Spirals, spirals and more spirals in the Boyne Valley - Knowth, Newgrange and the Hill of Tara in one day! Lots of walking and beautiful green mounds and rolling hills. The Bru na Boinne or bend on the River Boyne is a Neolithic burial/ceremonial site which has been here in pastoral beauty since 3000 BC.
I was up early for a shower and meditation, the usual enormous breakfast of oatmeal and sausage (rice and green tea for Steve). Then we all piled into the Prius with rain gear and sneakers. Another wet day. Janet and Steve negotiated him backing the car out into traffic while I kept mum in the back seat. "No Steve stop! The mirror...No, car coming stop." This left side driving is crazy since your instincts are all backwards. Very hair raising. Apparently a number of Americans and Europeans get killed each year because the don't have the right reflexes to cross the street. Janet had to pull me back by my sweater a number of time so I didn't get clobbered by a bus.
Janet navigated us up the M1 about 1/2 hour north the the small village of Donore. Here we entered the countryside of green hedgerows and rolling pastures, buttercups and tiny daisies dotting the carpet of grass with lambs and ewes in one paddock and cows of various colors in others. Reminds me of a ditty my mother used to sing: Lambs eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy. A kid'll eat ivy too. Wouldn't you?"
We passed through the site of the Battle of the Boyne where William the III's English troops crushed the army of the Irish Catholic King James the First. This was the first time Ireland was fully under British rule.
The sky was overcast, but thankfully no rain. At the Bru na Boinne Visitor Center the tour of the sites start at Knowth (pronounced without the "K.") We will also visit Newgrange for a total of two hours. There is a third major mound at Dowth just 1/2 mile to the other side of a field, but this is not officially open to the public.
We board a bus which takes us down through the narrow roads lined by hedgerows lined with wild parsley, maple trees, bridal's wreath in bloom. Some fields are all yellow and abloom with mustard against the verdant green of the pastures. Janet explains that the hedgerows bound the pastures instead of stone walls. Indeed they are a dense thicket rather than a base of piled stone. It is some of the most beautiful evocative landscape I have ever seen; quite reminiscent of all the English literature I have read from Beatrix Potter to George Elliot. I can imagine Peter Rabbit in search of carrots and trying to avoid Farmer MacGregor.
Knowth was our first stop and we walked the narrow gravel path between hedgerows until we reached a green expanse. It was as if we had walked literally back in time. Out of the expanse rose a green mound covered with small daisies and surrounded at its base by large limestone boulders. It must have been about 75 feet high. The boulders were etched in all manner of symbols/patterns now fading and diminished from exposure to the elements having been carved 3-4 thousand years ago.
Spirals, lozenges or diamonds, chevrons all in many repetitive patterns have all been here since before the pyramids of ancient Egypt.
Apparently the mounds mark the beginning of a culture, which had gone from being nomadic to be agrarian. They were successful enough farmers and the Boyne Valley was a rich enough alluvial soil - that they had the time and leisure to build these mounds over the course of 400-500 years. The mounds represent either a burial place or a temple for religious practice or both. No one knows for sure. There is strong evidence indicating this conclusion, but no form of written record. No definitive idea of the meaning of this earliest of architectural models. The people lived in areas surrounding the mound, but at a distance closer to the River Boyne. At it's bend here the soil was rich and a plentiful source of fish and game.
Ash and the remains of bone, some ornamental bone pieces and stone beads were found within the burial mounds in a large carved granite basin in each. It appeared the bodies were ceremonially cremated in stored together in the mound. Only later with the Gauls and then the Christians were there burials of bodies. The mounds are examples of passage tombs. A stone passage way was built first and then the mound was built around by transporting hundreds of tons of earth over it. The interior passages took a cruciform or cross shape, perhaps mimicking the body of a human and predating Christianity by several thousand years.
The right hand chamber of the tomb seemed most important as it was highly decorated and often larger than the left side in most cases. We only went into the passage at Newgrange which was decorated with numerous spirals and chevrons. The top chamber or "head" held the granite ritual basin and was probably the site of funerary ceremonies.
Outside of the main tomb at Knowth are some 17 lesser burial mounds. Most had been raided and cleared out of any treasures centuries earlier. Some held bodies, which is evidence of later Christian burials. One smaller mound was built almost right into the side of the main one and remained unnoticed and therefore untouched for centuries. Overtime the overgrown grass had caused it to merge with the larger one. Here archeologists found an entire family and intact artifacts.
