They needed several years to make the whole structure, but the plane was clear since the beginning: this is one of the few sites that can be said it has a specific function. Newgrange was constructed in order to mark the transition of the time.

Newgrange is a passage tomb, which means a big mound with side decoration ( 97 carved stones), a front wall in quartz stone and an entrance. This entrance has a very decorated carved stone before you actually get to the passage and a window on the top. The passage is narrow and long – it must have around 40 meters up way – and leads to a cruciform hall with three burial chambers. Though the passage is narrow and low, the hall has something like 5 meters high, built with stones overlaps, like a dome. The structure supports the weight of several tons, and remained intact after 4.000 years abandoned.

What is remarkable in this place is that in the winter solstice, this mean, the shortest day of the year the sun enters through the narrow passage and reaches the center of the tomb for something like 15 minutes. Of course this don’t happens only in that very precise day, but also in the few next and before. The fenomena was first witnessed (in modern times) by the archeologist Michael J. O’Kelly in december 1967. This gives a whole sense of sacred place to Newgrange, and adds a new idea of their planners.

In some other passages tombs this property happens again, like in Bryn Celli Ddu, in Wales – which also have some few carved stones and in some aspects resemble Newgrange. This was enough for a new turn in the researches on the Neolithic sites. Unfortunately, not many sites share such precision as Newgrange.

the interior of the passage grave in Newgrange

There were distinct phases of occupation of the Newgrange site, as like happened with Stonehenge. After the place been left by their builders, it decayed and was incorporated by the landscape, but several other traces indicates that it’s been in use after that. There is a Woodhenge just beside it, and a cursus. All around there are small mounds, which indicates that the area surely had been used for sacred rituals.

Not far from Newgrange, there other site that shares some of its features, named Knowth.

KNOWTH

This site though is known since the 40’s has only been fully excavated –and opened to public visitation- in 2002. This means, is quite new and unknown from the public. The site is from the beginning breathtaking.

There is a central circular mound surrounded by other 18 little and medium (in other context I would say big) mounds. Knowth has some of the most striking carved stones surrounding it, in a total of 127. The patterns are basically geometrical, spirals, and diamonds.

Knowth was constructed around 2.500BC and like Newgrange, was left and was incorporated by the vegetation around. The site was taken by the Iron Age Celts, which turn it into a fort with two ditches. Later the Normans built a village on the top of it. The Vikings have been there twice in 963 and some years later while raiding the little villages along the river. Only in the 60’s the site was cleared and initially excavated.

inside the Knowth passage

Rocky Art at Knowth

The site has two passages, possibly related with summer and winter solstices rituals. Although not as clear as Newgrange, it shares its main axis.

Inside the chamber it was found what is considered one of the finest stone age sculpture, a flint mace which depicts a head, not much bigger than 10 centimeters, and is in show at the museum I visited in Dublin, just yesterday. There is a replica in the Visitors Centre in Brú na Bóinne. There is a little museum there with models and replicas – and of course some original pieces too, to introduce the sites of the area.

models of Newgrange's evolution

Founds in New Grange includes some of the best carvings of the Neolithic period.

At this point, the pictures will speak for me, as I am quite tired. Tomorrow I will try to go to Galway, or Ennis, where there’s more waiting for me.