After being exposed to the elements for millenia, the great stone boulders surrounding the big mound are dissolving and fading. Architects have shored up the mound with a concrete lip all around which shelters the boulder drawings, but our guide tells us there has been discussion of putting the boulders in museums or at least encasing them behind glass to protect them. Many of the artifacts in the museum at the visitors center are copies made in stone or plastic and not the real thing. I feel lucky to be able to visit these magnificent stones and touch them before they disappear or become inaccessible.
The spiral present on on many of them is the same image I saw on the pathway at Chellah in Morocco possibly from ancient Phoenician origin. One theory is it represents the sun god Daga around whom much pagan worship was based.
This passage tomb at Knowth has two entryways, which are not open to the public, and are larger than the more famous passage tomb at nearby Newgrange. The passages at Knowth appear to line up with the spring and fall equinoxes while Newgrange lines with the winter/summer solstice axis.
Also found at Knowth are standing pillars reminiscent of Stonehenge which may have been used for outdoor solar or lunar worship. It is thought that only powerful kings and priests were allowed inside the passage tombs chambers for burials or equinox ceremony.
A quarter mile away, Newgrange has the same cruciform passage chamber with only the one entrance oriented correctly for the winter solstice, and the public is allowed inside this one. We went in with small groups and were asked to duck our heads as it is quite small and narrow. Inside they re-enacted the winter solstice by using a light to simulate the fifteen minutes of dawn light which lights up the chamber once a year on the winter solstice from down this long dark passageway. One can envision early man in the darkness waiting and rejoicing at the sliver of light arriving like a god. The famous tri-spiral image is said to placed in the chamber exactly in the spot where the sun illuminates on that date.
It was quite spiritual to stand there in the dark and imagine ancestors watching the slice of light come and then fade as they said good bye to the sun for the winter months. My own love of the mysterious form of spirals, so common in nature both plants and animal forms, and used as a symbol in energy work and Jungian depth psychology iconography, was deeply satisfied.
The exterior of Newgrange is distinctive for its white stone face ( which has been recreated based on materials found on site ) made with smooth white stones. Architects estimated the design after finding all in rubble. The front stone entryway is the masterpiece of the valley with its series of distinctive images including the tri-spiral which is then repeated in the passage tomb.
After lunch I toured the small museum while Janet and Steve took a snooze in the car. Most of the original artifacts are now to be found in the National Museum in Dublin. I feel a need to go back and pay more attention. But you really do get an understanding of how early man lived. In the shop I bought a few spiral necklaces and a map of Sheela-na-gigs or female fertility figures exposing their vulvas and vaginas which could be found mounted on churches around the country! The underscores the presence of pagan female deities underlaying even the Christian church in Ireland.
After Newgrange we drove out to Tara - the hill of the ancient high kings of Ireland. Beautiful winding roads and pastures with sheep, cows and mustard seed growing. Tara, when we found it, was beyond the small city of Navan and above an old Presbyterian church, which was closed though it serves as a visitor center. A statue of St. Patrick stands outside the gate of the churchyard. It also had a lovely majestic old graveyard with towering elms and faded lichen on the stones and Celtic crosses.
We walked out of the shadowy dewy dark of the graveyard into the greenest green rolling hill I've ever seen. The ancient hill of Tara where High King Cormac had his fort; an hourglass set of ridged hills and circles now covered in grass and buttercups, dotted with daisies. A phallic pillar stand in the middle of one circle with a Celtic cross nearby. In the distance are grazing sheep and bridal's wreath in bloom. You can see for miles and the distant hills appear like the ocean.
The rain had stopped and we just circled round. It's not hard to see why this was the chosen sacred spot of the ancient kings. But now just the favorite spot for the locals to jog and walk their dogs and do fitness training. Hardened sheep poops dotted the mounds like curious fossils. On the way home rain started again and Janet and Steve got lost in the suburbs of Dublin. Leftovers for dinner were so good and then Britcoms on the telly.
I was up early for a shower and meditation, the usual enormous breakfast of oatmeal and sausage (rice and green tea for Steve). Then we all piled into the Prius with rain gear and sneakers. Another wet day. Janet and Steve negotiated him backing the car out into traffic while I kept mum in the back seat. "No Steve stop! The mirror...No, car coming stop." This left side driving is crazy since your instincts are all backwards. Very hair raising. Apparently a number of Americans and Europeans get killed each year because the don't have the right reflexes to cross the street. Janet had to pull me back by my sweater a number of time so I didn't get clobbered by a bus.
 |
| Steve negotiating the narrow roads of County Meath |
Janet navigated us up the M1 about 1/2 hour north the the small village of Donore. Here we entered the countryside of green hedgerows and rolling pastures, buttercups and tiny daisies dotting the carpet of grass with lambs and ewes in one paddock and cows of various colors in others. Reminds me of a ditty my mother used to sing: Lambs eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy. A kid'll eat ivy too. Wouldn't you?"
We passed through the site of the Battle of the Boyne where William the III's English troops crushed the army of the Irish Catholic King James the First. This was the first time Ireland was fully under British rule.
 |
| Site of the Battle of the Boyne |
The sky was overcast, but thankfully no rain. At the Bru na Boinne Visitor Center the tour of the sites start at Knowth (pronounced without the "K.") We will also visit Newgrange for a total of two hours. There is a third major mound at Dowth just 1/2 mile to the other side of a field, but this is not officially open to the public.
We board a bus which takes us down through the narrow roads lined by hedgerows lined with wild parsley, maple trees, bridal's wreath in bloom. Some fields are all yellow and abloom with mustard against the verdant green of the pastures. Janet explains that the hedgerows bound the pastures instead of stone walls. Indeed they are a dense thicket rather than a base of piled stone. It is some of the most beautiful evocative landscape I have ever seen; quite reminiscent of all the English literature I have read from Beatrix Potter to George Elliot. I can imagine Peter Rabbit in search of carrots and trying to avoid Farmer MacGregor.
 |
| Hedgerows at Knowth |
Knowth was our first stop and we walked the narrow gravel path between hedgerows until we reached a green expanse. It was as if we had walked literally back in time. Out of the expanse rose a green mound covered with small daisies and surrounded at its base by large limestone boulders. It must have been about 75 feet high. The boulders were etched in all manner of symbols/patterns now fading and diminished from exposure to the elements having been carved 3-4 thousand years ago.
 |
| The passage tombs at Knowth |
 |
| Spirals |
 |
| Lozenges |
 |
| Fertility symbols |
Apparently the mounds mark the beginning of a culture, which had gone from being nomadic to be agrarian. They were successful enough farmers and the Boyne Valley was a rich enough alluvial soil - that they had the time and leisure to build these mounds over the course of 400-500 years. The mounds represent either a burial place or a temple for religious practice or both. No one knows for sure. There is strong evidence indicating this conclusion, but no form of written record. No definitive idea of the meaning of this earliest of architectural models. The people lived in areas surrounding the mound, but at a distance closer to the River Boyne. At it's bend here the soil was rich and a plentiful source of fish and game.
 |
| Agrarian culture from 3000-2000 BC |
 |
| The bend in the River Boyne |
 |
| Steve standing over the Boyne River |
Ash and the remains of bone, some ornamental bone pieces and stone beads were found within the burial mounds in a large carved granite basin in each. It appeared the bodies were ceremonially cremated in stored together in the mound. Only later with the Gauls and then the Christians were there burials of bodies. The mounds are examples of passage tombs. A stone passage way was built first and then the mound was built around by transporting hundreds of tons of earth over it. The interior passages took a cruciform or cross shape, perhaps mimicking the body of a human and predating Christianity by several thousand years.
 |
| Phallic fertility symbol - replica |
 |
| Ceremonial basin with ash and bone -replica |
 |
| Stone beads and bone carvings from Knowth -replicas |
The right hand chamber of the tomb seemed most important as it was highly decorated and often larger than the left side in most cases. We only went into the passage at Newgrange which was decorated with numerous spirals and chevrons. The top chamber or "head" held the granite ritual basin and was probably the site of funerary ceremonies.
Outside of the main tomb at Knowth are some 17 lesser burial mounds. Most had been raided and cleared out of any treasures centuries earlier. Some held bodies, which is evidence of later Christian burials. One smaller mound was built almost right into the side of the main one and remained unnoticed and therefore untouched for centuries. Overtime the overgrown grass had caused it to merge with the larger one. Here archeologists found an entire family and intact artifacts.
 |
| Lesser tombs at Knowth |
 |
| Site of Christian burials |
After being exposed to the elements for millenia, the great stone boulders surrounding the big mound are dissolving and fading. Architects have shored up the mound with a concrete lip all around which shelters the boulder drawings, but our guide tells us there has been discussion of putting the boulders in museums or at least encasing them behind glass to protect them. Many of the artifacts in the museum at the visitors center are copies made in stone or plastic and not the real thing. I feel lucky to be able to visit these magnificent stones and touch them before they disappear or become inaccessible.
 |
| The great boulder carvings at Knowth |
The spiral present on on many of them is the same image I saw on the pathway at Chellah in Morocco possibly from ancient Phoenician origin. One theory is it represents the sun god Daga around whom much pagan worship was based.
This passage tomb at Knowth has two entryways, which are not open to the public, and are larger than the more famous passage tomb at nearby Newgrange. The passages at Knowth appear to line up with the spring and fall equinoxes while Newgrange lines with the winter/summer solstice axis.
 |
| The passage at Knowth lines up with the Spring and Fall equinox |
Also found at Knowth are standing pillars reminiscent of Stonehenge which may have been used for outdoor solar or lunar worship. It is thought that only powerful kings and priests were allowed inside the passage tombs chambers for burials or equinox ceremony.
 |
| Standing pillars - recreated by archealogists |
 |
| View from the top of the great mound |
A quarter mile away, Newgrange has the same cruciform passage chamber with only the one entrance oriented correctly for the winter solstice, and the public is allowed inside this one. We went in with small groups and were asked to duck our heads as it is quite small and narrow. Inside they re-enacted the winter solstice by using a light to simulate the fifteen minutes of dawn light which lights up the chamber once a year on the winter solstice from down this long dark passageway. One can envision early man in the darkness waiting and rejoicing at the sliver of light arriving like a god. The famous tri-spiral image is said to placed in the chamber exactly in the spot where the sun illuminates on that date.
 |
| Newgrange tomb |
 |
| Recreation of the interior |
It was quite spiritual to stand there in the dark and imagine ancestors watching the slice of light come and then fade as they said good bye to the sun for the winter months. My own love of the mysterious form of spirals, so common in nature both plants and animal forms, and used as a symbol in energy work and Jungian depth psychology iconography, was deeply satisfied.
 |
| Recreation of the ceiling of sacked stone |
 |
| Recreation of the inner chamber spiral |
 |
| The masterpiece of Neolithic art at the entryway |
The exterior of Newgrange is distinctive for its white stone face ( which has been recreated based on materials found on site ) made with smooth white stones. Architects estimated the design after finding all in rubble. The front stone entryway is the masterpiece of the valley with its series of distinctive images including the tri-spiral which is then repeated in the passage tomb.
 |
| Newgrange's distinctive white stone face |
After lunch I toured the small museum while Janet and Steve took a snooze in the car. Most of the original artifacts are now to be found in the National Museum in Dublin. I feel a need to go back and pay more attention. But you really do get an understanding of how early man lived. In the shop I bought a few spiral necklaces and a map of Sheela-na-gigs or female fertility figures exposing their vulvas and vaginas which could be found mounted on churches around the country! The underscores the presence of pagan female deities underlaying even the Christian church in Ireland.
 |
| Diorama of Neolithic farmers |
After Newgrange we drove out to Tara - the hill of the ancient high kings of Ireland. Beautiful winding roads and pastures with sheep, cows and mustard seed growing. Tara, when we found it, was beyond the small city of Navan and above an old Presbyterian church, which was closed though it serves as a visitor center. A statue of St. Patrick stands outside the gate of the churchyard. It also had a lovely majestic old graveyard with towering elms and faded lichen on the stones and Celtic crosses.
 |
| St. Patrick who brought Christianity to Ireland |
We walked out of the shadowy dewy dark of the graveyard into the greenest green rolling hill I've ever seen. The ancient hill of Tara where High King Cormac had his fort; an hourglass set of ridged hills and circles now covered in grass and buttercups, dotted with daisies. A phallic pillar stand in the middle of one circle with a Celtic cross nearby. In the distance are grazing sheep and bridal's wreath in bloom. You can see for miles and the distant hills appear like the ocean.
 |
| The Ancient Hill of Tara |
 |
| Fertility Pillar |
 |
| An aerial view |
 |
| An old manuscript relating the tale of the Irish High kings |
The rain had stopped and we just circled round. It's not hard to see why this was the chosen sacred spot of the ancient kings. But now just the favorite spot for the locals to jog and walk their dogs and do fitness training. Hardened sheep poops dotted the mounds like curious fossils. On the way home rain started again and Janet and Steve got lost in the suburbs of Dublin. Leftovers for dinner were so good and then Britcoms on the telly.
